Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 34:1/אבן עזרא על שמות ל״ד:א׳
אויאמר, פסל לך. כמו לך לך (ברא' יב א) ואתה קח לך (למעלה ל כג):
1AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES: HEW THEE. Pesal lekha (hew thee)1 (thee) appears to be unnecessary. Hence I.E. points out that Scripture occasionally uses this form. According to Weiser lekha is used for purposes of emphasis. is similar to lekh lekha (get thee out) (Gen. 12:1) and ve-attah kach lekha (take thou also unto thee) (Ex. 30:23).
בוטעם כראשונים. כמדתם אמר הגאון כי השניים נכבדים מהראשונים, כי השניים נתנו ביום קדש וביוהכ"פ ולא כן הראשונים, כי הם ירדו ביום י"ז בתמוז וביום חול, ויש עם השניים זכר שלש בריתות ובשניים כתיב למען ייטב לך (דבר' ה טז) והראשונים נשתברו, ואלה כדברי חלום לא מעלין ולא מורידין, כי מכתב אלהים היו שניהם, ועוד כי הראשונים היו מעשה אלהים והשניים מעשה משה:
2[LIKE UNTO THE FIRST.] The same size as the first. Saadiah Gaon says that the second tablets were more precious than the first, for the second tablets were given on a holy day, on the Day of Atonement. This was not the case with the first tablets. The first tablets descended2 on the seventeenth day of Tamuz,3 4:6. on a weekday. Furthermore, three covenants are mentioned with regard to the second tablets;4 (v. 10); I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel (v. 27); And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant (v. 28). and that it may go well with thee (Deut. 5:16) was inscribed on the second tablets;5 and the first tablets were broken. Now these things6 are similar to that which is seen in a dream.7 They neither help nor hinder.8 52a; San. 30a, Divre chalomot lo ma’alin ve-lo moridin (that which is seen in a dream neither helps nor hinders). Both tablets had God’s writing on them.9 Furthermore, the first tablets were the work of God whereas the second tablets were the work of Moses.10