Tuesday 16 August 2016

Finding a source for a palindrome attributed to Ibn Ezra


There is a phrase that is popularly attributed to Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra. Apparently, it relates to a sugya in Hullin that concerns the permissibility of eating honey in which the legs of bees might have been found. Ibn Ezra is said to have responded:



פרשנו: רעבתן שבדבש נתבער ונשרף


We have explained it thus: the glutton [ie: the bee] in the honey is considered to have been destroyed and eradicated [lit. burned]



There are multiple sources for this, but none of them cite the text in which it is published, and therefore fail to prove its association with Ibn Ezra. See here, for example, and here, and here.


The amazing thing about this phrase, aside from its being a palindrome, is that it also forms a magic square (sometimes known in English as a sator square). But did Ibn Ezra actually write it??


People seem to think that he did, but my attempts at locating a single source by Ibn Ezra in which this phrase is featured have so far proven fruitless.



Where did Ibn Ezra actually write this? Alternatively, what is the earliest (published) source for this statement's having been written by him?




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