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According to some interpretations (including, it seems, the explanations of Spinoza) the Ibn Ezra's commentary makes allusion to the idea that some of the Torah (beyond the talmudic discussion of the final pesukim of the Chumash) was not written by Moshe, but was added later.

The Rambam says clearly that the Torah that we have is the divine and perfect one given to Moshe (as mentioned in this answer).

Is there any way to know if the Rambam (who was born when the Ibn Ezra was about 49 years old) was aware of the writing of the Ibn Ezra and if his formulation of the Ikkarim was in any way a response not to external, non-Jewish claims against the divinity and perfection of the text, but to the Ibn Ezra's potential claims?

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rosends
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  • If Ibn Ezra said to keep his opinion a secret, don't we owe it to him to do so? Look what happened to Spinoza when he couldn't deal with it. Besides, Ibn Ezra gave a pshat in Breishis 12 6 which if it isn't so, than you have a secret. I would assume he feels the same with all 12. – user6591 Jun 05 '15 at 17:55
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    I don't think you are understanding the Rambam correctly. See http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/44623/759 He is unlikely to have thought Ibn Ezra a heretic. – Double AA Jun 05 '15 at 18:16
  • I might not understand correctly (though my read of שנאמין כי כל התורה הזאת הנתונה ע"י משה רבנו ע"ה, שהיא כולה מפי הגבורה. כלומר, שהגיעה אליו כולה מאת ה' יתברך seems to point out a complete and divine text) but my question is more about whether the potentially heretical view of the Ibn Ezra would have been known to the Rambam before he composed his Ikkarim. – rosends Jun 05 '15 at 19:25
  • Maimonides was certainly aware of Ibn Ezra in general. He mentions him in a response to one of the Ibn Tibbons (R. Sh'muel?) when he describes Ibn Tibbon's father as a student of R. Avraham the great Rabbi of Posquierres, and of Ibn Ezra. In another letter attributed to Maimonides, (his ethical will if I recall), he tells his son to avoid the French commentators and focus on Ibn Ezra. This letter is generally regarded as a forgery. Dr. Twersky does however note in Introduciton to the Code of Maimonides, that Maimonides seems to have been significantly influenced by Ibn Ezra. – mevaqesh Jun 07 '15 at 22:27
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    @DoubleAA If you are referring to R. Weinbreg's explanation, see the comments there who note that this is far from an intuitive reading of Rambam (who emphasizes the holiness of each word in the ikkar). – mevaqesh Jun 07 '15 at 22:30
  • If you want Jewish precedent against which Maimonides might have been responding, Ibn Ezra himself quotes and rejects a Jewish commentator who held that passages were authored by Yehoshafat. Furthermore, Rambam repeatedly emphasizes that the whole Torah including the last 8 verses was authored by Moshe. The other opinion in Chazal provides further material against which he may have been attempting to counteract. There were also claims by R. Yehuda HaChassid (in his controversial Torah commentary) and other German rabbis that record that passages in Tehillim were lifted from the Torah. – mevaqesh Jun 07 '15 at 22:34
  • They lived at the same time of the Rambam and if he was aware of their view he may ave been in part reacting to it. – mevaqesh Jun 07 '15 at 22:36

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