Авраам ибн Эзра: Жизнь, творчество и комментарии к Торе

12th century Sephardic rabbi and astrologer

Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra ( ʾAḇrāhām ben Mēʾīr ʾībən ʾĒzrāʾ, often abbreviated as ראב"ע; إبراهيم المجيد ابن عزرا Ibrāhim al Mājid ibn Ezra; also known as Abenezra or simply Ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167) was one of the most distinguished Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages. He was born in Tudela, Taifa of Zaragoza (present day Navarre).

Abraham Ibn Ezra was born in Tudela, one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in Navarre. At the time, the town was under the rule of the emirs of the Muslim Taifa of Zaragoza. However, when he later moved to Córdoba, he claimed it to be his place of birth. Ibn Ezra was a close friend of Judah Halevi, who was some 14 years older. When ibn Ezra moved to Córdoba as a young man, Halevi followed him. This trend continued when the two began their lives as wanderers in 1137. Halevi died in 1141, but Ibn Ezra continued travelling for three decades, reaching as far as Baghdad. During his travels, he began to compose secular poetry describing the lands through which he was travelling as well as beginning to pen the deeply rational Torah commentaries he would be best remembered for.

In Spain, Ibn Ezra had already gained the reputation of a distinguished poet and thinker. However, apart from his poems, the vast majority of his work was composed after 1140. Written in Hebrew, as opposed to earlier thinkers' use of Judeo Arabic, these works covering Hebrew grammar, Biblical exegesis, and scientific theory were tinged with the work of Arab scholars he had studied in Spain. Beginning many of his writings in Italy, Ibn Ezra also worked extensively to translate the works of grammarian and biblical exegetist Judah ben David Hayyuj from their original Judeo Arabic to Hebrew. Published as early as 1140, these translations became some of the first expositions of Hebrew grammar to be written in Hebrew. He exercised an independent criticism that, according to some writers, exhibits a marked tendency toward rationalism. In addition, he sharply criticized those who blended the simplistic and logical explanation with Midrash, maintaining that such interpretations were never intended to supplant the plain understanding. Indeed, Ibn Ezra is claimed by proponents of the higher biblical criticism of the Torah as one of its earliest pioneers. Baruch Spinoza, in concluding that Moses did not author the Torah, and that the Torah and other protocanonical books were written or redacted by somebody else, cites Ibn Ezra commentary on Deuteronomy. In his commentary, Ibn Ezra looks to Deuteronomy 1:1, and is troubled by the anomalous nature of referring to Moses as being "beyond the Jordan", as though the writer was oriented in the land of Cana'an (west of the Jordan River), although Moses and the Children of Israel had not yet crossed the Jordan at that point in the Biblical narrative. Relating this inconsistency to others in the Torah, Ibn Ezra famously stated, <blockquote>"If you can grasp the mystery behind the following problematic passages: 1) The final twelve verses of this book [i. e., Deuteronomy 34:1–12, describing the death of Moses], 2) 'Moshe wrote [this song on the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel]' [Deuteronomy 31:22]; 3) 'At that time, the Canaanites dwelt in the land' [Genesis 12:6]; 4) ' In the mountain of God, He will appear' [Genesis 22:14]; 5) 'behold, his [Og king of Bashan] bed is a bed of iron [is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon?]' you will understand the truth." as "a clear indication that it was not Moses who wrote the Pentateuch but someone else who lived long after him, and that it was a different book that Moses wrote". Orthodox writers, on the other hand, have stated that Ibn Ezra's commentary can be interpreted as consistent with Jewish tradition stating that the Torah was divinely dictated to Moses. Ibn Ezra is also among the first scholars who are known to have published a text about the division of the Book of Isaiah into at least two distinct parts. He remarked in his commentary to Isaiah that chapters 1 39 dealt with a different historical period (second half of the 8th century BCE) than chapters 40 66 (later than last third of the 6th century BCE). This division of the book into First Isaiah and Deutero Isaiah has been accepted nowadays by all but the most conservative Jews and Christians. Ibn Ezra's commentaries, and especially some of the longer excursuses, contain numerous contributions to the philosophy of religion. One work in particular that 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 neoplatonic ideas prevail; and astrology also had a place in his view of the world. He also wrote various works on mathematical and astronomical subjects.

Sefer ha Yashar ("Book of the Straight") The complete commentary on the Torah, which was finished shortly before his death.

Yesod Mora Vesod Hatorah (1158), on the division of and reasons for the Biblical commandments.

Sefer ha Ekhad, on the peculiarities of the numbers 1–9. Sefer ha Mispar or Yesod Mispar, arithmetic. Luchot, astronomical tables. Sefer ha 'Ibbur, on the calendar. Keli ha Nechoshet, on the astrolabe. Shalosh She'elot, in answer to three chronological questions of David ben Joseph Narboni.

There are a great many other poems by Ibn Ezra, some of them religious and some secular – about friendship, wine, didactic or satirical. Like his friend Yehuda Halevi, he used the Arabic poetic form of Muwashshah.

The crater Abenezra on the Moon was named in honor of Ibn Ezra. Robert Browning's poem "Rabbi ben Ezra", beginning "Grow old along with me/The best is yet to be", is derived from a meditation on Ibn Ezra's life and work that appeared in Browning's 1864 poetry collection Dramatis Personæ.

According to Jewish tradition, Abraham ibn Ezra was buried in Cabul, alongside Judah Halevi.