Rashi:A Gift to the Jewish People
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SpecialSection RASHI: A GIFT TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE By Berel Wein This year marks the nine hun- tri-community of Speyers, Worms and The students recorded their teach- dredth anniversary of the death of Mainz to study at the great yeshivah ers’ lectures in Kuntrus Mainz, the note- Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (who died on founded by Rabbeinu Gershom Meor book of Mainz. This “notebook” even- Tammuz 29, 4865 [July 13, 1105]), HaGolah. Rashi’s three main teachers tually served as the basis for Rashi’s known throughout the centuries by the great commentary to the Talmud. In acronym Rashi. If there is anyone in fact, Rashi published the first draft of Jewish life that has achieved immortali- The conciseness, his commentary to the Talmud (there ty it is Rashi. He is the guiding hand, were three) anonymously under the the gentle teacher, the unobtrusive clarity and simplicity simple title Kuntrus. (Preserved over the commentator who simplifies and of his writings reflect ages, the Kuntrus appears in incomplete explains, and inspires all who study form in the Vilna edition of the Talmud Torah. As my young grandson once the serenity, humility as the commentary of Rabbeinu asked me, “Zaidi, what Rashi did Rashi and simplicity of his Gershom.) In later generations, Rashi have when he studied?” One simply own being. himself would be referred to as Kuntrus. cannot imagine the Jewish world with- While yet in the yeshivah, Rashi out Rashi’s contribution. married. Almost nothing is known Rashi was born in Troyes, France, about his wife, and it is believed that in 1040. Tradition holds that that he there—Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar, Rabbi that she died at a young age, leaving was a scion of the royal family of King Yitzchak HaLevi and Rabbi Yitzchak Rashi a widower for many decades. David. At a young age, he went to the ben Yehudah (Hazakein)—were direct Rashi had two daughters, Miriam and disciples of Rabbeinu Gershom himself. Yocheved. A popular legend claims that Rabbi Wein is the director of Destiny Students in the yeshivah used to he had a third daughter, Rachel, who Foundation, a media outreach organiza- spend the month of Elul copying the married a great scholar but later tion. He is also a Talmud lecturer at tractates of the Talmud that were to be divorced him. However, most current Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem and studied that year. It was there that scholars do not believe the legend to be a columnist for The Jerusalem Post. He is Rashi acquired his amazing skill at true. Both of Rashi’s sons-in-law were the mara d’Atra of Beit Knesset Hanassi, speedwriting and his penchant for noted Torah scholars (Miriam married Young Israel in Rechavia, Jerusalem. meticulously editing Talmudic texts. Rabbi Yehudah ben Natan [Rivan], and 42 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5765/2005 Yocheved married Rabbi Meir ben that the medieval Church placed on ed unfairly by their families in regard to Shmuel), and are quoted in Tosafot in Jews to convert, Rashi repeats over and matters such as inheritance or divorce, numerous places in the Talmud. Rashi over in his writings that “a Jew who has he rose to their defense. Rashi support- treated his daughters as sons, teaching sinned is still a Jew” (Sefer Haorah, pt. ed maintaining the customs of Israel, them Torah and Talmud in an age 2, sec. 130, p. 220; ibid., sec. 116, p. although he disparaged those traditions when most women were illiterate. 216; Teshuvot Maimonit, Sefer Nashim, that brought divisiveness into the com- Rashi’s daughters helped him transcribe sec. 29). He even welcomed former munity. (See Sefer Haorah, pt. 2, sec. his commentaries and even offered apostates back into the fold of Jewish 38, p. 190; ibid., sec. 1, p. 170.) He opinions on Torah and halachah. life. He states: was a rock of stability for the commu- Rashi was especially close to his In our exile we are not independ- nity during a very trying time. grandsons. After Rashi’s death, the eld- ent; we must engage in commerce with In 1096, towards the end of his est grandson, Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir the non-Jewish society since our … life, Rashi witnessed the horrors of the (Rashbam), completed the third edition income is from them. And we are justly in First Crusade. His mentors and col- of his grandfather’s commentary to fear of them [and cannot provoke them]. leagues in Speyers, Worms and Mainz some of the tractates of the Talmud. (Avodah Zarah 11b). were slaughtered, and the great yeshivah Rashi’s youngest grandson, Rabbi Despite the hostile Christian envi- Yaakov ben Meir (Rabbeinu Tam), was ronment of his day, Rashi attempted to of Rabbeinu Gershom was destroyed. still a child when Rashi died, but was maintain cordial relations with the Through the efforts of the local bishop, nevertheless profoundly influenced by Christians and their clergy. whom Rashi had befriended, the Jewish him. The greatest of the Tosafists, community of Troyes was spared the Rabbeinu Tam, was at the same time an ravages of the Crusade. However, Rashi exacting critic of Rashi in many areas mourned the fate of French Jewry, cor- and his staunchest defender against the Rashi’s words and rectly sensing that within two centuries criticism of others. Rashi’s family and insights remain as it would cease to exist because of inces- descendents were known as “the house sant pogroms and expulsions. After of Rashi,” and in subsequent genera- fresh and relevant Rashi’s death in 1105, the Jewish com- tions it was deemed a great honor to be today as they were munity in France began to decline, associated with that “house.” on the day they were although descendants and students of Rashi was a vintner. Even a curso- written. the great commentator worked on com- ry review of his commentaries reveals pleting his monumental teachings in his immense knowledge and curiosity France well into the thirteenth century. regarding fields including agriculture, Perhaps Rashi’s greatest legacy is animal husbandry, tool making, com- Rashi objected to unnecessary his commentary to Chumash—the mercial law and transactions, anatomy, stringencies in halachah. As he once Written Torah itself. Rabbi Abraham botany, rudimentary medicine and wrote to his teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Ibn Ezra, himself a noted Biblical com- mathematics. HaLevi: mentator, rejected the commentaries of Rashi was not only the greatest My master, one should not go to the French scholars and strongly criti- scholar of his time, he was a great holy great lengths to increase problems with the cized their works. Yet he made a rever- man as well. In later generations he kashrut of meat and thereby cause mone- ent exception regarding Rashi and his became known as Rashi HaKadosh— tary damage to Jews … doing so will commentary, calling Rashi “parshanda- the holy Rashi. The conciseness, clarity mean that there will never be any meat ta”—the great and unique commenta- that is deemed kosher (Sefer Hapardes, and simplicity of his writings reflect the tor. serenity, humility and simplicity of his sec. 228). For some nine hundred years, own being. Untroubled by philosophic People who wished to fast two Jews from early childhood to scholarly problems or intellectual doubts, Rashi days in order to correctly observe Yom maturity have studied the Torah with had a simple, deep faith in God, a faith Kippur in the exile were chastised by Rashi’s commentary with love, awe and that helped him overcome the chal- Rashi: “A fool walks in the darkness,” faithfulness. Phrases in the commentary lenges of eleventh-century French he states. Jewish life. His love of the Jewish peo- Rashi was reticent to decide have entered the everyday language of ple and humankind shine forth from halachic matters unilaterally. However, Jews everywhere. Rashi’s words and his commentary. He never criticized when there was an issue of chillul insights remain as fresh and as relevant others even when he disagreed with Hashem—the desecration of God’s today as they were on the day they were their explanations or decisions. name—he was vocal. Especially when written. Rashi was, and is, God’s gift to Cognizant of the terrible pressures Rashi felt that women were being treat- the Jewish people. JA Summer 5765/2005 JEWISH ACTION 43.