Let us recall that for centuries, the faith of the Jewish people had been subjected to harsh trials in many lands. But never before with the same forceful cruelty as in Rashi’s century. There were powerful elements within Christendom for whom the conversion of the Jews represented a supreme duty.
The Crusades did not come about suddenly like a clap of thunder. The groundwork had been laid by a social and religious anti-Semitism, by a noxious and sometimes lethal poison that bides its time and then strikes.
Usually the Jews resisted temptations and threats. But there were exceptions: voluntary conversions.
Rashi had to answer a question concerning a converted man who chose to return to the Jewish faith: what was the proper attitude to have toward him?
In fact, the Troyes community had already raised this problem much earlier in a letter to Rabbenu Gershom, the Light of Exile. A man who had converted voluntarily, a Cohen—hence a descendant from the line of Aaron—repented. Should he be allowed to take up his previous life? Could tradition be followed and could he be summoned to read the Torah before the others? The Cohens also have the task of blessing the assembly. Should this man be allowed to do so?
Rabbenu Gershom’s answer was positive in both cases. His argument, of a general character, is simple and human. He is against any discrimination or humiliation of the reformed man and his family if he was coerced into converting. (This happened to his very own son.) Worse: whoever reminds him of his baptism will be banished forever. Having recovered his rights as a Jew, all the biblical and Talmudic laws are applicable; they must be protected and respected. But if he converted voluntarily, not under duress, from inner conviction, he will be treated more harshly. By choosing apostasy in good conscience he excluded himself from the community of Israel. And then, having become an example, he will have crossed the point of no return.
Let us not forget: the number of forced and voluntary conversions at the time was very great. The spiritual leaders were duty-bound to remedy the situation by helping only the former to return, reintegrate into their communities, take their place in it, submit to their obligations, and reconquer their rights. After all, doesn’t the Talmud state that a Jew, even one who is at fault and a sinner, remains a Jew?
Rashi adopted the same line. Was it because of the Crusades, which, for the past six years, led to the shedding of Jewish blood wherever they appeared, with the sound and fury of unleashed fanaticism?
Rashi, whose leniency toward the victims was without bounds, does everything possible to safeguard their Jewish faith, even if secrecy has to be maintained temporarily.
He asks why galbanum, with its bad odor, was added to the incense of the Temple in Jerusalem? In order to teach us that even sinners belong to the community of Israel: together, their common prayers rise to heaven. The repentant transgressor is our brother. God is the God of us all. And we are His people.
We are back to our initial theme. Amar Rabbi Yitzhak, Rabbi Yitzhak says: why does the Torah start with the story of the genesis of the world rather than the first law?
This is better understood if we place Rashi’s oeuvre and thought in its historical context.
On the one hand, Rome was saying to the Jews: come to us; you are no longer God’s people; we are His people. It is we who carry His word, His promise. But Rashi is entitled to say: so long as a Jew remains faithful to God, God remains faithful to him.
And on the other hand?
At the time, Christians and Muslims were at war over the ownership of a small strip of land called Palestine. Each side sacrificed their sons to possess it. So the Jew Rashi reminds them of this ancient legend:
One day the nations of the world will tell the Jews, this land is ours; you stole it from us. And we will reply: the land belongs to God; He alone has the right to say who will live there. And He gave this land to us.
As mentioned already, Rashi completed his biblical commentaries, but not his Talmudic ones. They were completed by his close disciples.
The expression “kaan niftar rabenu,” “here, in this spot, our Teacher died,” or “kaan hifsik rabenu,” “here our Teacher interrupted his work,” occurs three times in his commentary of the Talmud. In Tractate Baba Batra, the text is clear: “What preceded was Rashi’s commentary; what follows is that of his grandson, Rashbam.” In the Pizarro edition, the information is more explicit: “Here Rashi left this world.” In Tractate Makkot (criminal punishment), the rhythm of the text is suddenly interrupted: “Our Teacher who lived and worked, pure in body and soul, ended his task here. From now on, it is Rabbi Yehuda bar Nathan who is speaking.” In Tractate Pesahim (Passover), the interruption is more succinct: “This is the commentary of Rabbi Shmuel, Rashi’s disciple.”
