Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 27:1/אבן עזרא על דברים כ״ז:א׳
אויצו משה. בצווי השם:
1AND MOSES…COMMANDED. By the dictate of God.
בוזקני ישראל. אמר כן להקל וכן רבים וכבר הזכרתים:
2AND THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL. He1 said this to lighten his load.2 There are many such instances.3 I have previously noted them.4
גשמור את כל המצוה. ומה היא והקמות לך אבנים גדולו' להכיל התורה ויאמר הגאון ז״ל כי כתוב עליהם מספר המצות כמו הכתובות בהלכות גדולות בענין אזהרות ויפה אמר:
3KEEP ALL THE COMMANDMENTS. Namely, that thou shalt set thee up great stones to contain the entire Torah. The Gaon,5 of blessed memory, said that the commandments6 were listed upon the stones, as in the Halakhot Gedolot.7 was the first to enumerate the 613 commandments. Rabbi Saadiah Gaon uses the Halakhot Gedolot as an illustration of a list of the 613 commandments, for it was the first work to provide such a list. Rabbi Saadiah Gaon interprets thus because he does not believe that the stones were large enough for the entire five books of the Torah to have been written upon. They were listed in a manner similar to the azharot.8 (exhortation) is 613. He explained well.