ees, I
left also my soul My heart and my eyes will dwell with them forever."

The Halachic, or Talmudical, works of Nachmanides have already been
mentioned. His homiletical, or exegetical, writings are of more literary
importance. In "The Sacred Letter" he contended that man's earthly
nature is divine no less than his soul, and he vindicates the "flesh"
from the attacks made on human character by certain forms of
Christianity. The body, according to Nachmanides, is, with all its
functions, the work of God, and therefore perfect. "It is only sin and
neglect that disfigure God's creatures." In another of his books, "The
Law of Man," Nachmanides writes of suffering and death. He offers an
antidote to pessimism, for he boldly asserts that pain and suffering in
themselves are "a service of God, leading man to ponder on his end and
reflect about his destiny." Nachmanides believed in the bodily
resurrection, but held that the soul was in a special sense a direct
emanation from God. He was not a philosopher strictly so-called; he was
a mystic more than a thinker, one to whom God was an intuition, not a
concept of reason.

The greatest work of Nachmanides was his "Commentary on the Pentateuch."
He reveals his whole character in it. In composing his work he had, he
tells us, three motives, an intellectual, a theological, and an
emotional motive. First, he would "satisfy the minds of students, and
draw their heart out by a critical examination of the text." His
exposition is, indeed, based on true philology and on deep and original
study of the Bible. His style is peculiarly attractive, and had he been
content to offer a plain commentary, his work would have ranked among
the best. But he had other desires besides giving a simple explanation
of the text. He had, secondly, a theological motive, to justify God and
discover in the words of Scripture a hidden meaning. In the Biblical
narratives, Nachmanides sees _types_ of the history of man. Thus, the
account of the six days of creation is turned into a prophecy of the
events which would occur during the next six thousand years, and the
seventh day is a type of the millennium. So, too, Nachmanides finds
symbolical senses in Scriptural texts, "for, in the Torah, are hidden
every wonder and every mystery, and in her treasures is sealed every
beauty of wisdom." Finally, Nachmanides wrote, not only for educational
and theological ends, but also for edification. His third purpose was
"to