Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 41:29/אבן עזרא על בראשית מ״א:כ״ט
אשבע גדול. שם כמו רעב על כן יטעה האומר בתפלת שבת ובשובע כלכלתנו בוי"ו, כי שובע שם הפועל הוא, והנכון ובשבע כלכלתנו בלא וי"ו:
1GREAT PLENTY. Sava (plenty) is a noun. It is like ra’av (famine).47 and ra’av are nouns. Hence the one who says in his Sabbath prayers48 prayer. u-ve-sova kilkaltanu errs because sova spelled with a vav is an infinitive.49 (ra’av) thou didst feed us, and didst sustain us in plenty (p. 419, The Authorized Prayer Book, trans. by J. H. Hertz). Plenty is parallel to famine. As ra’av is a noun so its parallel must be a noun. Hence the correct reading is sava and not sova. The correct way to read this prayer is without a vav, viz., u-ve-sava (and in plenty) kilkaltanu (thou sustained us).