The influence of Rashi’s commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud on Jewish thinking remains unsurpassed, This biographical study presents a masterly survey of the social and cultural background of Rashi’s work, his personality, his reputation, and his influence, while also considering his sources, his interpretative method, his innovations, and his style and language. The central contribution, however, is the in-depth analysis of Rashi’s world-view, which leads to conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate. To this day, the commentaries on the Bible and Talmud written by the eleventh-century scholar known as Rashi remain unsurpassed. His influence on Jewish thinking was, and still is, significant. His commentary on the Pentateuch was the first Hebrew book to be printed, giving rise to hundreds of supercommentaries. Christian scholars, too, have relied heavily on his explanations of biblical texts. In this volume Avraham Grossman presents a masterly survey of the social and cultural background to Rashi’swork and pulls together the strands of information available on his life, his personality, his reputation during his lifetime, and his influence as a teacher. He discusses each of his main commentaries in turn, including such aspects as his sources, his interpretative method, his innovations, and his style and language. Attention is also given to his halakhic monographs, responsa, and liturgical poems. Despite Rashi’s importance as a scholar and the vast literature published about him, two central questions remain essentially unanswered: what was Rashi’s world-view, and was he a conservative or a revolutionary? Professor Grossman considers these points at length, and his in-depth analysis of Rashi’s world-view—particularly his understanding of Jewish uniqueness, Jewish values, and Jewish society—leads to conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate.

In the 11th century in Northern France one of the largest and most eminent centers of European Jewry in the Middle Ages grew continuously. Within a relatively short while it became the most important spiritual Jewish center in Christian Europe. The Early Sages of France examines the development as well as the causes and effects of this phenomenon. The lives of the early sages of France are described in detail, as well as how they led their communities and the Jewish-Christian debate.

This book tells the history of the early sages of Ashkenaz, their spiritual and literary activities and the ways they led their communities from the beginning of their establishment, through the period of the Carolingian dynasty until the edict of 1096