It is clear: Rashi had interrupted his work several times.
The last years of his life were trying. Was it because of the depressing news that came from communities not so far away? He became ill. He had difficulty writing. Often he dictated his responsa, to Rabbi Azriel or Rabbi Yosef, for instance. He said so in his letters: “I don’t have the strength to hold a pen in my hand.” But even in a world where, in some places, because of ancient, hate-filled, brutal reasons, Death is glorified, his message remains alive and an admirable celebration of life.
CHRONOLOGY
586 BCE The Kingdom of Judah is defeated by the Babylonians and its leaders exiled to Babylon.
539 BCE The Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, having defeated the Babylonian Empire, allows exiled Jews to begin to return to the Land of Israel and undertake rebuilding the Temple.
458 BCE Ezra, a leader of Jews who has been exiled in Babylonia, returns to the land of Israel with his followers. Also institutes the practice of publicly reading the Torah in synagogue.
C. 300–250 BCE Emergence of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible, composed for the benefit of Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria.
70 CE The Roman emperor Titus crushes the Jewish revolt in Jerusalem, destroying the Temple. Jews are sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire, some as far as France; the rabbinic leadership reconvenes in the city of Yavneh in northern Israel, where they establish their academy.
CA. 77 Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian and commander in the war against Rome who, after his capture by the Romans, became a favorite of the emperor, writes The Jewish War, his history of the war against Rome.
CA. 100 Onkelos, a proselyte and contemporary of the Rabban Gamliel and Eliezer ben Hyracnus, prominent rabbis of the Mishnah, translates the Bible into Aramaic, the common language of Jews at that time. Onkelos’s Aramaic translation, which by necessity contains interpretation, is still printed as one of the standard commentaries on the Torah.
CA. 200 Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi codifies the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish Law derived from the Torah.
928 Saadiah ben Joseph, an Egyptian-born scholar then living in Babylonia, appointed head or gaon of the Talmud academy in Sura, Babylonia, one of the two cities which were then the centers of Jewish scholarship. He was the creator of rabbinic literature, author of important works on halakhah, as well as one of the first Jewish philosophers. He also translated the Bible into Arabic, and was an important compiler of liturgy and author of piyyutim (liturgical poems).
CA. 950 Birth of Shimon bar Yitzhak, one of the earliest German authors of liturgical poems, colleague of Rabbenu Gershom, the famed German rabbi and leader of Western European Jewry, and uncle of Rashi.
CA. 950–960 Menahem ben Jacon ibn Saruq, Spanish author and lexicographer, writes Mahberet, a Hebrew-language dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic; it is used by scholars throughout Europe.
CA. 960 Dunash ben Librat, a Hebrew poet and lexicographer, attacks ibn Saruq’s Mahberet on the grounds that some of its definitions may lead to heresy; the controversy continues for generations, well into the time of Rashi and his descendants.
CA. 11th century Rabbi Yosef bar Shmuel Tov-elem Bonfils, born in Narbonne, France. An author of piyyutim and influential halakhic decisions, he
is the first French rabbi who can be identified beyond his name.
1012 Jews briefly expelled from Mainz.
CA. 1021 Birth of Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol, great Spanish philosopher and author of both religious and secular poetry.
1028 Death of Rabbenu Gershom ben Judah Meor ha-Golah, in Mainz. Rabbenu Gershom’s most famous decisions, prohibiting polygamy and the reading of private letters, are known throughout the Ashkenazic world. Rabbenu Gershom’s students, Rabbi Yitzhak ben Yehuda and Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar, who will be Rashi’s teachers, take over the yeshiva.
1038 Shmuel ha-Nagid, the halakhist and leader of Spanish Jewry, becomes vizier of Granada, then under Muslim rule.
1040 Solomon ben Isaac, later known as Rashi, born in Troyes, France.
1064 Death of Rashi’s favorite teacher, Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar, who had been a disciple of Rabbenu Gershom. In Rashi’s commentaries he is identified as “my teacher in Scripture.”
CA. 1070 Rashi founds a school in Troyes.
