Hymn 10
10.1
He cast off the feasts of Egypt
That one who grew up in the lap of the daugher of Pharoah
She pampered him with the good things of royalty
With milk and honey he luxuriated
He abandoned Pharaoh's daughter who drew him from the water
He loved the daughter of Jacob who went mad and disgraced him.
He hated and rejected her treasures,
For he perceived that storehouse that enriches all.
Res:
Blessed are you O Fasters, for you have triumphed.
10.2
The full table of the daugher of Pharoah
Moses abhorred, the chief of the fasters,
He cast aside the delight of the kingdom.
He desired the fast of the mountain
He fasted and shone, he prayed and was victorious
He went up in one color, he came down in another
He went up in the color of earth
He put on heavenly brilliance and descended.
10.3
Behold [the month of] Nisan when fasters are at the mountain-top
Moses ascended grazed and became fat.
For the fast was his joy,
His prayer was a well of living waters
A man of discernment, his fast posssessed forgiveness.
For he descended and saw the calf which rose amid the people
The laboring ox burned
Against the idle calf of sin.
10.4
While Moses prayed on the mountain
The blind people seized greedily
Belonging to Moses was fast of forgiveness
To the people, the feast of the idols.
Moses was in the presence of the Most High, the people before the calf.
The spirit was in Moses, the Devil in the people.
The fasts became a medicine for those who erred,
Who were smitten by the calf.
10.5
O molten calf without movement,
(you) he made breaches in the camp.
For with a hidden horn of impiety
He pierced and killed the venerators in secret.
With the sword, Moses pierced the venerators
To teach by their bodies the death of their souls.
Because of the sword they saw that [it was a] calf.
He showed them hidden things in the manifest .
10.6
The medicines of Egypt are excellent,
The craftsmen there are skilled.
Moses abhorred the treasury of medicines.
For it wasn't the sickness of the body but of the soul.
He went to Mt. Sinai, the Mt. of God
[while] he delayed there, he gathered and brought down
Spriritual herbs
Which heal the soul in secret.
10.7
The hateful habit of the glutton,
Is a sickness which ruins the tastes.
The habit ruins in his mouth,
The common meals of sweetness.
It is the habit of Greed to consume with grumbling,
It drinks with a grudge. The restless one is ill;
He is not able to have his needs
Filled, for he hungers for (ever) new things.
10.8
Look at the people who in their grumbling,
Ate Heavenly Manna.
Its color is the color of Beryl,
Its taste is the taste of honey-comb.
To many images he compared this Manna,
So as to depict its beauty to the ear of a listener.
By means of the manifest things in his mouth
He proclaimed its secret taste[meaning] to us.
10.9
He compared it to Beryl to teach us
It imitates light in its color.
With coriander he named it to show us,
That with scent and taste it is consumed.
He compared it to oil and to honey,
To teach us by way of oil that it was a source of fatness.
By way of honey he showed
That it was a source of sweetness, all of it.
10.10
This manna--which was "clothed"
With color, scent and taste--
They ate with difficulty as though they were sick.
The gluttons were sick with desires.
Bitterness and unleavened bread they had eaten so as to remember [the Exodus]
But these moles, sons of the earth,ate the heavenly manna
With grumbling.
The very ones who had grown accustomed to onions in Egypt.
10.11
Whoever, then, can comprehend the faster
Who kept his mouth from its desire.
For he who hungered and saw did not desire
He thirsted and saw did not yearn.
Though he was able to eat the fast [alone] feted him.
Though he was able to drink, the thirst made him glad.
Blessed by all is he who requites all
Who makes one joyous at the table of his kingdom.
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