In Abraham ibn Ezra’s masterpiece, the twelve chapters of “Sefer Yesod Mora Ve-Sod Ha-Torah,” Treatise on the Foundation of Awe and The Secret of the Torah, ibn Ezra gave some of his explanations of the biblical commandments. He felt that each command, without exception was rational. The following are some of his other ideas. [...]
One of the most brilliant ancient Jewish thinkers was Abraham ibn Ezra (1089 or 1092-1164). Being human, he, like all other people including the best of humans, without exception, made mistakes in his thinking, such as his belief that astrology is a true science. But overall. He ranks among the foremost thinkers of Judaism. His [...]
The rational Spanish sage Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1164), whose views are included in most rabbinical Bibles with commentaries, stated that Moses did not write the entire Torah. Realizing that Moses was on top of the mountain alone where he died and did not descend to report what happened there even before he died, Abraham ibn [...]
There are two accounts of the Ten Commandments. One is in Exodus 20 and the second in Deuteronomy 5. The two differ in more than a dozen instances in the spelling of some terms, added and changed expressions, word order changes, and the insertion of explanations in the Deuteronomic edition. An example of a modification [...]
In an exccelent and informative article, Professor Marty Lockshin of York University, a rabbi, examined the difficulty raised by Deuteronomy 13:2-4 and tells the solutions offered in a Midrash and by several medieval Jewish commentators.[1] I will add another solution. Deuteronomy states: “If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner – [...]
While there are Jews who are convinced that certain biblical commands are inscrutable and that even though we do not understand them, we must obey them, others like Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra were convinced that all the divine commands are rational and people can and indeed should understand them.[1] In his commentary to [...]
Ibn Ezra’s “Secret of the Twelve” Did Moses write the entire Torah? Do traditional Jewish commentators differ on the subject? Who wrote the story of the death of Moses? The twelve verses of Deuteronomy chapter 34 tell the story of the death of Moses. The introductory four verses narrate how God told Moses [...]
Baruch Spinoza Borrowed His Basic Philosophy from ibn Ezra and Maimonides Non-Jews consider Baruch (or Benedict) de Spinoza an esteemed philosopher. Many feel that he breathed fresh air into philosophy and helped launch the open-minded enlightenment in the seventeenth century. Rebecca Goldstein, in her 2006 [...]
The unorthodox secrets of ibn Ezra[1] Anyone who wants to understand the rational philosophy of Abraham ibn Ezra and his method of interpreting scripture needs to read this Hebrew book because Bonfils reveals the ibn Ezra ideas that he hinted at in his commentary but did not reveal explicitly. For example, he [...]
A very strange assessment of the Torah When Mordecai told Ether that Haman planned to murder all Judeans, Esther requested that Mordecai arrange that all Judeans fast for three days. The book of Esther does not reveal when the fast began. However there is an opinion in the Babylonian Talmud[1] that the [...]
Ibn Ezra on Esther - Part 1 Ibn Ezra wrote two commentaries on the biblical book Esther. The first published was a short version. His long version was not printed until about 150 years ago.[1] Both contain clever interpretations of the Esther drama. However, he also included some legendary material to add spice [...]
Ibn Ezra in Deuteronomy I mentioned in my prior essays on the famed thinker Abraham ibn Ezra’s Bible commentaries that although he was generally a brilliant rational thinking, he wasn’t always so, and some of his ideas are not rational. The same phenomenon occurs in his views on Deuteronomy, as seen in [...]
Abraham Ibn Ezra in Numbers As I wrote in prior essays that focused on the brilliant thinker Abraham ibn Ezra’s biblical commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, there are ibn Ezra views that people will like and others they will not like, and may even feel are irrational. The following are examples from [...]
Ibn Ezra in Leviticus I described some rational and irrational views of the brilliant sage Abraham ibn Ezra (born 1089 or 1092 and died at age 75) in my brief essay on his views in the biblical books Genesis and Exodus. We see the same phenomenon of seemingly contradictory views of [...]
Ibn Ezra: Strange Interpretations Exodus Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) was a brilliant thinker and had views about the Bible that are quite different than most people have today; some ideas were rational, others, as I will show, were not. The following are some of his understandings of the [...]
Ibn Ezra in Genesis Clerics give sermons and extol certain biblical commentators giving their congregants the impression that whatever the person said was correct even though the commentator, like all of us, also made remarks that were not acceptable. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) is an example. Some of his interpretations are rational, others [...]
By Israel Drazin It is well-worth spending time reading the brilliant Bible commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra even though he frequently wrote his comments in a very brief manner, a manner that some people will find difficult to understand. He was a Bible commentator, philosopher, physician, and scientist, who was born in [...]
