Rashi

An exegete is someone who interprets a text, especially religious texts. One of the leading Jewish exegetes in the Middle Ages was Shlomo Yitzchaki (February 1040 - 13 Juluy 1105), "Shlomo the son of Yitzhak." He became known by the acronym Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (although other acronyms were employed).

Born an only child in Troyes in northern France, on his father's side he was said to be descended from Gamaliel, a teacher of Paul mentioned in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles. His father started his education when Rashi was five years old. His father died while Rashi was young, and the young man married at 17 and went to Worms.

At Worms he was privileged to study under two scholars who had been students of the prominent Gershom ben Judah: German rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar and French rabbi Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi (chief rabbi of Worms and a relative of Rashi). After Worms he went to Mainz where he studied under his maternal uncle, the rabbi of Mainz, Isaac ben Judah.

He returned to Troyes at 25 and joined the beth din, the rabbinical court, eventually becoming its head. He founded his own yeshiva (seminary).

His commentary on the Torah was said to be so clear and concise that beginners could understand it and more accomplished scholars could admire it.  Every edition of the Talmud since the 1520s includes Rashi's commentary. His commentary on the Tanakh (the five Books of Moses plus the Nevi'im (Books of the Prophets), and the 11 books of the Ketuvim ('Writings'), became widely studied for centuries.

His writings became so famous that legends sprang up about him. Before his birth, supposedly his father found a jewel and was approached by people who wanted to buy it to adorn a pagan idol. He agreed to take it with them to their land, but along the way had second thoughts and threw the jewel into the sea. The prophet Elijah appeared to him and prophesied that he would have a son "who would illuminate the world with his Torah knowledge."

When Rashi's mother was pregnant, she was walking down a narrow street when two carriages came toward her. With no room to get out of the way, she pressed herself against the wall, which created a depression to save her. The wall of the Worms Synagogue has a niche that is supposed to be this space.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at some of his writings, and another legend about his death.

What is in Tanakh?

Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible. Christians might ask "isn't that just the Old Testament?" Well, yes and no. They contain many of the same books, but the organization of them is different. The Christians add more books.

The name Tanakh is an acronym for the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible. They are the Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim. The Torah includes the five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Nevi'im ("Prophets") includes the books of the prophets: the former prophets in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, and the latter prophets in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) combined into a single book.

The Ketuvim or "Writings" include three divisions: Psalms, Proverbs, and Job as a group, followed by a group of five that are the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. The final division contains Danuel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

The middle division of the Ketuvim ties into several of the Hebrew festivals. The Song of Songs connects to Passover, Ruth to Shavuot, Lamentations to Tisha B'Av (which is like a Jewish Valentine's Day), Ecclesiastes to Sukkot, and Esther to Purim.

Because some of these are combined, the total number of books in the Hebrew Bible is 24. The Christian Old Testament breaks these up into 39 books. You can see the divisions and the different ordering of the books in the illustration. If it is illegible, you can see the original and much more information about their differences here.

One Christian Bible, however, contained 48 books in its Old Testament. Truth be told, I use it for medieval research. I'll explain next time.