Myśl Żydowska do Powtórzonego Prawa 28:43

These two words, ‘alah, “he went up,” and yarad, “he went down,” are Hebrew terms used in the sense of ascending and descending. When a body moves from a higher to a lower place, the verb yarad, “to go down,” is used; when it moves from a lower to a higher place, ‘alah, “to go up,” is applied. These two verbs were afterwards employed with regard to greatness and power. When a man falls from his high position, we say “he has come down,” and when he rises in station “he has gone up.” Thus the Almighty says, “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low” (Deut. 28:43). Again, “The Lord thy God will set thee on high (‘elyon) above all nations of the earth” (Deut. 28:1): “And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly” (lema‘alah) (1 Chron. 29:25). The Sages often employ these expressions, as: “In holy matters men must ascend (ma‘alin) and not descend (moridin).”

In this manner may those understand the dark sayings of the prophets who desire to understand them, who awake from the sleep of forgetfulness, deliver themselves from the sea of ignorance, and raise themselves upward nearer the higher beings. But those who prefer to swim in the waters of their ignorance, and to “go down very low,” need not exert the body or heart; they need only cease to move, and they will go down by the law of nature.