Rashi (acronym for Rabbi Shelomoh Yishāqi)

RASHI (acronym for Rabbi Shelomoh Yishāqi). - Famous Jewish exegete, b. at Troyes in 1040 into a family distinguished for piety and learning, d. there in 1105.

He studied at Worms in Germany; at the age of 25 he founded a Talmudic academy at Troyes, to which scholars from many European countries flocked. The income he drew from agriculture and viticulture allowed him to exercise his teaching office free of charge. He commented on almost the entire Bible (with the exception of Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles and some parts of Ezekiel and Job) and likewise on almost the entire Talmud, with the exception of certain treatises or parts of some of them. He composed various liturgical texts. In his commentary on the Tārāh he combines literal explanation with moralizing explanation. As regards grammar, he follows Mēnāhēm ben Sarāq and Dōnāh ibn Labrat, though independently; for three thousand words he gave the French version, transcribed in Hebrew letters, of interest to historians of the French language. His commentary on the Talmud is sober, erudite and acute, and in it he also attends to textual criticism and takes into account eighty of the oldest manuscripts and commentaries. He avoids philosophical disquisitions and simplifies preceptive discussions. His commentaries exercised great influence on certain Christian exegetes, among them Nicholas of Lyra. Berliner made a separate edition of R.'s commentary on the Pentateuch in 1866 (2nd ed. 1905).

Eugenio Zolli