Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 12:6/אבן עזרא על ויקרא י״ב:ו׳

אבן שנתו. לולי הקבלה מי היה מפרש לנו בן שנתו דאם הוא בן שנה תמימה לא יותר או פחות או תוספות ויש אומרים שטעם הכבש לעולה שמא עלתה שום מחשבה על רוחה בשעת לדתה מרוב הצער. חטאת שמא דברה בפיה:

1OF THE FIRST YEAR. If we did not have tradition, who would explain whether ben shenato (of the first year)⁴⁶ means of the first year. See Mekhilta 4. means exactly one year, or less than a year, or a year plus?⁴⁷ Some say that the reason a woman who gives birth brings a lamb for a burnt offering is that she may have had some unseemly thought because of her pain when giving birth.⁴⁸ She brings a sin offering because she might have uttered some unseemly thing with her lips.⁴⁹ 31b: “Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai’s student asked: Why did the Torah say that a woman who gives birth shall bring an offering? He said to them: when she crouches to give birth she swears that she will not have sexual relations with her husband.”