Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Numbers 12:1/אבן עזרא על במדבר י״ב:א׳

אותדבר מרים. היא דברה גם אהרן הסכים או החריש על כן נענש:

1AND MIRIAM…SPOKE. Miriam spoke. Aaron agreed or was silent.¹ is to be interpreted: And Miriam spoke against Moses, and Aaron remained silent (or agreed). I.E. interprets thus because our verse reads, va-tedabber miriam ve-aharon.

בוטעם ותדבר. עם בי"ת דרך גנאי כמו וידבר העם באלהים גם ימצא לשבח גם בדרך נבואה. יש אומרים כי משה מלך על כוש ולקח כושית והמתרגם אמר שפירתא וטעמו לשון כבוד כאשר יקראו הישמעאלים לזפת הלבן גם אנחנו נקרא העור סגי נהור. והנה לא יתכן שנקרא שם שהוא לשבח להפכו לגנאי ויש אומרים כי כוש בן ימיני הוא שאול וכן הלא כבני כושיים וכבר פירשתיו והישר בעיני שזו הכושית היא צפורה כי היא מדינית ומדינים הם ישמעאלים והם דרים באהלים וכן כתוב ירגזון יריעות ארץ מדין ובעבור חום השמש אין להם לבן כלל וצפורה היתה שחורה ודומה לכושית:

2Now va-tedabber is in the feminine. Thus our verse is to be rendered, And Miriam spoke, and Aaron. If both spoke, then our text should have read, va-yedabberu miriam ve-aharon. Hence he was also punished.Va-tedabber (spoke) is followed by a bet² (And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses). and has a negative connotation. It is similar to va-yedabber ha-am be-Elohim (And the people spoke against God) (Num. 21:5). The verb dabber (spoke) followed by a bet is also found with a positive connotation.³ (adabberah): Peace be within thee (bakh) (Ps. 122:8). It also appears in prophetic statements.⁴ (II Sam. 23:2). Some say that Moses was king of Cush⁵ and took a Cushite woman.⁶ on Shemot 168; 247. Onkelos renders Cushite, beautiful.⁷ (the Cushite woman) as the beautiful women (ittetah shappirtah). According to Onkelos, Cushite is an honorific term. The Arabs similarly call pitch white. We too refer to a blind person by the term sege nahor (rich of light).⁸ 58a. But it is illogical⁹ to turn a positive name into a negative one.¹⁰ Some say that Cush the Benjaminite (Ps. 7:1) refers to Saul.¹¹. See Rashi and I.E. on Ps. 7:1. They say the same with regard to Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians (Khushiyyim) unto Me (Amos 9:7).¹² I have already explained this.¹³I believe that the Cushite woman is to be identified with Zipporah, for Zipporah was a Midianite.¹⁴ The Midianites are Ishmaelites¹⁵ and they live in tents.¹⁶ Scripture similarly writes: The curtains¹⁷ of the land of Midian do tremble (Hab. 3:7). Because of the sun¹⁸ they do not have any whiteness at all. Zipporah was black and was like a Cushite.

גוטעם כי אשה כשית לקח. זה הדבור שדברה מרים ומה נכבד דברי קדמונינו שאמרו על הזקנים אשריהם ואוי לנשיהם והנה חשדו משה כי לא נמנע לשכב עם צפורה רק בעבור שאיננה יפה:

3[FOR HE HAD MARRIED A CUSHITE WOMAN.] These are the words that Miriam spoke. How precious are the words of the ancients who said with regard to the elders, “Happy are they, but woe to their wives.”¹⁹ 17b; Sifre, Devarim 99; and Yalkut Shimoni, Devarim 738. They suspected that Moses refrained from sleeping with Zipporah only because she was not beautiful.²⁰ is to be understood as: because he refrained from sleeping with her because she was a Cushite.