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For in setting his mind firm like a jutting cliff, our father Eleazar broke the maddening waves of the emotions.
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O priest, worthy of the priesthood, you neither defiled your sacred teeth nor profaned your stomach, which had room only for reverence and purity, by eating defiling foods.
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O man in harmony with the law and philosopher of divine life!
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Such should be those who are administrators of the law, shielding it with their own blood and noble sweat in sufferings even to death.
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You, father, strengthened our loyalty to the law through your glorious endurance, and you did not abandon the holiness which you praised, but by your deeds you made your words of divine philosophy credible.
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O aged man, more powerful than tortures; O elder, fiercer than fire; O supreme king over the passions, Eleazar!
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For just as our father Aaron, armed with the censer, ran through the multitude of the people and conquered the fiery angel,
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so the descendant of Aaron, Eleazar, though being consumed by the fire, remained unmoved in his reason.
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Most amazing, indeed, though he was an old man, his body no longer tense and firm, his muscles flabby, his sinews feeble, he became young again
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in spirit through reason; and by reason like that of Isaac he rendered the many-headed rack ineffective.
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O man of blessed age and of venerable gray hair and of law-abiding life, whom the faithful seal of death has perfected!