Abraham ibn Ezra

Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (Hebrew: אברהם אבן עזרא or ראב"ע, also known as Abenezra) was born Tudela, Spain in 1089{Encyclopaedia Judaica, pages 1163-1164}, and died c. 1164, apparently in Calahorra[1] (some have the dates as 1092 or 1093–1167[2]). It has been a common error to publish that he was born in Toledo, Spain, however this is due to an incorrect reading of Hebrew written documents.

He was one of the most distinguished Jewish men of letters and writers of the Middle Ages. Ibn Ezra excelled in philosophy, astronomy/astrology, poetry, linguistics, and exegesis; he was called The Wise, The Great and The Admirable Doctor.

He was born at Tudela, (current day province of Navarre) when the town was under Muslim rule of the emirs of Zaragoza. Later lived in Córdoba . In Granada, it is said, he met his future friend (and perhaps his father-in-law) Yehuda Halevi. He left Spain before 1140 to escape persecution of the Jews by the new fanatical regime of the Almohads. He led a life of restless wandering, which took him to North Africa, Egypt (in 1109, maybe in the company of Yehuda Halevi), the Land of Israel, Italy (Rome in 1140-1143, Lucca, Mantua, Verona), Southern France (Rodez, Narbonne, Béziers), Northern France (Dreux), England (London, and Oxford in 1158), and back again to Narbonne in 1161, until his death on January 23 or 28, 1167, the exact location unknown: maybe at Calahorra at the border of Navarre and Aragon, or maybe in Rome or in the Holy Land.

The crater Abenezra on the Moon was named in his honor.

Contents

Works

The Book Exodus with the commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra,Naples 1488

At several of the above-named places, Ibn Ezra remained for some time and developed a rich literary activity. In his native land, he had already gained the reputation of a distinguished poet and thinker but apart from his poems, his works, which were all in the Hebrew language, were written in the second period of his life. With these works, which cover in the first instance the field of Hebrew philology and Biblical exegesis, he fulfilled the great mission of making accessible to the Jews of Christian Europe the treasures of knowledge enshrined in the works written in Arabic which he had brought with him from Spain.

His grammatical writings, among which Moznayim ("Scales", 1140) and Zahot (Tzahot = "Dazzlings"[3], 1141) are the most valuable, were the first expositions of Hebrew grammar in the Hebrew language, in which the system of Judah Hayyuj and his school prevailed. He also translated into Hebrew the two writings of Hayyuj in which the foundations of the system were laid down.

Of greater original value than the grammatical works of Ibn Ezra are his commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, of which, however, the Books of Chronicles have been lost. His reputation as an intelligent and acute expounder of the Bible was founded on his commentary on the Pentateuch, of which the great popularity is evidenced by the numerous commentaries which were written upon it. In the editions of this commentary (editio princeps Naples 1488. See image at right), the commentary on the Book of Exodus is replaced by a second, more complete commentary of Ibn Ezra, while the first and shorter commentary on Exodus was not printed until 1840. The great editions of the Hebrew Bible with rabbinical commentaries contained also commentaries of Ibn Ezra's on the following books of the Bible: Isaiah, Minor Prophets, Psalms, Job, Pentateuch, Daniel; the commentaries on Proverbs, Ezra and Nehemiah which bear his name are really those of Moses Kimhi. Ibn Ezra wrote a second commentary on Genesis as he had done on Exodus, but this was never finished. There are second commentaries also by him on the Song of Songs, Esther and Daniel.

The importance of the exegesis of Ibn Ezra consists in the fact that it aims at arriving at the simple sense of the text, the Peshat, on grammatical principles. It is in this that, although he takes a great part of his exegetical material from his predecessors, the originality of his mind is everywhere apparent, an originality which displays itself also in the witty and lively language of his commentaries. Ibn Ezra is claimed by the proponents of the higher biblical criticism of the Pentateuch as one of its earliest pioneers. Baruch Spinoza based on verses cited by Ibn Ezra in the beginning of Deuteronomy concludes that Moses did not author the Pentateuch and that the Pentateuch was written much later.[4] Spinoza and later scholars were able to expand on several of Ibn Ezra's hints and provide much stronger evidence for Non-Mosaic authorship.[5] Some Orthodox writers have recently addressed one of Ibn Ezra's hints that can be interpreted to be consistent with the Orthodox Jewish creed that the entire Pentateuch was divinely dictated in a word-perfect manner to Moses[6].

