RAŠI (abbreviation for Rabbi Šelomoh Jishāqi). - Celebrated Jewish exegete, born at Troyes in 1040 into a family distinguished for piety and learning, died there in 1105.
He studied at Worms in Germany; at the age of 25 he founded a Talmudic academy at Troyes, to which scholars came from many European countries. The income he derived from agriculture and vine cultivation enabled him to teach without charge. He commented on almost the whole Bible (except Ezra, Nehemiah, Paralipomenon, and certain parts of Ezekiel and Job), and likewise on almost the whole Talmud, except for certain treatises or parts of some of them. He composed various liturgical texts. In his commentary on the Tārāh he combines literal with moralizing explanation. As regards grammar, he follows Mēnāhēm ben Sarāq and Dōnāh ibn Labrat, though independently; he gave the French rendering of three thousand words, transcribed in Hebrew letters, of interest to historians of the French language. His commentary on the Talmud is sober, learned, and acute; in it he also attends to textual criticism and takes account of eighty of the most ancient manuscripts and commentaries. He avoids philosophical disquisitions and simplifies prescriptive discussions. His commentaries exerted great influence on certain Christian exegetes, among them Niccolò Lyra. Berliner published a separate edition of R.'s commentary on the Pentateuch in 1866 (2nd ed. 1905).