Quotation do Psalmów 36:8

But the joy of God in His own essence is unlimited and continuous, because every kind of perfection that He appreciates in Himself is infinite, and because in His essence are contained an infinite number of perfections, permanent and unchangeable, and unlike any kind of perfection that we can have an idea of. And yet by divine grace a person may comprehend a certain degree of their excellence, a point referred to in the biblical passage, “How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings.” The meaning is, How great and precious is Thy lovingkindness, which can not be attained by the understanding, and yet despite this preciousness and nobility it is a wonderful thing that men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings. “Wing” here denotes mystery and concealment, as Maimonides explains where he deals with the homonym “wing” (Heb. Kanaf), and is related to the expression, “Yet shall not thy Teacher hide Himself (yikanef) any more.” The meaning therefore is that that which is infinite can not be attained, but remains hidden and concealed, and yet men find refuge in that hidden shadow, containing the mystery of God’s essence and lovingkindness and the other attributes emanating from Him. The Psalmist also says that by reason of the understanding they acquire of that mystery, the understanding, namely, that all existing things emanate from Him by a chain of causation, and by comprehending the activities which flow from His lovingkindness and from the other attributes ascribed to Him, they derive wonderful pleasure and satisfaction in the spiritual world. Hence he uses the future tense when he says, “They will be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; And Thou wilt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.” The meaning is that they will be fat and prosperous and filled with all good things as a result of the understanding they will acquire through the existing things emanating from God, which are called “back,” as when God says to Moses, “And thou shalt see My back.” Here they are called “the fatness of Thy house.” But as regards “the river of Thy pleasures,” namely the flowing river which causes Thy own delight, i. e. Thy essence, and the infinite attributes and perfections in which Thou takest pleasure,—this they have no possibility of understanding and enjoying through their unaided mind alone, but Thou must make them drink of it by way of grace. This is why it says, “Thou will make them drink,” and not “they will drink,” to indicate that man can not attain them except as a matter of grace. He says “pleasures,” in the plural, to indicate that the perfections in God are many, nay infinite, as will be explained later.