Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 12:2/אבן עזרא על ויקרא י״ב:ב׳
אאשה כי תזריע. אחר שהשלים תורת הטהור והטמא בנאכלין הזכיר טמא אדם והחל מן האשה היולדת כי הלידה היא תחלה ורבים אמרו שהאשה מזרעת תחלה יולדת זכר על כן וילדה זכר ועל כן דעת חכמי יון שהזרע לאשה וזרע הזכר מקפיא וכל הבן מדם האשה והנה פירוש תזריע תתן זרע כי היא כמו הארץ:
1IF A WOMAN BE DELIVERED.1 (literally, produces a seed). After Scripture concludes the law of clean and unclean food, it deals with human uncleanliness. The Torah starts2 with the woman who gives birth, because human life begins at birth. Many say that if the woman produces the seed first,3 then she gives birth to a male.4 60a; Niddah 28a. Scripture therefore states, and bear a man-child.5 The wise men of the Greeks similarly believed that the seed is of the woman. The seed of the male congeals.6 All of the child is created out of the blood of the woman.7 Note, the meaning of tazri’a (be delivered) means will give seed, for a woman8 (she) as in Vat. Ebr. 38 rather than hu (it) as in some printed editions. is like the ground.9 (zeru’ehah) to spring forth (Is. 62:11). Thus ishah ki tazri’a (if a woman be delivered) literally means if a woman gives forth her seed, i.e., the seed planted in her.
בוי״ו וטמאה כפ״א רפה בלשון ישמעאל. וסבת טומאתה שבעת ימים עד שובה אל המרובע וכן ימצא בימי החולי כי השנוי יראה עד סוף כל ז׳:
2The vav of ve-tame’ah (then shall be unclean) is like the unaspirated vav in Arabic.10 is not to be rendered: and she shall be unclean, but, then she shall be unclean. The reason that she is unclean for seven days is that she must wait until she completes11 a quarter of days.12 We find a similarity in the days of illness, for a change is seen at the end of the seven days.13
גנדת. שם במשקל בזת והם שניהם מפעלי הכפל:
3THE IMPURITY OF. The word niddat (impurity of) is a noun.14 It follows the paradigm of bizzat (spoil of).15 Both words come from a double root.16 comes from nun, dalet, dalet. Bizzat from bet, zayin, zayin.
דדותה. טעמו כמו חולי כמו מדוה מצרים כי הדם היוצא הוא חולי בבשר האשה:
4HER SICKNESS. Devotah (her sickness) is a noun in the plural.17 plus the feminine pronominal suffix. Compare, madveh (diseases) in the evil diseases of Egypt (Deut. 7:15).18 (her sickness) and madveh (diseases) come from the same root. Thus devotah means her illness. Some interpret devotah as her flow. See Rashi. The blood that comes out is an illness in the woman’s body.19