They did not fail,
it is true, occasionally to dispute it. This was the case with
Abraham Ibn Ezra, who possibly came to know Rashi's works during
his sojourn in France, and combated Rashi's grammatical
explanations without sparing him his wonted sharp-edged
witticisms. To Abraham Ibn Ezra has been attributed the following
poem in Rashi's honor, without doubt wrongfully so, although
Abraham Ibn Ezra never recoiled from contradictions.
A star hath arisen on the horizon of France and shineth afar.
Peaceful it came, with all its cortege, from Sinai and Zion.
.... The blind he enlightens, the thirsty delights with his
honey-comb,
He whom men call Parshandata, the Torah's clear interpreter.
All doubts he solves, whose books are Israel's joy,
Who pierceth stout walls, and layeth bare the law's mysterious
sense.
For him the crown is destined, to him belongeth royal homage.
When one sees with what severity and injustice Abraham Ibn Ezra
treats the French commentator, one may well doubt whether this
enthusiastic eulogy sprang from his pen, capricious though we
know him to have been. "The Talmud," he said, "has declared that
the Peshat must never lose its rights. But following generations
gave the first place to Derash, as Rashi did, who pursued this
method in commenting upon the entire Bible, though he believed he
was using Peshat. In his works there is not one rational
explanation out of a thousand.
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