  The term shiqqul ha-da‘at (rational analysis, literally, “weighing [in the balance of] reason”) is used in the broad sense of reason or rationality. In the introduction to his commentary to the Torah, Ibn Ezra writes: “rational analysis (shiqqul ha-da‘at) is the foundation, because the Torah was not given to those devoid of reason; and the go-between (mal’akh, ‘angel’ or ‘messenger’) between man and his God is his intellect.” Soon after (gloss to Genesis 1:2) the same term is used in what could again be taken as a strictly astronomical or scientific context: “People who employ rational analysis have sure proofs that there is only one earth.” Ibn Ezra was far better grounded in the exact sciences than he was in philosophy, and this fact is reflected in his usage of filosofim and shiqqul ha-da‘at.