הלכה אויף שמות 3:2

(Lamed) In order to satisfy the soul of the enlightened reader about this matter of separation – as at first glance, the heart of a person will [wonder] how such friends, the connection of which is ‘bound with thick ropes,’ can separate without any trace of the one remaining in his neighbor – I will say that this topic and its illustration was shown by the Holy One, blessed be He, to Moshe at the beginning of the Lord’s speaking to him. As it is written (Exod. 3:2-5), “He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. And Moshe said, ‘I must turn aside to look, etc.’ […] And [the Lord] said, ‘Do not come closer; remove your sandals from your feet.’” To here [are the verses]. And the commentaries are many that [try] to explain this allusion. But it appears – according to that which is written in the Guide [for the Perplexed]⁴⁶This idea does not seem to appear in the Guide for the Perplexed. It does, however, appear in the commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya on Exodus 3:5. That the latter was the actual reference is also the conclusion found in the New York Shivilei David edition of Shev Shmat’ta published in 2017. – that with the statement, “remove your sandals,” the Holy One, blessed be He, was warning Moshe about the removal of physicality, such that he should remove all of the physical forces from himself. See there. And elucidated in the writing of Ari, may his memory be blessed, is [the idea] that supernal fire does not consume, whereas earthly fire consumes everything that encounters it. That is because supernal fire does not become embodied and attach itself to any physical body, nor mix into its parts. And therefore it does not burn it. This is not the case with earthly fire, [which is] embodied and mixes into all physical things. [So it] enters into the parts of a tree, mixes in with it and consumes it. Accordingly, the Lord showed Moshe this vision of the burning of the bush and [its] not being consumed, so that he would understand that the loftiness of the thinking soul is like the loftiness of the supernal fire. And even though it resides in a physical body, it [need] not mix into its parts and become embodied in it. Rather if its owner guards it, it will remain in its loftiness. And through this it ‘can come to the holy at any time,’ to remove its clothing from upon it. And [so] He said to him, “Remove your sandals,” and like is written in the Guide. And with this, the goal of separation about which I have written is understood.

To marry a woman with a marriage contract and betrothal: That we were commanded to acquire a woman in one of three ways before the marriage. And the Sages elucidated these ways (Kiddushin 2a) — that they are money (monetary value), a contract and sexual relations with her. And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 22:13), “If a man takes a woman and has sexual relations with her,” which is to say [that] if a man wants to take (marry) a woman for himself, he should acquire her first with sexual relations. And about that which the verse stated (Deuteronomy 24:2), “And she shall go out [...] and she shall be,” the traditional understanding came [to explain] that [just] like the departure (divorce) of a woman is with a contract — as we will write in this Order (Sefer HaChinukh 579), with the help of God — so too is [her] being with him; meaning to say, the acquisition of a woman is with a contract. And they, may their memory be blessed, also learned (Kiddushin 4b) that she is acquired with monetary value, since it is written about an Israelite maidservant (Exodus 21:11), “and she shall go out, there is no silver (monetary value)” — and the understanding about it came [to explain] (Kiddushin 3b), “‘There is no monetary value’ for this master, but there is monetary value (when she goes) from another master. And who is he? Her father.”