Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/302

Rh 284 R A S R A S Preface, p. 13, and Steinschneider, ffebr. Handschr. in der kon. Bib. Berlin, p. 3. (4) Rtsponsa ; see, for example, Jtaban (Prague, 1610, folio), leaves 143, col. 2, to 146b, col. 1, and elsewhere. (5) Of his controversies with Christians nothing is left except what is occasionally to be found in his commentary on the Pentateuch. (6) On his book on the calendar calculations see Berliner Magazin, vii. p. 185. (7) On the true author of the commentary on Aboth, ascribed to Rashbam, see Taylor, Catal, No. 20. (8) Although the attack on his hemero-nyction theory (commentary on Gen. i. 4, 5) was made by Ibn 'Ezra (Iggereth Hasshabbath ; see Kerem Hemed, iv. pp. 159-173, and MibJtar Hammaamarim by Nathan b. Shemuel, printed at Leghorn in 1840, leaves 58a-66a) in Rash- barn's lifetime he seems not to have answered it. (S. M. S.-S.) RASHI ('"en), that is, RABBENU SHELOMOH YISHA^I (Solomon, son of Isaac), whence by Christian writers he is also called Isacides 1 (1040-1105), was the greatest rabbi of the Middle Ages. He is equally important for Biblical and Talmudic study, and in the former connexion as inter- esting to Christians as to Jews from the influence of his exegesis on Luther's Bible (through De Lyra ; see vol. xi. p. 601) and on the English version of the Old Testament (mainly through Ibn 'Ezra, and still more through Kimhi). Rashi is the most eminent of the "sages" or "great men of Lothaire" 2 (Tmi>, i.e., Lorraine) in whom culminated that movement of Jewish scholarship to which Charlemagne had given the first impulse. From the Jew Isaac, first in- terpreter and then ambassador in his famous mission to Hdrun ar-Rashid, Charlemagne had doubtless learned how superior in literary attainments the Jews of the East were to those of the West, and therefore he gave great privileges to the accomplished Makhirites 3 who were introduced into the south of France, and spread Jewish culture and litera- ture there. 4 Later on he brought from Rome to Mainz the Kalonymites, a family of distinguished Talmudists, poets, &c., of Lucca; 5 and soon Spires, Worms, and Mainz (spoken of as Shum, D"ltf ) became famous seats of Jewish learning; their ordinances (Takkanoth Shum) were of norm- ative authority for centuries, and the study of the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud steadily spread from southern Germany to northern France. Though Spires, Worms, and Mainz by the partition treaty of Verdun in 843 belonged to East Frankland, yet in Jewish literature Lothaire includes these cities ; and all the greatest doctors of Jewish lore in the south of Germany or north of France belong to the " great men " or " sages of Lothaire." 6 Rashi was born, in the year in which the last nominal gaon of Pumbaditha died, at Troyes, where his father Yishak was no doubt rabbi. R. Yishak was probably a disciple of R. Gershom ; certainly he was an eminent Talmudist. 7 His wife, Rashi's mother, was a sister of R. Shime'on hazzaken. 8 1 The interpretation of the * of V 'KH as meaning Yarchi (Jarchi), i.e., of Lunel, is not to be charged on Buxtorf, nor on Seb. Miinster, being already found hi the text of the Pugio Fidei of Raymundus Martini, written in the second half of the 13th century. 2 Lothaire never means Lhuitre (Luistre), as appears from the phrase Vni!> ni3^O, " realm of Lothaire." Instead of "ITT^ TJJ in Rashi's so-called Siddur, ii. leaf 33a, must be read *Vni? l| "iy, as will be easily seen from the context. 3 See Yohasin Hasshalem (London and Edinburgh, 1857, 8vo), p. 84. 4 Possibly also, like some princes of the 10th century, Charlemagne encouraged Jewish literature in order to keep at home the considerable sums which the Jews had been wont to send to the Babylonian geonim. 8 See 'Emek Habbakha, ed. Letteris (Vienna, 1852, 12mo), p. 13, and Wiener's German translation (Leipsic, 1858, 8vo), p. 8. Reshal's Responsa, xxix., is unfortunately corrupt in many places. 6 See Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 27200, leaf 24a. 7 This appears from an explanation quoted from him by his son on a passage of 'Abodah Zarah (f. 75a, catchword TpD N71). This treatise was at that time scarcely studied, even by eminent rabbis, and the explanation is markedly superior to one which Rashi also gives from R. Ya'akob b. Yakar, hitherto regarded as the most eminent of his teachers. 