died there. Apparently, he predicted his own death. Israel Levin reports that one of
the copyists of Ibn Ezra’s commentary on the Torah wrote at the end of the book:
On Monday, on the First of Addar I, in the year 4924 [which corre-
sponds to Monday, January 27, 1164, on the Julian calendar], Ibn Ezra
died, at the age of seventy five, and he wrote for himself in the year of
his death in his own hand “Avraham was seventy five years old when
he came out from under the wrath of God.”His Astrological Work
Ibn Ezra wrote nine astrological treatises, as well as a translation from Arabic
into Hebrew of two others, covering all branches of astrology—natal, medical, horary,
electional, and mundane. He was well versed in the different theories and sources. He
knew his predecessors and compared their ideas, frequently coming up with his own
conclusions. With proper acknowledgment, he referred to Hindu, Persian, and Arab
astrologers, yet mostly following Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos.
The contents of Ibn Ezra’s work is traditional Hellenistic-Persian-Arabic
astrology, rarely mentioning religion or mysticism. Yet, at times, his “Jewishness”
shines through in small biblical phrases and in what can be called a Talmudic style,
which is apparent in most of the texts.
His writing is concise, scholarly, analytical, critical, and didactic, frequently
pointing out how the inner logic of astrology is derived from its elementary compo-
nents. He is also conversational and personal, often speaking in the first person,
addressing the reader directly.
Some of the books were written twice—a short version and a long version—as
is the case with The Book of Reasons(both are edited and published).
Ibn Ezra’s Works
The Beginning of Wisdom(Re’shit Ho’khmah) is Ibn Ezra’s best known astrolog-
ical text. It was edited from Hebrew manuscripts with cross references from an Old
French translation (Hagin le Juif, Le Commencement de Sapience,1273) and translated
into English for the first time by Raphael Levy and Francisco Cantera in 1939. The
ten-chapter book contains basic astrology that encompasses the fundamentals of the
horoscope. It describes the tropical and sidereal signs; the fixed stars; the decanates
and the images contained in them as well as those that are co-rising; the division of
the wheel and the houses; the attributes of the planets and the luminaries; the aspects;
the relative strength of the planets; the various ways planets conjoin bodily and by
aspect; and an extensive list of the Arabic Parts.
The short version of The Book of Reasons(Se’fer Ha’Te’amim) was edited from
manuscript by Naphtali Ben Menahem in 1941. The long version was edited by Rabbi
Yehuda Fleishman in 1951. It was translated from Hebrew (short version supplement-
ed from the long version) by Meira B. Epstein in 1994. The book contains commen-
tary and additional material for all the topics in The Beginning of Wisdom,providing
more in-depth discussion meant for those who already know the basics.
THEASTROLOGYBOOK [351]
Ibn Ezra, Avraham