The secret of the Torah

Ibn Ezra opens the Yesod Mora with an evaluation of the various branches of knowledge, noting that man's rational soul separates human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom. He then analyzes the role of traditional learning in the development of the soul. Ibn Ezra addresses the importance of the knowledge of grammar, stating that one cannot fully understand the text of the Torah without it. He also discusses the study of the Bible and the Talmud, arguing that one cannot properly comprehend the Talmud if one does not know the sciences, for there are many passages in the Pentateuch and the Talmud that are either incomprehensible or given to misinterpretation by one who has no prior knowledge of the sciences. This translation and annotation of Ibn Ezra's Yesod Mora offers the English-reading public a chance to acquaint themselves firsthand with a classic work by one of the most outstanding Jewish scholars of medieval Jewry.