8 Not to be confounded with his older contemporary, the poet and Halakhist, Shime'on b. Yishak haggadol. The epithets "hazzaken " and " haggadol " both mean " the elder," but the epithet is varied {o distin- guish the persons. Her name is unknown, as is also that of the wife whor Rashi, according to Mishnic precept (Aboth, v. 21), married at the age of eighteen. Soon after his marriage, and with his wife's consent, he left her to prosecute his studies in Germany, returning home only from time to time. 9 She bore him no sons, but three daughters. 10 Rashi had at least six teachers, (1) his father; (2) R. Ya'akob b. Yakar (chief rabbi at Worms) for Bible and Talmud (Rashi on T. B., Pesahim, Ilia), a disciple of R. Gershom (Rashbam, ibid., and Siddur, ii. leaf lOa) and friend of R. Eli'ezer haggadol ; (3) his successor, R. Yishak Segan Leviyyah (T.B., Besah, 24b), a pupil of R. Eli'ezer haggadol ; (4) his mother's brother, already named (T.B., Shabbath, 85b); (5) R. Yishak b. Yehudah, also a pupil of R. Eli'ezer, and head of the community at Mainz (Pardes, xxi.) ; (6) R. Elyakim, head of the community at Spires (ibid., clix., clxxxi., ccxc., cccvi.). Besides the oral instruction of his teachers, Rashi had and used copies of, and commentaries on,' sundry parts of the Talmud written by these scholars themselves or by their teachers or disciples (T. B., Herakhoth, 39a, 57b ; Shabbath, lOb ; JR. Hasshanah, 28a; Sukkah, 45b ; Siddur, ii. leaf lOa). He had also before him all the Jewish literature existing and known at his time, as the Bible, part of the Apo- crypha, all the Targums, sundry cabbalistic works (Sepher Yeslrah, Hekhaloth, &C. 11 ), both Talmuds, the Midrashim, Sheeltoth, Halakhoth Gedoloth, Teshuboth Haggeonim, the works of R. Mosheh Haddarshan, the lexicographical works of Menahem b. Seruk and Donash b. Labrat, and, last but not least, the commentaries of R. Gershom, which he used largely, but mostly silently. 12 He also used the works of his own contemporaries, such as the *Arukh. 13 His studies completed, Rashi returned to his native town and opened a school for Bible and Talmud. His fame quickly rose ; disciples gathered round him from the whole north of France and south of Germany, and men in office, who had grown grey in study, addressed to him " religious ques- tions," his "answers" to which give us insight into his character, piety, and ability. 14 He died on 13th (not 26th) July 1105, 15 having already seen two of his grandsons "in- 9 See Hophes Matmonim, ed. Goldberg, p. 2 (Tl^Dt? "1X11X3 D"mi 10 They married three of their father's disciples. The husband of the eldest was, according to Schiller-Szinessy (Camb. Cat., ii. 88 sq., note 1), R. Simhah of Vitry-le-Frau9ais (ob. 1105), reputed author of the Mahzor Vitri, which, if the other MSS. so called have no better title to the name than that in the British Museum, Add. 27200-1, must now be regarded as lost (Taylor, Catal. MSS. of Aboth, &c., No. 20; Schiller-Sziuessy, op. cit., ii. 61 sq. ). The issue of this marriage was (1) R. Shema'yah of Soissons (see MISHNAH, vol. xvi. p. 506); (2) R. Shemuel, who married his cousin, Rashbam's only sister. Rashi's second daughter, Yokhebed, married R. Meir of Rameru (b. Shemuel), a brother of R. Simhah. He was father of four sons, (1) Ribam (R. Yishak b. Meir), who died in his father's lifetime ; (2) RASHBAM (q.v.) ; (3)'R.Tham or Rath; (4) R. Shelomoh (Br. Mus., Add. 27200, leaf 158b). The third daughter, Miryam, married R. Yehudah b. Nathan, who sup- plemented his father-in-law's commentary on Makkoth, and wrote the commentary that goes by Rashi's name on T. B., Nazir, &c. Their son's name was R. Yom Tob (Sepher Hayyashar, Vienna, 1810, 599). 11 See Rashi, T. B., Berakhoth, 51a ; Hoglgnh, 13a ; Sukkah, 45a ; and many other places. See also Siddur, ii. leaf 22b, col. 2 (on the reading of the Shema in bed). Such passages as Kiddushin, 71a, do not, when rightly understood, testify to the contrary. Rashi's "they" refers not to his contemporary teachers, but to those of the Talmud who "had not explained to us the Holy Names of the Twelve and Forty-two." It is therefore quite untrue that Rashi " knew nothing of kabbalah." 12 R. Gershom, " the light of the Diaspora " (see vol. xvi. p. 506), died in the year in which Rashi was born, and was the immediate teacher of his teachers. One of his commentaries is printed in the Shittah Mekubbeseth on Karethoth, Vienna, 1878, folio. 13 See T.B., Shabbath, 13b, catchword baiKH. 14 See Hophes Matmonim, p. 8. 15 See MS. De-Rossi (Roy. Libr., Parma) 175 (Catal., p. 116), and MS. Luzzatto (Literaturbl. d. Orients, vii. p. 418). This precious MS., which subsequently belonged to Halberstam of Bielitz, is now the property of the master of St John's College, Cambridge.