CA. 1089 Birth of Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, in Tudela, Spain. Ibn Ezra will go on to become one of the most significant Hebrew poets and biblical commentators, a major proponent of the peshat school of exegesis.
1095 Pope Urban II preaches that Christian soldiers should retake Jerusalem from the Muslims, initiating what will be the First Crusade. Christian soldiers set off for the Holy Land, massacring Jews in France, the Rhineland, and Bohemia along the way.
1099 Crusader Godfrey of Boullon conquers Jerusalem, massacring Jews and Karaites.
1105 Rashi dies. His grandson and disciple Shmuel ben Meir, known as the Rashbam, one of the most prominent Tosafists, completes Rashi’s commentary on several tractates of the Talmud.
1138 Birth of Moses ben Maimon, known as Maimonides or Rambam, the great Spanish philosopher, commentator, writer, and codifier of halakhah and physician to Saladin, as well as nagid, leader, of all Jews under Saladin’s empire.
1141 Death of Judah ha-Levi, the great Hebrew poet, philosopher, and friend of Abraham ibn Ezra. Born in Spain, he died in the land of Israel.
1144 The first blood libel takes place in Norwich, England.
1146 The passage of the Second Crusade through France causes one of Rashi’s grandsons, Jacob ben Meir, known as Rabbenu Tam, to leave his home in Ramerupt, France. The greatest scholar of his generation, Rabbenu Tam wrote extensive responsa as well as Hebrew poetry and grammar.
1150 Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan of Mainz, a leading German rabbinical authority, together with Rabbenu Tam and Rashbam, composes Takkanot Troyes, the Ordinance of Troyes, the directives governing the Jews of that community.
1190 Saladin reconquers Jerusalem from the Crusaders, permits Jewish resettlement.
1194 Birth in Spain of Moses ben Nachman, known as Nachmanides or Ramban, a major philosopher, Talmudist, and Kabbalist whose biblical commentary appears in the standard texts with that of Rashi. His teachers were trained by the Tosafists of northern France, the school of Rashi’s disciples.
CA. 1205–1218 The Radak, Rabbi David Kimhi, a grammarian and exegete in Narbonne, France, participates in the judgment of several men from Barcelona who dishonored Rashi’s memory.
1288 A blood libel in Troyes leads to the execution of thirteen Jews, inspiring laments by the Hebrew-French poet Jacob ben Judah of Lorraine, who witnessed the event.
1322 Nicholas de Lyre, a Christian biblical commentator and theologian, begins to publish his Postillae Perpetuae, the first Christian Bible commentary to be printed. He relies heavily on Rashi, whom he also translated into Latin.
CA. 1470 Birth of Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno, a major Italian biblical commentator.
1475 First known printed Hebrew book is produced in Italy. A Bible with Rashi’s commentary, it uses a cursive script typeface for Rashi’s comments, a typeface that will come to be known as “Rashi script.”
1503 Don Isaac Abrabanel, a Portuguese-born financier and biblical exegete who had fled Portugal and Spain rather than convert to Christianity, settles in Venice where he will continue to write his commentaries on the Bible.
1517 Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer of Hebrew books, publishes Mikra’ot Gedolot, a Hebrew Torah with commentary by Rashi, ibn Ezra, and others. Establishes the convention of printing the commentaries in “Rashi script.” He goes on to publish the Talmud, also with commentaries in Rashi script, including those of Rashi and his grandsons, the Tosafists.
1614 Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann ha-Levi Heller, a purported descendant of Rashi, begins to publish his commentary on the Mishnah, the Tosafot Tom Tov.
1649 Rabbi Isaiah ben Abraham ha-Levi Horowitz, a purported descendant of Rashi, publishes his Shnei Luchot ha-Brit, a guide to ethical life combining halakhah, kabbalah, and moral instruction
CA. 1735 Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Ba’al Shem Tov, founds the Hasidic movement, which stresses ecstatic prayer and mysticism. His influence soon spreads among the Jews of Eastern Europe.
1772 Birth of Nahman of Bratzlav, who will go on to be a major Hasidic thinker.
1791 Emancipation of the Jews of France.
1895 Albert Dreyfus, a Jewish captain on the French Army General Staff, convicted of treason and publicly demoted on a tide of French anti-Semitism. He was exonerated in 1906.
