Thirteen gates to infinity

Yesod Mora (Foundation of Awe ), by Abraham Ibn Ezra, edited by Uriel SimonBar-Ilan University Press (Hebrew ), 272 pages, NIS 115

A colorful and multifaceted man was Abraham Ibn Ezra: Biblical com­mentator, linguist, philosopher of religion, schoolteacher, astronomer, as­trologer, an inspirational poet who could rhyme on demand, a destitute wanderer and spiritually rich thinker. He was born in Tudela in northern Spain late in the 11th century, and died at age 75 in or around the year 1164. Even in his native Spain, he had no permanent residence; we hear from him while he's based in Tudela, Toledo, Cordoba, Grenada and Malaga.

In the last 25 years of his life, Ibn Ezra wandered far and wide, traveling by land and by sea, producing most of his writings from outside his native land. His travels took him to several cities in Italy, where he spent eight years, to North Africa, to Provence and central France, northward to Normandy, landing finally in England and eventually dying in London or its environs. It is possible that he spent time in the East as well, and there are those who claim that he visited Eretz Israel, though this is un­likely.

One of Ibn Ezra's late works is "Yesod Mora Vesod Hatorah" ("Foundation of Awe and the Secret of the Torah" ), commonly called by the first two words of its name, a book dedicated to examining the essence of the commandments and their place in religious thought and at the foundation of Jewish belief. According to Prof. Israel Levin, an expert on many thinkers and po­ets of the Golden Age of Spain, and author of the introduction to the edition at hand: "There is scarcely an important field with­in the multifaceted works of Ibn Ezra that this book does not cover, either briefly or at length."

Great importance in Jewish religious thought is assigned to inquiries into the subject of the mitzvot (commandments ), but the undertaking is not a simple task. Reading and understanding this book de­mands great effort, and clearly it is not intended for those unwilling or unable to toil over it. Moreover, according to the editor, Prof. Uriel Simon, an expert in research of the Bible and its com­mentaries, particularly the works of Ibn Ezra: "Rather than attempting to hide his secrets, R. Abraham Ibn Ezra had dif­ficulty expressing his thoughts clearly. His thinking is disjointed and jumpy, his arguments emotional, argumentative and associative, and his phrasing too abbrevi­ated, tending toward suggestion."

Readers who know and appreciate Ibn Ezra's commentaries on the Bible vastly outnumber the few who know his philosophical writings. Both are aware that Simon's words are generally, though not always, accurate, with regard to Ibn Ezra's commentaries as well.

Indeed, Ibn Ezra requires quite a bit of explaining, and this has in fact been done over the generations. Commentary alone, however, is not sufficient for those who have difficulty understanding his writ­ings; it must be accompanied by extensive research, without which it is impossible, according to Simon, to "fit everything [Ibn Ezra] wrote on a certain subject into a clear and organized doctrine." Ibn Ezra would no doubt have agreed with such a conclusion. According to him, a wise per­son's approach to the holy writings and to religious philosophy requires a broad edu­cation encompassing all the branches of science, and must reject narrow-minded expertise in specific fields at the expense of others. This cosmopolitan position pre­vents those who do not share the breadth of Ibn Ezra's perspective from properly understanding his writings, particularly those pertaining to philosophy and sci­ence.

An ethical will

Despite its difficulty, "Foundation of Awe" attained an honored place in the Jewish library over the generations. It is mentioned many times in the writ­ings of other thinkers and commentators, and the number of original manuscripts that has survived is fairly large: approxi­mately 45. The book was first printed in Constantinople in 1530, and since then has been reprinted 10 additional times up until this edition by Simon. In 2002, a first-of-its-kind scientific version was prepared by Uriel Simon and Dr. Yosef Cohen, and pub­lished by Bar-Ilan University Press. Cohen died a short time later, and Simon recently republished the book with some changes and additions, dedicating the current ver­sion to the memory of his friend and col­laborator Cohen. Born in Yemen, Yosef Cohen acquired his systematic and broad knowledge in the field of philosophy, and his academic education, at a late age, and only in his last years joined the Institute for the History of Jewish Bible Research at Bar-Ilan.

The lion's share of the current ver­sion is taken up by the body of the text of "Foundation of Awe," in all its 12 chapters, which are presented with integrated ref­erences to relevant biblical passages and commentaries, divided into pertinent units and punctuated in modern style. This is accompanied by a rich and wide-ranging exegesis of the text itself, a discussion of sources and parallels, a study of linguistic and philosophical aspects, and literary and historical comments. Alternate versions are included alongside the text and its ex­planations, mainly based on the five best extant versions of the book.

Several separate issues are discussed in the introduction. There are accounts of the composition of "Foundation of Awe" by Ibn Ezra in London, when he was about 70 years old, and a suggestion that the book may be read as something of an ethical will of its author. There is also a survey of the book's 10 editions, information about earlier interpretations and transla­tions, and a discussion of its philological aspects. However, the introduction is pri­marily a discussion of the book itself and of the basic ideas it contains.

