Ibn Ezra addresses the importance of the knowledge of grammar, stating that one cannot fully understand the text of the Torah without it. He also discusses the study of the Bible and the Talmud, arguing that one cannot properly comprehend the Talmud if one does not know the sciences, for there are many passages in the Pentateuch and the Talmud that are either incomprehensible or given to misinterpretation by one who has no prior knowledge of the sciences.
Poet, Biblical commentator, grammarian, astronomer, mathematician--Abraham ibn Ezra was one of the most remarkable men of his time and one of the relatively few whose works have become the heritage of all those who wish to understand the Hebrew Bible properly. Ibn Ezra combined a passion for the plain sense of the verse with a reverence for the Rabbis as transmitters of reliable tradition. His most widely used works are his commentaries on the Torah, which are admired for their depth and penetration into the mysteries of the Hebrew language, the text of the Torah and the meaning of the mitzvot. Because of their many-faceted character and elusive language, his commentaries are often difficult to understand in their original Hebrew, and have thus inspired many super-commentaries. Here for the first time is an English translation of ibn Ezra's commentary on the Book of Leviticus, and the Book of Deuteronomy based on those super-commentaries, in a style which is both faithful to the original and yet enables those who wish to fathom his meaning to do so. An English rendering of Leviticus and Deuteronomy appears at the top of each page; the bottom of each page contains the translation of ibn Ezra's commentary. This volume includes and Appendix of astronomical units, and indices of Biblical and Talmudic references.
From the Middle Ages until the present, the development of astrology among Jews was associated mainly with the name of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). His scientific corpus deals with mathematics, astronomy, scientific instruments and tools, and the Jewish calendar; but especially with astrology. This volume is the first product of a larger enterprise-a scientific edition of all twelve Ibn Ezra's astrological treatises-and offers a critical Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra's "Sefer ha-Te'amim," the Book of Reasons, accompanied by an annotated translation and commentary. The two treatises presented here were designed by Ibn Ezra to offer "reasons," "explanations," or "meanings" of the raw astrological concepts formulated in the introduction to astrology that Ibn Ezra entitled "Reshit Hokhmah" (Beginning of Wisdom).
Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism explores the discursive formation of the commandments as a generative matrix of Jewish thought and life in the posttalmudic period, correlating the diverse domains of jurisprudence, philosophy, ethics, pietism, and kabbalah.
Includes a new translation of Ibn Ezra's introduction to the Torah Multi-disciplinary: Ibn Ezra is an important figure in Jewish studies, medieval studies, philosophy, linguistics and theology
Contemporary theology, and Jewish theology in particular, Michael Fishbane asserts, now lies fallow, beset by strong critiques from within and without. For Jewish reality, a coherent and wide-ranging response in thoroughly modern terms is needed. Sacred Attunement is Fishbane's attempt to renew Jewish theology for our time, in the larger context...
Uriel Simon describes the fascinating controversy that raged from the tenth to the twelfth centuries regarding the theological status and literary genre of the Psalms. Saadiah Gaon, who initiated the controversy, claimed that the Psalter was a second Torah—the Lord's word to David—and by no means man's prayer to God. Salmon ben Yerucham and Yefet ben Ali insisted on the Karaite view that the Book of Psalms was the prophetic common prayerbook of Israel. Totally opposing both of these concepts, Rabbi Moses Ibn Giqatilah regarded the Psalms as non-prophetic prayers authored by different poets, beginning with David and ending with the captive Levites in the Babylonian exile. Finally, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra reverted to the belief held by the Talmudic sages—that the Psalms were Israel's divinely inspired and most sacred poetry. The book also includes the full text of a previously unknown introduction to Ibn Ezra's lost commentary on the Psalms, which is much more elaborate and revealing than the introduction to his familiar classical commentary.
An innovative perspective on the relationship between philosophy and the Bible. The early modern philosophers’ interpretations of the Scriptures allow deciphering the breeding ground of the freedom of philosophizing, the theological-political debate, and the new conception of nature.
