1 Adar · Yahrzeit

Rabbi Avraham ben Meir ibn Ezra

1 Adar - Rabbi Avraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (1093-1167) Yahrzeit - 1 Adar Burial place - Galilee

The exact year of birth of Rabbi Avraham, son of Meir of the Ibn Ezra family, is unknown; he was born between 1089 and 1093 in the Muslim kingdom of Saragossa, in the city of Tudela, on the Ebro River. At that time it was a mighty fortress, a Muslim outpost defending the northern border against the Christian kings of Navarre and Aragon. The Jewish community of Tudela lived separately in the Jewish quarter, called the juderia, and was engaged in trades common to Spanish Jews: there were tanners, goldsmiths, and merchants. As everywhere in Spain, great attention was given to the education of children: "Every fifteen families are obligated to maintain a teacher for the children's instruction in Scripture." That education in the Jewish community of Tudela was carried out brilliantly can be judged by the number of great figures who were born and raised in this city: Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (1075–1141), Rabbi Binyamin of Tudela, who left wonderful records of his journey to the East in the second half of the 12th century, and Rabbi Avraham Abulafia (1240–1291). It was Tudela that was the ancestral home of the Shaprut family and the Minir family, which in every generation gave the Jewish world its geniuses.

Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra was, to the highest degree, a son of Tudela: a poet, astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician by the grace of G-d.

In 1115, when Rabbi Avraham was about 25 years old, Alfonso I, King of Aragon and Navarre, conquered Tudela, frightening the Jewish community. The king managed to keep the Jews in the city only by granting them written rights of autonomy. Rabbi Avraham himself had by that time long since left Tudela, having traveled from the north of Spain to the south – to Cordoba.

In religious terms, it mattered little to the Jews at that time under whose rule they lived – both Christians and Muslims were equally unkind, yet still tolerant enough of the Jews. Judging by ibn Ezra's poems, he loved Spain very much: "I will grieve, having left Spain," he would write later. And throughout his years of wandering, he remained for everyone "Rabbi Avraham the Spaniard."

Until he was fifty, he moved from one Spanish city to another, never settling anywhere for long. Around 1140, ibn Ezra left Spain, and his years of wandering began.

In one of his letters, ibn Ezra writes that he was forced to leave Spain "...because of persecutors."

It is known that he was married. It is known that he had a son, Yitzchak, a famous poet who may even have surpassed his father in poetic talent – for Rabbi Avraham's verses, for all their lightness, are perhaps too "clever." According to a widespread legend, he was married to the daughter of Yehuda Halevi, but this is hardly true, if only because Yitzchak ibn Ezra was never considered a grandson of Yehuda Halevi. It is claimed that Rabbi Avraham had five children. Evidence for this is found in the words of his commentary on the Chumash: "He who knows the time of conception can calculate the time of birth, and he who knows the time of birth can calculate the time of conception. The formula was tested by the ancients, and I myself have verified it five times." From this statement it is concluded that ibn Ezra had five children – corresponding to the number of times he verified it. It may indeed be true that, besides Yitzchak, he had other children – in his poems he calls his son "a surviving ember, the comfort of old age," from which one may conclude that his other children did not survive. By the time ibn Ezra left Spain, he no longer had a wife, and his son Yitzchak, upon leaving Spain, did not follow his father to Europe but went east, accompanying Rabbi Yehuda Halevi on his final journey. At first Yitzchak settled in Cairo. Later we find him in Baghdad, serving as secretary to a court physician. There he converted to Islam, but seemingly only outwardly. After some time he returned to the fold of Judaism. Ibn Ezra was bound to Yehuda Halevi by close friendship. They were born in the same city and later lived together in Cordoba. The bond between the two poets was truly deep; the great debater ibn Ezra, who recognized no authorities, in his commentary on the Tanach never argues with Yehuda Halevi alone, but quotes him dozens of times, always with great reverence. After his friend's death, he described in verse how Rabbi Yehuda Halevi came to him in a dream and invited him: "Come, let us sing together, let us rest together in the earth. Why should you wander alone?!" In fact, they left Spain at the same time, but parted in different directions: Yehuda Halevi sailed for the Holy Land accompanied by Rabbi Avraham's son, while Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra himself set off for Italy. Thus began a twenty-five-year period of ibn Ezra's wanderings, which was at the same time a period of intense literary activity. In Rome he translated from Arabic into Hebrew three books by the great Hebrew grammarian ibn Chayyuj, and also wrote his own book on Hebrew grammar, "Moznei Lashon HaKodesh" ("The Scales of the Holy Tongue"). From Rome he set out on his travels. It is known for certain that he reached Algeria – there are written testimonies from those who met him there. A few years later we again find him in Rome, where he lived briefly and soon moved to Salerno in southwestern Italy. In Salerno he intended to settle permanently, but this did not work out, because at that time the city was home to Rabbi Yitzchak ben Malkitzedek, a renowned commentator on the Mishnah and great Talmudic scholar who had come there from Greece. In Mantua he stayed long enough to complete "Sefer HaTzachut" ("The Book of Clarity"). There he was struck by an illness from which he nearly died. It was then that he vowed to compose a commentary explaining the simple, literal meaning of the Chumash. He fulfilled this vow, but not in Mantua – rather in Verona, where he lived for several years. Immediately after completing his commentary on the Torah, he set out for Provence, where, as is well known, sages were held in high esteem. In France he remained for ten years. Once again the names of cities flash by: Beziers, Narbonne (to which he returned several times). In the end he made his way to Normandy, living for a time in Rouen. An exchange of enthusiastic letters and poems dedicated to one another between Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra and Rashi's grandson, Rabbeinu Tam, the greatest Talmudic scholar of all time, has been preserved. One of the problems they discussed is reflected in the Tosafot, a compiled commentary on the Talmud composed in Provence. This period saw work on "Sefer HaShem" ("The Book of the Name") – an exposition of the expanded Name of the Almighty; this work became one of the foundational texts in the mystical tradition of European Jewry. At the same time, ibn Ezra wrote "Peirush Aroch al HaTorah" ("The Long Commentary on the Torah"), of which only fragments have survived – we do not even know whether Rabbi Avraham himself completed it. There he also wrote commentaries on a number of books of the Tanach. It is to this period that almost all of his works on astrology belong. Around 1159 he crossed the English Channel and lived for several years in London, where he had a wealthy patron. There he composed the work "Yesod Mora" ("The Foundation of Fear of G-d"), in which he explains the meaning of the commandments of the Torah, as well as a number of epistles: "And it came to pass in the year four thousand nine hundred and nineteen, on the eve of Shabbat of the month of Tevet, the fourteenth day, that I, Avraham the Spaniard ibn Ezra, was in one of the cities of the island called 'the End of the Earth,' at the seventh border of the inhabited world. I slept, and my sleep was sweet, and in my dream a man appeared to me with a sealed letter in his hands, and he turned to me and said: 'Here, take a letter from the Sabbath.'" "The island called 'the End of the Earth'" is, of course, England, a literal translation of the English "Angle land" – "corner of the land." He goes on to relate that in the dream a letter was born, "urgently sent to all corners of the earth," in which he proves that Shabbat and all other days of the Jewish calendar begin in the evening. In England he also re-edited his commentary on the Torah. In 1161 his trail is found again in Narbonne, but judging by the poem that concludes his commentary on the Torah, from there he set out once more for Rome. Livelihood