Ibn Ezra's commentaries, and especially some of the longer excursuses, contain numerous contributions to the philosophy of religion. One work in particular which belongs to this province, Yesod Mora ("Foundation of Awe"), on the division and the reasons for the Biblical commandments, he wrote in 1158 for a London friend, Joseph ben Jacob. In his philosophical thought neo-platonic ideas prevail; and astrology also had a place in his view of the world. He also wrote various works on mathematical and astronomical subjects.

In his commentary, Ibn Ezra adheres to the literal sense of the texts, avoiding Rabbinic allegories and Cabbalistic interpretations, though he remains faithful to the Jewish traditions. This does not prevent him from exercising an independent criticism, which, according to some writers[7], borders on rationalism . In contrast his other works, the most important of which include The Book of the Secrets of the Law, The Mystery of the Form of the Letters, The Enigma of the Quiescent Letters, The Book of the Name, The Book of the Balance of the Sacred Language and The Book of Purity of the Language, demonstrate a more Cabbalistic viewpoint . They were written during his life of travel, and they reflect the unsteadiness of his outward circumstances.

His Mission

The wandering life of an exile, such as Ibn Ezra led for nearly three decades, gave him the opportunity to carry out a mission which was to an eminent degree historical. He became a propagator among the Jews of Christian Europe, who were unacquainted with Arabic, of the study of Judaism, a science which had been founded long before with that language as its literary medium. He was fitted for this mission, as no one else, through the versatility of his learning and through his clear and charming Hebrew style. The great compass of his literary activity will be seen from the following résumé of his works.

Biblical Commentaries

His chief work is the commentary on the Torah, which, like that of Rashi, has called forth a host of super-commentaries, and which has done more than any other work to establish his reputation. It is extant both in numerous manuscripts and in printed editions. The commentary on Exodus published in the printed editions is a work by itself, which he finished in 1153 in southern France.

The complete commentary on the Pentateuch, which, as has already been mentioned, was finished by Ibn Ezra shortly before his death, was called Sefer ha-Yashar ("Book of the Straight").

In the rabbinical editions of the Bible the following commentaries of Ibn Ezra on Biblical books are likewise printed: Isaiah; the Twelve Minor Prophets; Psalms; Job; the Megillot; Daniel. The commentaries on Proverbs and Ezra-Nehemiah which bear Ibn Ezra's name are by Moses Kimhi. Another commentary on Proverbs, published in 1881 by Driver and in 1884 by Horowitz, is also erroneously ascribed to Ibn Ezra. Additional commentaries by Ibn Ezra to the following books are extant: Song of Solomon; Esther; Daniel. He also probably wrote commentaries to a part of the remaining books, as may be concluded from his own references..

Hebrew Grammar

Smaller Works, Partly Grammatical, Partly Exegetical

Religious Philosophy

Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology

As Poet

There are a great many other poems by Ibn Ezra, some of them religious (the editor of the "Diwan" in an appended list mentions nearly 200 numbers) and some secular - about love, friendship,wine, didactic or satyrical ; As his friend Yehuda Halevi used the Arabic poetic form of Muwashshah.

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Jewish Encyclopedia (available online: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=11&letter=I&search=ibn%20ezra)
  2. ↑ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 4
  3. ↑ BDB Lexicon, page 850
  4. ↑ http://www.sacred-texts.com/phi/spinoza/treat/tpt12.htm
  5. ↑ See for example, "Who wrote the Bible" and the "Bible with Sources Revealed" both by Richard Elliott Friedman
  6. ↑ http://text.rcarabbis.org/?p=434#comments , postings from Nov. 24-25, 2009
  7. ↑ see introduction to Yam Shel Shlomo by Rabbi Shlomo Luria

Article references

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.