Who is Rashi?

Rashi’s legacy is incredibly powerful. From the 12th century onwards, his commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud had a considerable influence on the Jewish and Christian world: his teaching renewed the interpretation of the sacred texts and made them more accessible than ever before, since they attested to the many details of daily life and the state of the vernacular at the time (Champenois, a dialect of the langue d’oïl spoken in Champagne). In 1475, his commentary on the Bible became the first book to be printed in Hebrew. His disciples, the Tossafists, in northern France, then in the Rhineland and England, developed and refined his method and disseminated his teaching. Their writings bear witness to northern France and to European exchanges in the Middle Ages. From the 16th century onwards,the commentaries of Rashi and the Tossafists were systematically printed in editions of the Talmud, no other commentaries were so honoured. Without them, the Talmud would have remained impenetrable.

Rashi thus joined the ranks of the great thinkers who have shaped history and established himself as a spiritual leader in medieval Europe: he is one of the rare Jewish scholars to have influenced the Christian world, contemporary philosophers and writers and modern dialectical thought.

Rashi was a pioneer and visionary on issues such as gender equality, tolerance and freedom of expression. Driven by the quest for peace, he promoted justice as a means of resolving conflicts. He also promotes good relations between the Jewish and Christian communities. Curious, open-minded and a good listener, Rashi was a genius, a teacher and a humble person.

As a transmitter of history and memory, he was an important source of knowledge of the day-to-day realities, techniques and know-how of his time, and an astonishing vehicle for the transmission of the French language: he used more than two thousand words in Champenois in his commentaries to make them easier to read when a Hebrew word was difficult.

Rashi’s work encompasses the work of many generations before and after him. Originally, his school consisted mainly of his sons-in-law and grandsons. Among them were Jacob (Rabbeinou Tam) and Samuel (Rashbam), who achieved great renown. In the 12th century, they had many disciples who claimed to be of the same school. Some of them came from the Rhineland, Bohemia and Russia. They in turn copied, enriched and disseminated Rashi’s work and thought in Europe.

Rashi’s writings have always been the subject of numerous commentaries and super-commentaries in most European countries, particularly since the end of the 15th century with the invention of printing. These collections, stemming from his school of thought, were published mainly at the beginning of the 20th century.

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