Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 35/אבן עזרא על בראשית ל״ה

אהסירו את אלהי הנכר. חלילה חלילה שישכב הנביא עם עובדות אלהי נכר, ופי' תמצאנו בפ' וילך משה (דבר' לא טז):

1PUT AWAY THE STRANGE GODS. Heaven forbid that the prophet would live with women who served strange gods.¹.” This implies that his wives had strange gods. The explanation of this verse will be found in the Torah portion va-yelekh moshe (And Moses went).²

בוהטהרו. שירחצו הגוף:

2AND PURIFY YOURSELVES. Wash your bodies.

גוהחליפו שמלותיכם. מהמקום הזה נלמוד שחייב כל ישראל כאשר ילל להתפלל למקום קבוע להיות גופו נקי ומלבושיו נקיים:

3AND CHANGE YOUR GARMENTS. From this verse we learn that an Israelite must have a clean body and spotless garments when he goes to pray in a place set aside for worship.

אדגשות תי"ו חִתַּת. להתבלע התי"ו:

1A TERROR OF. The tav of chittat (terror of) receives a dagesh to compensate for the missing root letter, the tav.³ is chet, tav, tav, but it is spelled with one tav. The dagesh compensates for the missing letter.

אוטעם כי שם נגלו אליו האלהים. המלאכים, כמו "והנה מלאכי אלהים" (בראשית כח, יב):

1[BECAUSE THERE GOD WAS REVEALED TO HIM.] Elohim (God) refers to angels.⁴) is in the plural. If elohim meant God then revealed would be in the singular (Cherez). Compare, And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it (Gen. 28:12).⁵ in our verse refers to the same angels whom Jacob saw in Beth-el (Gen. 28:12).

אלא יקרא שמך עוד יעקב. לבדו כי גם ישראל:

1THY NAME SHALL NOT BE CALLED ANYMORE JACOB. You shall no longer be called only Jacob but also Israel.

אפרה ורבה. ברכה כמעשה בראשית:

1BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY. This is a blessing as in the account of the Creation.⁶

אויתכן להיותו פי' ויצב. וכבר הציב בפעם הראשונה או עשה כן פעם שנית והראשון קרוב אלי:

1[AND JACOB SET UP A PILLAR.] This may be a pluperfect meaning Jacob had already set up a pillar.⁷ On the other hand, Jacob may now have set up a pillar a second time. I prefer the first interpretation.⁸

בויסך עליה נסך. מים או יין, והטעם שרחץ אותה, ואחר כן יצק עליה שמן, ובבית אל שלם נדרו ונתן מעשר מהונו לכבוד השם למי שהיה בדור ראוי לקחתו:

2AND HE POURED OUT A DRINK-OFFERING THEREON. He poured wine or water on the pillar. Jacob first washed the pillar with wine or water⁹. and then poured oil thereon. Here at Beth-el Jacob kept his vow¹⁰ and gave a tithe of his wealth in honor of God to a contemporary who was worthy to receive it.¹¹

אכברת הארץ. יתכן להיות הכ"ף לדמות ויהיה ברת מדת המלך ואין ריע לו במקרא:

1SOME WAY. It is possible that the caf of kivrat (some way) is a preposition meaning similar to¹² (some way) is to be interpreted ki-verat, as a brat. and that brat is a distance measured by walking.¹³. 38. The printed editions read: a king’s measure. The word does not appear elsewhere in Scripture.¹⁴ does appear in II Kings 5:19. Krinsky suggests that I.E. means it doesn’t appear elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Cherez maintains that I.E. means that the word berat is not found in Scripture.

אבהקשותה. מהבנין הכבד הנוסף, והטעם שהקשתה הלידה על נפשה וכן ותקש (פסוק טז), רק הוא מהבנין הכבר הדגוש, כמו ותכל להשקותו (בראשית כד יט):

1WHEN SHE WAS IN HARD LABOR. Be-hakshotah (when she was in hard) is a hifil. The meaning of be-hakshotah be-lidtah (when she was in hard labor) is: the delivery caused her pain.¹⁵ is a causative form. If this is the case then be-hakshotah must be transitive, hence I.E.’s comment that it means caused her hardship. Cf. Kimchi. Va-tekash (and she had hard labor, in v. 16) is similar. ¹⁶ However the latter is a pi’el. Va-tekash is similar to va-tekhal (and she was done) in And when she had done (va-tekhal) giving him drink (Gen. 24:19).¹⁷ is short for va-tekasheh as va-tekhal is short for va-tekhalleh.

אבן אוני. בן אבלי, וכן "כלחם אונים" (הושע ט ד) "לא אכלתי באוני" (דבר' כו יד):

1BEN-ONI. Ben-oni means the son of my mourning. Onim (mourners) in as the bread of mourners (onim) (Hos. 9:4) and be-oni (my mourning) in I have not eaten thereof in my mourning (be-oni) (Deut. 26:14) are similar.

אקבורתה. וקברה שוים:

1HER GRAVE. Kevuratah (her grave) and kivrah (her grave) mean the same.¹⁸ means a grave, kevurah a burial, and kevuratah her burial. Thus our verse should have read kivrah (her grave) and not kevuratah (her burial) since Jacob erected a monument over Rachel’s grave. I.E. points out that kevuratah can also have the same meaning as kivrah (Krinsky).

אוילך ראובן. יפה פי' רבותינו ז"ל וכוסה קלון ערום (משלי יב טז):

1THAT REUBEN WENT. Our sages explained this beautifully;¹⁹ 55b. for a prudent man concealeth shame (Prov. 12:16).

אאשר יולד לו בפדן ארם. עשתי עשר נולדו לו שם, כי בנימין נולד בארץ כנען, והכתוב כתב על הרוב ורבים אראה לך עוד כמוהו:

1THAT WERE BORN TO HIM IN PADDAN-ARAM. Actually only eleven sons were born to Jacob in Paddan-aram²⁰ for Benjamin was born in the land of Canaan. Scripture speaks of the majority of his sons.²¹ refers to the majority of his sons. I will in the future point out many similar cases.²²

אויגוע יצחק. וכאשר מת יצחק ונאסף אל עמיו קברו אותו עשו ויעקב כאשר נולדו ולמעלה אמר יצחק וישמעאל (בראשית כה ט) בעבור היות ישמעאל בן השפחה:

1AND ISAAC EXPIRED. When Isaac died and was gathered to his people Easu and Jacob buried him.²³ should be rendered: And when Isaac expired and died, etc. (Krinsky). Scripture mentions Esau²⁴ before Jacob because the Pentateuch follows the order of their birth. However, in relating the burial of Abraham the Bible reads, And Isaac and Ishmael²⁵ his sons buried him (Gen. 25:9) because Ishmael was the son of a handmaid.