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RASHI (1040•-1105)
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See also:RASHI (1040•-1105) , Jewish See also:scholar. See also:RABBI See also:SOLOMON IZHAQI (son of See also:Isaac), usually cited as Rashi from the See also:initials of those words, was See also:born at See also:Troyes in 1040 and died in the same See also:town in 1105. Legends concerning him are many. Isaac's wife, shortly before the See also:birth of their famous son, was walking one See also:day down a narrow See also:street in See also:Worms, when two vehicles moving in opposite directions seemed about to crush her. As she leant hopelessly against a See also:wall, it miraculously See also:fell in-wards to make a See also:niche for her. So with his See also:education. See also:Legend sends the student to See also:southern See also:France, and even on a tour of the See also:world. At an See also:inn in the Orient he cured a sick See also: Within this, it is said, Rashi was wont to See also:teach. A small edifice on the See also:east of the See also:synagogue is called the " Rashi See also:Chapel," and the "Rashi See also:Chair," raised on three steps in the niche, is one of the See also:objects of the pious admiration of pilgrims. At Worms Rashi worked under See also:Jacob See also:ben Yaqar, and at See also:Mainz under Isaac ben See also:Judah, perhaps combining at the same See also:time the functions of teacher and student. Besides the oral tuition that he received, the See also:medieval See also:schools habitually kept the notes of former teachers. From these Rashi learned much, and probably he incorporated some of these notes in his own works. In the See also:middle ages there was a See also:communism in learning, but if Rashi used some of the stones quarried and drafted by others, it was to his See also:genius that the finished edifice was due. Rashi was twenty-five years of See also:age when he returned to Troyes, which town thenceforward eclipsed the cities of Lorraine and became the recognized centre of Jewish learning. Rashi acted as rabbi and See also:judge, but received no See also:salary. Not till the 14th See also:century were Jewish rabbis paid officials. Rashi and his See also:family worked in the vines of Troyes (in the See also:Champagne); in his letters he describes the structure of the See also:wine-presses. His learning and See also:character raised him to a position of high respect among the Jewries of See also:Europe, though See also:Spain and the East were See also:long outside the range of his See also:influence. As was said of him soon after his See also:death: " His lips were the seat of See also:wisdom, and thanks to him the See also:Law, which he examined and interpreted, has come to See also:life again." His posterity included several famous names, those of his grandchildren. Rashi had no sons, but his three daughters were See also:women of culture, and two of the sons of Jochebed (see See also:RASHBAM and See also:TAM), as well as others of his descendants, carried on the family tradition for learning, adding lustre to Rashi's fame. The latter See also:part of Rashi's life was saddened by the incidents connected with the first Crusade. Massacres occurred in the Rhine-lands. According to legend, Rashi and See also:Godfrey of See also:Bouillon—of the foremost leaders of the Crusade—were intimate See also:friends. Rashi died peacefully in Troyes in 1105. Rashi was the most conspicuous medieval representative of the Jewish spirit. A century later See also:Maimonides was to give a new turn to Jewish thought, by the assimilation of Aristotelianism with Mosaism, but Rashi was a traditionalist pure and See also:simple. He was in no sense a philosopher, but he exemplified in his See also:person and in his works the stored up wisdom of the Synagogue. Yet through all that he wrote there runs a vein of originality. Besides See also:minor works, such as a recension of the See also:Prayer-See also:Book (Siddur), the Pardes and ha-0rah, Rashi wrote two See also:great commentaries on which his fame securely rests. These were the commentaries. on the whole of the See also:Hebrew See also:Bible and on about See also:thirty See also:treatises of the See also:Talmud. His commentary on the See also:Pentateuch, in particular, has been printed in hundreds of See also:editions; it is still to Jews the most beloved of all commentaries on the See also:Mosaic books. More than a
See also:hundred supercommentaries have been written on it. Rashi unites See also:homily with grammatical exegesis in a manner which explains the See also:charm of the commentary. His influence in Christian circles was great, especially because of the use made of the commentary by Nicolaus de See also:Lyra (q.v.), who in his turn was one of the See also:main See also:sources of See also:Luther's version. Even more important was Rashi's commentary on the Talmud, which became so acknowledged as the definitive See also:interpretation that Rashi is cited simply under the epithet of " the Commentator." It is no exaggeration to assert that the See also:modern world owes its See also:power to understand the Talmud to Rashi. In this See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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