Manuscript on parchment, commentary of the Ibn Ezra on the Torah, written by the scribe "Shevet Gad son of Yaakov". Kastoria (Macedonia, today Greece), 1381.
Thick volume. Impressive manuscript comprising 257 parchment leaves, in Oriental (Byzantine) script. The volume contains the commentary of the Ibn Ezra to the Five Books of the Torah (includes most of the commentary, save for several leaves). A detailed scribe's colophon appears at the end of the Book of Devarim, noting the year, place of writing and person for whom the manuscript was produced.
The colophon states (for full text of the colophon, see Hebrew description): "The Torah commentary by the great sage R. Avraham Ibn Ezra was completed… / Praise to the Creator of the World / By me, Shevet Gad son of Yaakov from the community of Kastoria, on Wednesday, 25th Tammuz 1381… as we are accustomed to counting the years, here in the community of Kastoria". Further in the colophon, the scribe indicates the name of the person who commissioned this book: "And the owner of the book is R. Moshko son of the late R. Chananya…".
The scribe "Shevet Gad son of Yaakov" is not known to have written any other manuscripts apart from this one ("Shevet Gad" seem to be his initials, or an allusion to his name), and the present manuscript is the earliest known manuscript scribed in Kastoria, Greece. Just one other manuscript from Kastoria is extant (BnF Paris, ms. 237), dated 1437, fifty-six years after the present manuscript.
A unique phenomenon occurring in this manuscript is the merging between the short and long commentary which the Ibn Ezra composed to the Book of Shemot. The long commentary is the one published in the printed editions (beginning from the first edition, Naples 1488), while the short commentary was only published for the first time in the 19th century (see below). Manuscripts of Ibn Ezra's commentary usually offer one of the two versions. Some manuscripts contain the short commentary, while others comprise the longer commentary. In this manuscript, both commentaries are combined. Paragraphs of the short and long commentaries appear one after the other, linked by conjunctions (the merging may have been executed by the scribe, who had manuscripts of both versions of the commentary before him). This phenomenon is not known from other manuscripts.
The present manuscript features textual variations compared to the printed commentary. These variances were not studied by us in-depth.
The present volume comprises the majority of the commentary to the Five Books of the Torah. The commentary is lacking at the beginning (starts with Bereshit chapter 3, verse 7), and several leaves are lacking in the middle. 26 leaves were erroneously bound at the beginning and end (after the colophon): the volume opens with 10 leaves comprising part of the commentary to Lech Lecha, and the commentary to Vayeira, Chayei Sarah and Toldot. 16 leaves containing the end of the commentary to Masei and the commentary to Devarim, Vaetchanan, Ekev, Re'eh, Shoftim and part of Ki Tetze were bound at the end of the manuscript.
A parchment leaf (damaged) was bound at the beginning of the manuscript – a fragment of a halachic composition following the order of the Torah portions (with a section of She'iltot of Rav Achai on Parashat Korach). At the end of the manuscript, two parchment leaves in a different hand were bound, from a manuscript on the Book of Iyov (chapters 6-9).
The names of the Parashiot were written in the upper margins, in a later script. Early ownership inscription at the foot of the colophon leaf: "A person should always write his name on his book…". The signature is faded and difficult to decipher.
[257] parchment leaves. 25 cm. Good condition. Stains, including dark stains and dampstains (affecting text in several places). Creases. Tears to several leaves (with loss and damage to text on first two leaves and a few other leaves). Margins of several leaves trimmed. Ink faded in several places. Original binding, front board detached, without spine.

The Jewish Community of Kastoria
The presence of Jews in Kastoria is documented as early as during the reign of Emperor Justinian. In the 11th century, the Jewish community of Kastoria was led by R. Toviah son of Eliezer, author of Lekach Tov, a collection of midrashim on the Torah (also known as Pesikta Zutrata). One of his disciples was R. Meir of Kastoria, author of Meor Einayim, midrash on the Torah (not extant. Both compositions are mentioned in the preface to the Ibn Ezra's commentary to the Torah. See Buber's introduction to Midrash Lekach Tov, Vilna 1880). During that time, Jewish refugees escaping the Crusaders settled there. Kastoria boasted several Jewish poets, including: R. Mordechai son of Shabtai HaAroch and R. Menachem son of Eliyah (active in the 12th and 13th centuries), R. Eliyah son of Avraham HeAluv, R. Avraham son of Yaakov and R. David son of Eliezer (active in the 14th century). Some of their piyyutim were preserved in Romaniote-rite machzorim, and in the special machzor following the rite of community of Kastoria – Machzor Kastoria (see: Yehuda Leib Weinberger, Malki MiKedem – Prayer by R. Menachem son of Eliyah of Kastoria, in: Yad LeHeiman, Studies in Hebrew Culture in Memory of A.M. Haberman, 1984, pp. 27-28). In the 14th century, the city was home to R. Yehuda Leon son of Moshe Mosconi, who composed Even HaEzer, supercommentary to Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Torah (extant in a single manuscript). In 1385 (some four years after this manuscript was scribed), Kastoria was conquered by the Ottoman empire, remaining under its rule until the First Balkan War in 1912, when it was seized by Greece. During WWII, Kastoria was occupied by the Germans, and in March 1944, the Kastorian Jewish community came to an end when the Jews were deported to Auschwitz.

The Ibn Ezra's Short and Long Commentary to the Book of Shemot
R. Avraham Ibn Ezra completed his famous commentary on the Torah in the city of Lucca, Italy, in 1142-1145. However, the Ibn Ezra later began composing an additional commentary to the Torah, in a different, longer format. It is known that he wrote an additional commentary to the Book of Bereshit, of which only fragments from the Torah portions of Bereshit, Noach and Lech Lecha are extant. In 1155-1157, in Rodom (presumably Rouen, northern France), the Ibn Ezra completed his second commentary to the book of Shemot. This commentary was much longer than his first commentary to the book of Shemot. The Ibn Ezra expands in it on points he did not explain in his first commentary, and occasionally retracts his opinion and offers a different explanation to what he wrote in the first commentary (see Uriel Simon, R. Avraham Ibn Ezra – The Short Commentary to the Torah, the Long Commentary to Bereshit and Shemot, and Fragments of the Oral Commentary to Bereshit, introduction to the Keter Mikraot Gedolot, Shemot Vol. I, Bar-Ilan University Press, 2012). The first manuscripts of Ibn Ezra's commentary to the Torah, include either the short or long commentary to the book of Shemot. The first printed edition of the commentary, published in Naples 1488, contains the long commentary to the book of Shemot, as do the following printed editions. For a few centuries, the short commentary was not known at all. Only in 1840 did R. Yitzchak Shmuel Reggio (Yashar) print the short commentary to the book of Shemot for the first time, yet most editions of the Chumash until this day still only offer the long commentary. As mentioned, this manuscript features a unique merging of both commentaries.