According to Simon, "The first chapter is dedicated to a detailed proof of the re­ligious need for multidisciplinary educa­tion." Toward that end, Ibn Ezra describes four types of "learned men of Israel" who specialize in narrow and defined fields of Torah and wisdom study but are unable to see the whole ensemble, and for whom, for this reason, even their fields of specializa­tion are found wanting. These four types of men are: Masoretic sages (compilers of the Hebrew Bible), grammarians, Karaite Bible sages, and some Talmud sages/scholars. And Ibn Ezra, the ultimate mul­tidisciplinary scholar, does not approve of any of them, viewing their professional specializations as a hindrance to the kind of broad vision he holds essential for edu­cated and enlightened scholars.

Most of the remaining chapters deal with the Jewish religious mitzvot and their place in the system of belief and knowledge. Unlike other medieval books on the commandments, such as those of Rabbis Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and Nachmanides, here there is no discussion of halakha -- religious law -- and its minu­tiae; rather, the discussion is entirely on a theoretical level. Chapter two deals with the numbering of the commandments, wherein the scholar presents and criti­cizes the systems of several earlier "com­mandment-counters."

Later, Ibn Ezra sorts the mitzvot ac­cording to several key themes: condition­al and absolute commandments, principal and not-principal, those explained within the Torah text and those that are not, and so on. According to Simon, "those mitz­vot not explained within the Torah itself pose the main problem," because they de­mand complex methods of research and understanding, which may be misleading. Thus, when attempting to address these, Ibn Ezra uses the language of the Psalms, saying "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law" (Psalm 119:18 ).

Astrological explanations

Ibn Ezra's belief in astrology comes to the fore in subsequent chapters. Astrological explanations are offered, for example, for the profound differences be­tween the festivals of the month of Nisan and those of Tishrei, and for the meanings of the 1st, 10th, and 15th days of the month. Similarly, the arithmetic and astrological meanings of several numbers -- the most significant of which is 7 -- are discussed, as well as subjects such as the symbolic value of the building of the Tabernacle and its implements, which are treated at such length and detail in the Torah as to beg explanation.

Especially interesting is the status of the number 613, the traditional total number of all the commandments. The source of that enumeration is the homi­letical sermon of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Shamlai (described in Tractate Makot of the Babylonian Talmud ), that cites the Biblical verse "Moses commanded us a law [Torah ]" (Deuteronomy 33:4 ) as the basis for his calculation. The numerical value of "Torah" is 611, and he adds two more commandments -- "I am the Lord your God," the basic mitzvah of religious faith, and "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," the absolute prohibition of idolatry -- that were heard directly from God himself.

Unlike many other homiletical sermons, this one was accepted with great serious­ness, although there were some who saw in Shamlai's words a tale not to be taken too seriously; Ibn Ezra belonged to the lat­ter. In the second chapter of "Foundation of Awe," he recounts the essential and methodological difficulty in presenting an exact number of mitzvot. He claims that such a task is pointless, that "on the path of studying the truth there is no end to the number of mitzvot, as stated by the poet: 'I have seen an end to every purpose; but Thy commandment is exceeding broad'" (Psalm 119:96 ). Actually, he claims, if we count only the general and always-obligatory mitzvot, "the number is not even one-tenth of 613," that is, not even 61. Maimonides, in his Sefer Hamitzvot, also numbers 60 mitzvot incumbent upon all Jews everywhere, at all times. The interesting question thus arises, whether Maimonides -- who was 45 years younger than Ibn Ezra -- was familiar with, and influenced by, the latter's opinion on this subject.

The book's final chapters flow on past the direct issues of mitzvot, and deal with a life of holiness (chapter 10 ), interpreta­tion of God's name (chapter 11 ), and man's devotion to God (chapter 12 ). Chapter 11 is also divided into several sub-chapters related to God's name and the letters that constitute it. In general, Ibn Ezra assigns great weight to the study of the Hebrew alphabet letters. He believed that the form of the letter yod signified gathering/assembly, the letter heh -- dualism, and vav -- connection. Other groups of letters are treated elsewhere in the book, ac­cording to different characteristics: Some letters are divided according to their lo­cations in the mouth (lips, teeth, tongue, etc. ); some are "root-like" or "servants," and the like. Toward the end, the discus­sion of letters becomes almost purely mathematical, and many numerals, alge­braic formulas and geometric drawings accompany the edited text.

Many of these subjects were already discussed in the previous version of the book, by Simon and Cohen. The afterword added to the new edition deals with the text's polemical side. Simon draws to­gether the main points of criticism, some of it bitter, leveled by Ibn Ezra against the majority of learned scholars in Israel and Christian Europe, and to a lesser extent also those in Spain, for their tendency to over-specialization and for their lack of systematic education in the sciences. Contemporary readers are invited to imagine the criticism, tongue-lashing and overt disdain that would have been elicit­ed from Ibn Ezra had he foreseen current trends in the world of Torah and yeshiva study.

As noted by Simon in his comments, the final paragraph of the book is meant to be inspirational; it consists of multiple Biblical verses with few connecting words between them. Ibn Ezra, wishing to ex­press the great closeness between Israel and God, cites a string of verses that pres­ent Israel as a part of God or His heritage. At this point, the close of the chapter and of the entire book, appears the famous verse, "This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it" (Psalm 118:20 ), inviting the reader to enter. To enter, but through the back gate; like Abraham Ibn Ezra, par­adoxical and intentional.

Hananel Mack is a professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University.

Haaretz Books Supplement, November 2009