Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 2:15/אבן עזרא על בראשית ב׳:ט״ו
אבגן, לשון זכר ונקבה וכן חבורו גנים גנות, והאומרים כי לעבדה ולשמרה שב אל האדמה, איך יתכן לעבוד ולשמור מקום גדול ממקום קטן, ואחר שחטא והוציאו לעבוד את האדמה, וכבר היה עובד האדמה, רק פי' לעבדה על הגן שמפריו יאכל, ואחר שחטא שב לאכול את עשב השדה, והוא הלחם,
1INTO THE GARDEN OF EDEN. Gan (garden) can be both masculine and feminine,55 and to keep are in the feminine. hence the plurals gannim and gannot.56 is masculine plural; gannot, feminine plural. We ask those who maintain that the words to till (dress) it57 is to till it. Till fits in better with I.E.’s comment. and to keep it (le-ovdah u-le-shomrah) refer to the ground (adamah), how it is possible to till and keep a large area from a small one.58 and of le-shomrah are in the feminine. Those who say that these words refer to the ground do so because they believe gan to be masculine while ground is feminine. However, I.E. maintains that gan can be either masculine or feminine. Thus le-ovdah u-le-shomrah can refer to gan. Furthermore, after Adam sinned God expelled him from the garden and commanded him to till the soil. But according to their interpretation he was already tilling the soil while he was living in the Garden of Eden.
בוטעם לעבדה, להשקות הגן ולשמרה מכל החיות שלא יכנסו שם ויטנפוהו וי"א כי כן פי' לעבוד מצותו והמצוה לא תעבוד:
2To till it (le-ovdah) therefore refers to the garden of whose fruit he ate. It was only after he sinned that he had to eat the grass of the ground, i.e., bread. To till it means to water it. To keep it means to guard the garden so that no animals enter therein and befoul it. Some say that le-ovdah means to serve God’s commandment.59 on this verse. The root of the word till, ayin, bet, dalet, is also used in reference to worship (Deut. 6:13; 10:20). However, a commandment is not served.60 is used in referring to worship, it is not used in Scripture as a technical term for the practice of a precept. The term used for the latter is lishmor (to keep) (Deut. 8:1; 10:13). One serves (oved) God and observes (shomer) the commandments. One cannot be said to serve the commandments, hence I.E.’s objection to this interpretation.