Ibn Ezra's Commentary (Hebrew: פירוש אבן עזרא) is a commentary on the Bible written by Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra during the 12th century, and it constitutes one of the most important commentaries ever written on the Bible. It was printed in the overwhelming majority of versions of the Mikraot Gedolot of the Bible, and over one hundred commentaries were written on it.Ozen Melim Tivchan, Simon Uriel, Appendix 1 His commentaries on the books of: the Torah, the Five Scrolls, Isaiah, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Psalms, Job and Daniel are extant, while two commentaries attributed to him, on the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Ezra–Nehemiah, are not his and were written by Rabbi Moses Kimhi.Ibn Ezra Abraham, Daat website Ibn Ezra mentions his commentaries on the Former Prophets and Proverbs, but they have not reached us.
Two main sets of commentaries by him have survived on the Pentateuch. His commentaries are very similar in most cases, but sometimes also diverge. One of the commentaries is longer in relation to the amount of commentary, and of it only Exodus and the first part of Genesis have survived, whereas from the other commentary, shorter in most cases, several editions have survived from different periods of Ibn Ezra's life, the commentary on the whole Torah.
In his long introduction to his commentary on the Torah, Ibn Ezra explains his unique method in interpreting Scripture. He aspired to find the plain meaning (peshat) of each verse and to separate it from the homiletical interpretation (derash) of the verse. From this aspiration, Ibn Ezra confronts throughout his commentary on the Torah the interpretations of different commentators from the whole spectrum of biblical exegesis, beginning with the Sages in Midrash and Talmud and ending with the interpretations of the scholars of the Karaites. Regarding some of them he claimed that they were derash and not the peshat of the verse, while against others he claimed that they were not the true peshat of the verse. Nevertheless, Ibn Ezra accepted that in practice the law is carried out according to the homiletical interpretations of the Sages.
Ibn Ezra wrote his commentary on the Torah in a short, concise and poetic style, and this is one of the reasons for the commentary being difficult to understand. Another reason is the commentary's abundance of secrets, and many times the reader is given only a hint for understanding the verse, in addition to the note "and there is a secret in it" or "and the enlightened will understand." Many of the opening phrases contain only a few words and sometimes even a single word. Nevertheless, in places where he mentioned a fundamental matter, Ibn Ezra expanded even over several pages on a single opening phrase.
Another prominent element in his commentary, aside from the aspiration to the level of peshat, is Hebrew linguistics. Many of Ibn Ezra's interpretations deal with linguistic matters, with the explanation of words and unique grammatical rules in the language of the Bible. From their scope and content, Ibn Ezra's deep understanding of linguistics is also reflected.
The Ra’avad sharply attacks earlier commentators who in his opinion erred in the explanation of the text. Among those attacked are well-known commentators such as Rabbi Samuel ha-Nagid, Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Rabbi Samuel ben Hofni and others. Many others Ibn Ezra criticizes without stating their names, but rather calls those criticized "there are those who say" or similar words.
Ibn Ezra directed his criticism mainly at Rabbi Saadia Gaon and at Rabbi Moses. Rashi he mentioned only a few times. From the words of Ibn Ezra emerges a picture according to which he held Rashi in great respect but disagreed much with his interpretation."Ibn Ezra and His Attitude to the Biblical Commentators," by Rabbi Chaim Reuven Rabinovitz, Daat website
Background to the Writing of the Commentary Ibn Ezra was born in the city of Tudela in Muslim Spain. In Spain he wrote many poems and books, most of them in Arabic, and his writings in Arabic have not survived,Except for one translation of the Book of Elements, which is not clear if it was really written by him. Around the age of forty Ibn Ezra was forced to leave Spain for an unknown reason and began to wander throughout Europe. Due to his move to Europe, Ibn Ezra encountered a different readership, which was not familiar with Greek and Arabic sciences and approached the study of the Torah without knowledge of them. This lack of knowledge, in addition to the fact that his audience did not read Arabic and therefore could not read the writings of the Geonim of Babylonia and the sages of Spanish Jewry, caused Ibn Ezra to explain many of the foundations of the medieval sciences within his commentary and in books close to the commentary. Although Ibn Ezra himself opposed the addition of these matters into the commentary,Introduction to the Short Commentary, where he writes: it seems that out of necessity Ibn Ezra was compelled to add also these sciences.Ozen Melim Tivchan, Simon Uriel, Chapter 2 "Between the Wandering Commentator and His Readers," pp. 33–36
His Commentaries on the Torah There exist three commentaries of Ibn Ezra on the Torah: the Short Commentary (on the entire Torah), the Long Commentary (on Genesis and Exodus, sometimes called "the Other Version") and the Oral Commentary (on the portions of Vayishlach and Vayechi).