It is told that Rabbi Yehuda Halevi once sent Rabbi Avraham to a certain city where fifty to sixty people were dying every day and there were no shrouds to bury them. Rabbi Avraham took a camel loaded with shrouds and set off for that city. And as soon as he arrived, people stopped dying. When ibn Ezra grew tired of sitting and waiting for buyers, he gave away all the shrouds for free and returned home. When Halevi asked, "Where is the money?" Rabbi Avraham suggested that Rabbi Yehuda consider that he had given it to charity.

Ibn Ezra firmly believed in astrology; the line preceding the verses quoted above states: "The celestial spheres, constellations, and planets strayed from their course when I was born." And in another verse he called himself "an unfortunate man, born without a star."

Once his friends decided to help ibn Ezra, but not wishing to embarrass him with a gift, they placed a purse of money on the road he was certain to pass, and hid nearby to watch him rejoice at the find. As he approached the spot where the purse lay, ibn Ezra suddenly closed his eyes and walked as if blind, feeling his way with his hands. He never picked up the purse. His friends asked what had happened, and he answered: "I was walking and thinking about my unfortunate life. And then I thought, thank G-d, I am not yet blind. So I decided to find out what it feels like to be blind. I closed my eyes and felt my way..."

Once ibn Ezra decided to improve his fortunes through marriage. He examined several horoscopes of prospective brides and discovered that one of them was destined to find a treasure. He married her without regard to the fact that she had no dowry. A year passed, then another, and still no treasure appeared. He cast his wife's horoscope again and found no treasure in it at all. "I married you because you were destined to find a treasure," he reproached his wife. "As for me," she answered, "in you I found a genuine treasure." There is also this anecdote told about him: "Ibn Ezra decided to improve his fortunes by creating, according to all the rules of astrology, a goat that would follow the trail of a treasure. The goat confidently picked up the trail, reached the sea, and just as confidently disappeared into the depths. Ibn Ezra remained standing on the shore..."

In the end, ibn Ezra admitted that he had no chance whatsoever of becoming wealthy or even improving his financial situation. Already in his very first book, in his commentary on the verse: "Consider the work of G-d; for who can make that straight which He hath made crooked?" (Kohelet 7:13), he writes, clearly referring to himself: "A wise man who has neither money nor property rejoices in his wisdom and is not saddened by poverty, for this was determined for him from the six days of Creation. And whoever understands astrology will confirm this... And if someone's horoscope is deficient with regard to money or in any other respect, there is no remedy for it."

The date of his death is established from a note in one of the manuscripts kept in the Vienna National Library: "On the second day of the new month of the first Adar of the year 4927, ibn Ezra died, at the age of 75, and about himself he wrote in the year of his death: 'And Avraham was seventy-five years old in the year of his departure from the wrath of the L-rd.'" Alas, the place of death is not indicated in the record. Rabbi Moshe Taku writes with confidence that ibn Ezra died in England, where he is also buried. According to other versions, ibn Ezra decided to return from Narbonne to Spain, where he died suddenly in Calahorra, on the Ebro River, and was buried there. According to a third version, from Narbonne ibn Ezra traveled via Rome to the Holy Land, where he died in the Galilee, as he had promised in verse: "Before the abyss opens, to return to the Land." Ibn Ezra himself mentions having seen a Torah scroll checked by the sages of Tiberias, fifteen of whose sages swore that they had verified every word in it three times. It is tempting to conclude that those sages swore this to ibn Ezra himself, meaning that he had indeed visited Tiberias. Be that as it may, his grave in the Upper Galilee is frequently visited by pilgrims. Shabbat Hymns Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra composed Shabbat hymns: "Ki Eshmera Shabbat," in which he encoded his name in the first letters of each verse, and "Agadelcha." Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra's Segula for the Eyes Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra recommended the following segula for strengthening the eyes (vision) – one should go to a living spring at dawn and gaze at the air above the spring. It is best to go there often, or even to settle nearby. May the merit of this great tzadik protect Am Yisrael! (https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/166-Rabbi-Avraham-ibn-Ezra)