Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Ruthy & Baruch wrote:

> There's an article (in English) by a teacher of mine, Uriel Simon, in
> _Minhah Lenahum_ (N. Sarna's festschrift), dealing with Ibn Ezra's
> "Yitzchaki".  There seem to be a few opinions who this scholar was (no one
> mentioned Rashi at all).  Simon himself does not come to a conclusion on
> this issue; his article deals with the question why Ibn Ezra wanted
> Yitzchaki's books burned.  The idea that Ibn Ezra's rejection of Yitzchaki
> is due to his late dating of parts of the Torah is ruled out, by the mere
> fact that Ibn Ezra did just that in other places.  The major difference
> between the two is that Ibn Ezra kept his twelve verses "secret", while
> Yitzchaki wrote his opinion in plain language, that even the uninformed
> could understand.
> ---

Someone did write that this Yitzhaki was Rashi, but I can't remember whom. It 
was
because of reading this that I compared both Rashi and Ibn Ezra on Gen. 
36:31. To me
it appears very clear that Ibn Wzra is demanding that Yitzhaki's books be 
burnt
because of doubting  Mosaic authorship - or at least, for making this 
statement
openly.
As for Rashi=Yitzhaki, Rashi could, but need not be construed as implying 
that the
Edomite list dates from Jehoshafat's time. Could Ibn Ezra have had a 
different version
of Rashi? As you know, there are different versions of Ibn Ezra; but I'm not 
up on
Rashi studies.
Thanks for the Simon article.
Yours,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel