Literatura do Segundo Templo sobre Levítico 8:29

[67] The fool’s whole course through every moment of his journey depends on this pair, fierce spirit and desire; since he has got rid of mind, who is the charioteer and monitor. The man of the opposite character has exscinded fierce spirit and desire, and chosen as his patron and controlling guide the Divine Word. Even so Moses, best beloved of God, when offering the whole burnt sacrifices of the soul, will “wash out the belly” (Lev. 8:21), that is, will cleanse away desire in every shape, but “the breast from the ram of consecration he will take away” (Lev. 8:29). This means, we may be sure, the warlike spirit in its completeness; and the object of taking it away is that the better portion of the soul, the rational part, that is left, may exercise its truly free and noble impulses towards all things beautiful, with nothing pulling against it any longer and dragging it in another direction.

The Breast the seat of high spirit—the Urim and Thummim there point to Aaron’s control of high spirit which Moses wholly exscinds (Lev. 8:29).

[129] Well, Aaron, as I have said, having this passion, attempts to cure it by the saving medicines that have been mentioned. Moses, on the other hand, thinks it necessary to use the knife on the seat of anger in its entirety, and to cut it clean out of the soul, for no moderation of passion can satisfy him; he is content with nothing but complete absence of passion. That what I say is true Holy Writ testifies: for it says, “Moses took the breast and removed it as a crowning offering before the Lord from the ram of consecration and it became Moses’ portion” (Lev. 8:29). Very good; for it was the business of the man who loved virtue and was beloved of God, when he had contemplated the entire soul, to seize the breast, which is the spirited element, and to cut it off and take it away, in order that, through the excision of the warlike part, the remainder might have peace. He removes it, not from this or that animal, as it may happen, but from the ram of consecration, although there was a heifer offered too. But he passed this by and went to the ram, because it is a creature naturally prone to butt, owing to its being full of spirit and ready for the fray. It is owing to this that engineers make most of the engines of war in the shape of rams.