Rashi and His Commentary on the Bible and Talmud

Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak was born in Troyes, Champagne, in 4800. As a young man he went to study on the Rhine, in Worms and Mainz, with the disciples of Rabbeinu Gershom; returning home he opened his own yeshiva and lived from a vineyard. He had no sons, only three daughters who married his students; their children would found the school of the Tosafot.

He undertook what no one had attempted: to explain everything. A commentary on the Torah and nearly all the Bible, and a commentary on the Talmud, page by page from the opening line. His method is deceptively simple. He does not argue or display; he takes a hard word and translates it, often into Old French, and these glosses now serve scholars as a source for medieval French. He clarifies who is speaking and to whom. He cites midrash, but only what 'settles on the verse.' He writes honestly 'I do not know' and leaves the question open.

His Talmud commentary made the Gemara accessible: before Rashi one could learn only from a living teacher; after him, from a book. The first printed Hebrew book (Reggio di Calabria, 5235) was Rashi's commentary. His text stands on the inner margin of every Talmud page and beneath every verse of the Chumash.