Saphah Berurah (Grammar)

Ibn Ezra, Abraham

Astruc de Toulon

Constantinople

1530

FIRST EDITION.Colophon on final page identifies author, place, printer, and year. The book was published “by command of the wise man, the doctor Solomon Almoli.” (See Lot ***)

Vinograd, Const. 140; Ya’ari, Const. 104. Not in Adams

A grammatical work on the roles of the letters. Abraham ibn Ezra is most famous for his Bible commentary that excels in its devotion to peshat (the simple meaning of the text). Indeed on p. 3a, Ibn Ezra criticizes “Rabbi Solomon [RaSHI] who interpreted the Bible homiletically, while thinking it is peshat; but one in a thousand of his commentaries is the simple meaning.” Ibn Ezra was a true polymath. Apart from interpreting Bible, he also excelled as poet, grammarian, scientist (and pseudo-scientist or astrologer), and philosopher. The present work begins with a short poem in praise of the Hebrew language. Ibn Ezra goes on to prove that Hebrew—not the other Semitic languages, Aramaic and Arabic—was the original language. He derides the theory that if a child were placed in isolation from infancy, it would emerge speaking Aramaic. (King James IV of Scotland, who was fond of the Hebrew language, is reputed to have actually imposed this hardship on two children to test the veracity of the linguistic theory! See Hayim Uri Lipschitz, Orei Hayim, V (1993) p. 5