Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 29:10/אבן עזרא על שמות כ״ט:י׳
אוהקרבת. כבר הזכיר זה והנה הטעם כאשר תקריב את הפר, יסמוך אהרן ובניו עליו, ויש אומרים, כי טעם וסמך אהרן לבדו, ואחר כן בניו, ועל האיל כתוב וסמכו אהרן ובניו (פ' טו) והנה הטעם כאשר היה שיסמכו יחדיו לא זה לפני זה:
1AND THOU SHALT BRING THE BULLOCK. This has already been mentioned.55 Its meaning is as follows. When you shall bring the bullock,56 (and thou shalt bring) is to be rendered, when thou shalt bring. Hence Scripture is not being redundant. See note 57. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon it.57 Some say that the meaning of and Aaron shall lay58 (shall lay) is in the singular. Hence the interpretation quoted by I.E. is: Aaron alone shall first lay his hands upon the head of the bullock. His sons shall then do the same. Now with regard to the ram, Scripture later states, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram (v. 15). Scripture thus describes exactly what happened. They should lay their hands together, not one after the other.59 (shall lay). Ve-samekhu is in the plural. The commentaries on I.E. differ over how to interpret this comment. Some take it to mean that I.E. indicates there was no difference in procedure between the laying of the hands upon the bullock and the laying of the hands upon the rams; in both cases Aaron and his sons put their hands upon the sacrificial animals in unison (Krinsky). Meijler is of the opinion that I.E. believes that in contrast to the laying of the hands upon the rams, Aaron first laid his hands upon the bullock and then his sons did the same. The difference of opinion revolves around how we interpret “Scripture thus describes exactly what happened.” Krinsky takes it to refer to both instances, while Meijler takes it to refer only to the second instance. For further elucidation, see Filwarg.