Rashi and His Commentary on the Bible and Talmud
A winegrower from Troyes writes the commentary without which neither the Chumash nor a page of Talmud has since been opened.
Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak was born in Troyes, Champagne, in 4800. As a young man he went to study on the Rhine, in Worms and Mainz, with the disciples of Rabbeinu Gershom; returning home he opened his own yeshiva and lived from a vineyard. He had no sons, only three daughters who married his students; their children would found the school of the Tosafot.
He undertook what no one had attempted: to explain everything. A commentary on the Torah and nearly all the Bible, and a commentary on the Talmud, page by page from the opening line. His method is deceptively simple. He does not argue or display; he takes a hard word and translates it, often into Old French, and these glosses now serve scholars as a source for medieval French. He clarifies who is speaking and to whom. He cites midrash, but only what 'settles on the verse.' He writes honestly 'I do not know' and leaves the question open.
His Talmud commentary made the Gemara accessible: before Rashi one could learn only from a living teacher; after him, from a book. The first printed Hebrew book (Reggio di Calabria, 5235) was Rashi's commentary. His text stands on the inner margin of every Talmud page and beneath every verse of the Chumash.
How we know
Sources
Rishonim
- Rashi on Bereishit 3:8 — “I have come only for the plain sense” — the rule of his method
- Rashi on Shemot 6:9 — how he chooses between the plain sense and the midrash
- Ramban, preface to his commentary on the Torah — “his is the right of the firstborn”: Ramban’s assessment
Scholarship
- Rashbam on Bereishit 37:2 — his grandson’s testimony: Rashi himself spoke of new plain readings
Basis: tradition.
People and places
Rabbeinu Gershom · Rashi · Rabbeinu Tam · Troyes · Worms · Mainz · Tefillin · Midrash · Rishonim · Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar · Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yehuda · Rivan—Rabbi Yehuda ben Natan · Rashbam · Rabbi Meir ben Samuel of Ramerupt · Rabbi Joseph Kara · Rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan of Narbonne · Rabbi Yosef Tov Elem