Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar רבי יעקב בן יקר
Rashi's principal teacher in Worms
Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar (d. 1064) headed the academy of Worms and was a student of Rabbeinu Gershom, the Light of the Exile. To him, at fourteen, came Shlomo ben Yitzchak of Troyes, the future Rashi—and spent with him the years that decided everything.
Rashi's commentary preserves his teacher's voice: "thus my old teacher explained to me", "but my teacher said otherwise". The tradition of his humility is also remembered: he swept the floor of the study house himself before the Sabbath. Through him the line of Rabbeinu Gershom—that is, the whole early Ashkenazi school—entered the commentary that the whole Jewish world would later read.
The sources give no exact years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman and the lists of Seder haDorot.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Rashi, Commentary on the Talmud, passim — «thus my old teacher explained to me»
- Sefer haKabbalah and the lists of the Ashkenazi academies — the headship of Worms and the line from Rabbeinu Gershom
Basis: documents and evidence.