Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 30:34/אבן עזרא על שמות ל׳:ל״ד
אקח לך סמים. קדמונינו ז"ל קבלו כי אחד עשר מיני סמנים הם והנה הכתוב לבשמים שהם לקטרת הסמים לא פרטם הכתוב והזכיר הסמים כי לא הזכיר משקלם:
1TAKE UNTO THEE SWEET SPICES. The ancients,171 of blessed memory, received a tradition that there were eleven types of spices.172 6b: “Rabbi Johanan said: Eleven kinds of spices were named to Moses at Sinai.” Now the verse173 that notes that spices were to be used in the sweet incense174 (besamim) for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense. However, it nowhere lists which spices (besamim) were to be placed in the sweet incense. We thus see that Scripture relied on the oral tradition with regard to the ingredients of the sweet incense. does not list the spices that were to be used in the sweet incense. Scripture175 mentions the sweet spices.176. I.E.’s point is that Scripture does not at all mention the spices (besamim) used in the sweet incense. However, our verse does mention the sweet spices (sammim) that were used in the sweet incense. However, Scripture does not mention their weight.177) we need tradition.
בוטעם סמים פעם אחרת אלה סמים ולבונה זכה עמהם:
2[SWEET SPICES.] Scripture mentions sammim (sweet spices) a second time178 because it wants to say: take the aforementioned sweet spices,179 and along with them, take pure frankincense.
גבד בבד. כל אחד לבד ירוקח ואח"כ יעורב:
3OF EACH SHALL THERE BE A LIKE WEIGHT. Each spice to be compounded by itself.180 to mean alone. Thus according to I.E. the phrase bad be-vad yiheyeh (of each shall there be a like weight) means each one shall be alone, i.e., each spice to be compounded by itself. See Rashi. It shall then be mixed.181