The Short Commentary The Short Commentary was written by Ibn Ezra in Lucca in ItalyAccording to his testimony Genesis chapter 33 verse 10. around the year 1143.According to the article of Uriel Simon on the subject, although the proof there relates mainly to the fact that it was written before the year 1145, it seems he understands that the commentary was written about two to three years earlier. This is the first commentary on the Torah written by Ibn Ezra and it covers all the Five Books of the Torah. As implied by its name, most of the opening phrases in the commentary are short, but when he speaks on fundamental topics he may expand even over several pages on a single phrase.As in his commentary to chapter 20 in the Book of Exodus.
The Long Commentary The Long Commentary (called so because its opening phrases are longer relative to the first commentary on the Torah) Ibn Ezra began to write in the year 1153, most likely in the city of Rouen in France. The background to the writing of the commentary is a vow that Ibn Ezra vowed at the time of his illness, that if God would heal him he would write a new commentary on the Torah. The Long Commentary exists only on two of the Books, Genesis and Exodus. Between the commentaries on the two Books there are differences, but they belong to the same commentary.
The Commentary on Genesis As mentioned, the commentary on Genesis Ibn Ezra wrote in the year 1153. At the beginning of the commentary he writes an introduction in which he explains the principles of the commentary.As can be seen in the section "Principles of the Commentary". The structure of the commentary on Genesis is that at the beginning of each portion Ibn Ezra interprets the difficult words in the portion, and afterwards interprets the content of the portion. Of the commentary that has reached us, only the commentary up to chapter 12 verse 11 has survived.Uriel Simon conjectures that this indicates that the manuscript from which all the later manuscripts were copied fell apart at this point and the parts after it were lost.
The Commentary on Exodus The commentary on Exodus was written by Ibn Ezra most likely in the year 1155 or 1156. The break between the writing of the commentary on Genesis and the commentary on Exodus brought several changes between the two commentaries: In the commentary on Exodus, Ibn Ezra integrates the linguistic commentary within the content commentary. In the commentary on Exodus, he interprets all the verses in order.In contrast to the commentary on Genesis in which he interprets only things that in his opinion require interpretation. In the commentary on Exodus, he begins each portion with a poem dealing with the portion.Thus for example in the portion of Va’era he opens the commentary with the following poem:
The name Kel Shakkai is the secret of the Torah – also the Name is the Awesome One. Now revealed at the beginning of this – the portion is Va’era.
The Oral Commentary The Oral Commentary was written by a student of Ibn Ezra, Joseph ben Jacob of Morville, based on lessons he heard from him when Ibn Ezra was in London. At present, only the commentaries on the portions of Vayishlach and Vayechi exist, but it is most likely that the commentary was on the entire Book of Genesis.According to the article of Uriel Simon.
Principles of the Commentary The Target Audience The target audience for the commentary is not clear. On the one hand, Ibn Ezra testifies that the readership to which he directs himself is wise people. Thus, in his introduction to the Book of Isaiah, Ibn Ezra declares that the secrets revealed in the commentary will astonish the "understanding of heart," and in his introduction to Lamentations, Ibn Ezra directs his interpretations to the "men of truth."Introductions of Ibn Ezra to Isaiah and Lamentations. However, from his commentaries emerges an adaptation of the commentary also to the broader public that is less educated. The reason for this duality, according to Friedländer,Friedländer M., "Essays," p. 137. is the need to adapt the commentary to all readers, both the educated and the simple people. This duality is expressed in several ways. First, Ibn Ezra conceals parts of his words and writes them as secrets which only the educated will understand, while alongside the secret there appears a simpler interpretation intended for those who did not understand the secret.Thus, for example, in his commentary to Daniel chapter 12: The second way is that Ibn Ezra integrates in his commentary scientific investigations understandable only to the educated, but only in places where he thinks there is no choice.
His Introduction to the Commentary on the Torah Ibn Ezra wrote two extensive introductions to his commentary on the Torah in which he details the five approaches in relation to the commentary on the Torah, explaining each approach with a short explanation and "ranking" the approaches according to their correctness. For the purpose of explaining the truth of the approach, Ibn Ezra uses a parable from the field of mathematics – a circle with a point inside it, with the point being the true commentary and the other interpretations positioned in relation to it.Ibn Ezra on the Torah Introduction on Hebrew Wikisource.
The five approaches to the commentary on the Torah are: The way of several Geonim, who lengthen their interpretations and insert all human knowledge into their commentary on the Torah. Ibn Ezra objects to this way and considers it to be the circle surrounding the point. He does not object to studying things that are not included in the Torah, but claims that one must not insert into the Torah things that are not found in it in the plain sense. And in his words: The way of the Karaite commentators, who interpret Scripture without consideration for the halakhic tradition of the Sages, in what they claim is the peshat. Ibn Ezra objects to this way sharply and brings many examples that it is impossible to interpret in such a manner, since many times the Torah can be interpreted in several ways. In the parable of the point he places this way as people who thought they found the point, but in truth are very far from it. The way of the Christian commentators, who interpret the Torah as allegory, and deny the plain meaning of the verses. Against this way Ibn Ezra argues that it is located outside the circle, and in this way only fools go: