The Citizen Married to the King's Daughter

The Wisdom of Israel, by Edwin Collins, [1910], at sacred-texts.com

THE CITIZEN MARRIED TO THE KING'S DAUGHTER.

However much a man may heap up good works and pious actions, he can never satisfy his soul. Rabbi Levi says: "This may be likened in a parable to a simple citizen who married a princess of the royal blood. Even if he made her to eat all the delicacies in the world, and gave her every

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delight, he could never fulfil all his obligations to her. Why? Because she was the daughter of a line of kings. Thus also, whatever a man may do for his own soul he can never do all that is required of him, because the soul of man is from on high."

Footnotes

54:* The word here rendered "soul" is in this particular verse translated in the English Bible "appetite," though elsewhere in the English Bible it is often rendered "soul." The Rabbis, in this midrash, translate nefesh (soul) or "life principle" as if it were neshammah or ruach, the spiritual part of man. This is a good instance of the kind of agadic treatment of Scripture described by me in the Introduction.