June 1940 France surrenders to the German army. The country is divided into two zones; the north is under direct German control, and the south is ruled by a French puppet government based in Vichy.
November 1942 Germans take control of all of France. Deportations of Jews increase. More than eighty thousand Jews from France, both native French and Jewish immigrants to France, are killed at Auschwitz by the end of the war. Many more Jews suffer greatly in work camps and forced labor battalions.
May 14, 1948 Founding of the State of Israel.
1989 Rashi Institute, dedicated to Jewish scholarship, opens in Troyes.
GLOSSARY
Aramaic A Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Arabic, which flourished in the Mesopotamian world in different forms from approximately 700 BCE to the middle of the first millennium CE, and is still spoken by small groups in Lebanon, Turkey, and Kurdistan. The language of the Talmud and other important Jewish texts, Aramaic was used for rabbinic writings through the thirteenth century CE.
Ashkenazi Originally referred to Jews from Germany; eventually generalized to include all Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.
Belaaz From the Hebrew be, “in,” and lo’ez, “foreign.” Laaz eventually came to be associated with Romance languages, so the term belaaz is used to introduce a translation from Hebrew into one of those languages. Frequently used by Rashi to refer to Old French.
Blood libel The anti-Jewish slander, first appearing in Norwich, England, in 1144, that Jews kill Christian children and use their blood for ritual purposes, especially on Passover. This slander occasionally still surfaces and has been the pretext for anti-Jewish violence over the centuries, leading to much death and destruction.
Diaspora The Jewish communities outside the land of Israel. After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70 CE, most Jews were exiled from the land of Israel, but they never ceased to long to return to the land.
Drash One of the four traditional methods of exegesis, referring to an interpretive commentary on a biblical verse.
Gaonic period From the end of the sixth through the middle of the eleventh century, the period during which the geonim, the leaders of the yeshivas of Sura and Pumpedita in Babylonia, were the accepted legal authorities of the Jewish world.
Mahzor Vitry A guide to liturgy and halakhah written by Rashi’s student, Simhah ben Shmuel of Vitry. Mahzor Vitry is based on Rashi’s halakhic rulings for the liturgy of the entire cycle of holidays, including Shabbat, and is also a valuable record of Jewish life in France in Rashi’s time.
Mainz A city on the Rhine River in Germany, capital of the Rhineland region and site of Jewish settlement from at least the mid-tenth century. Mainz is 282 miles northeast of Troye
s.
Midrash A method of exegesis of biblical texts; a legal, exegetical, or homeletical commentary on the Bible. Also refers to the collections thereof.
Mishnah The collection of rabbinic legal opinions redacted by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, around the year 220. The Mishnah is the primary text of Jewish law or halakhah. It is divided into six orders, sedarim, which are further divided into sixty-three tractates.
Mitzvot Hebrew for commandments (singular is mitzvah), referring to God’s commandments. Used colloquially to refer to “good deeds.”
Peshat One of the four traditional methods of biblical exegesis, focusing on the simple or literal meaning of the text. This was Rashi’s preferred means of explanation.
Remez One of the four traditional methods of biblical exegesis, focusing on the allusive level of meaning.
Responsa The term for the continually evolving body of Jewish legal decisions developed as responses to questions posed to rabbis.
Sefer Torah The scroll of the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch), read in synagogue.
Shekhinah The Divine presence. Shekhinah, which is a feminine noun, often refers to the feminine attributes of God.
Sod One of the four traditional methods of biblical exegesis, referring to the mystical meaning of the text.
Talmud A collection of rabbinic legal rulings and teachings compiled in the fifth century. The Talmud comprises the Mishnah, the rabbinic opinions codified at the beginning of the third century by Rabbi Judah the Prince, and the Gemara, which is a rabbinic interpretation of the Mishnah as well as a host of other discussions, from the third through fifth centuries. Rabbinic academies in Babylonia and in Israel developed their own Talmuds; the Babylonian Talmud is generally considered more authoritative than the Jerusalem Talmud. The central text of Jewish law, the Talmud is usually printed accompanied by later commentaries, including Rashi’s.