Non­fic­tion

Rashi

Elie Wiesel

By – August 24, 2011

Ever since child­hood,” writes Elie Wiesel, “[Rashi] has accom­pa­nied me.” In this lov­ing mem­oir of the supreme medieval schol­ar Rab­bi Shlo­mo Yitzha­ki (Rashi), Wiesel, Nobel lau­re­ate, nov­el­ist, and descen­dant of Rashi, search­es for Rashi in the few facts — if facts they are — of his life. As a pre­co­cious young stu­dent, Rashi stud­ied with his uncle and then at the great cen­ters of 11th cen­tu­ry Euro­pean Jew­ry. He had three daugh­ters, per­haps four, and was a vint­ner — maybe. He found­ed a yeshi­va in Troyes — when? — thought to be his birth­place, and became its offi­cial rabbi.

So to know Rashi, we must know his work, for it is there that we tru­ly meet him. In his com­men­taries on the Bible and the Tal­mud, the work for which he is uni­ver­sal­ly revered and immor­tal­ized, we see his bril­liance, the depth and breadth of his knowl­edge and curios­i­ty, his rab­binic method and cast of mind, his under­stand­ing of the world and the human beings who live in it. In cit­ing pas­sages from Rashi’s com­men­tary on the book of Gen­e­sis, Wiesel reveals Rashi’s cre­ativ­i­ty, his human­i­ty, his likes and his dis­likes. God put Adam to sleep when he cre­at­ed Eve from Adam’s rib because he did not want to dis­gust Adam. Ish­mael, Lot, but espe­cial­ly Esau are sin­gled out for scorn. Delv­ing into the midrashic lit­er­a­ture, Rashi ascribes hor­ri­ble acts to Esau, his pawn for Chris­tian­i­ty, which he did not attack direct­ly although he lived dur­ing a time of great persecutions. 

Rashi’s com­men­taries and respons­es con­tin­u­al­ly reveal his love for the Jew­ish peo­ple, per­son­i­fied in his unflag­ging admi­ra­tion for the patri­archs; his love and com­pas­sion for indi­vid­ual peo­ple, whom he judges by human, not tech­ni­cal, stan­dards; his mod­esty, which some­times leads him to say, sim­ply, he does not know some­thing. His goal was to reveal God’s truth through end­less, prob­ing study.

Maron L. Wax­man, retired edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor, spe­cial projects, at the Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, was also an edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor at Harper­Collins and Book-of-the-Month Club.

Discussion Questions

1. What sort of teacher was Rashi? How does Wiesel describe his commentaries? 

2. How does Wiesel inte­grate the his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive into his explo­ration? What was going on in the world dur­ing Rashi’s time, and how did it affect or not affect his teachings? 

3. Wiesel describes the leg­ends that are attached to Rashi’s biog­ra­phy. Which sto­ries had you heard about Rashi’s birth and death, about the details of his life? Do you think the specifics mat­ter? What do the leg­ends tell us about the way we under­stand his influence? 

4. Through­out the book, Wiesel com­ments on Rashi’s abil­i­ty to admit igno­rance on a top­ic. No oth­er Sage did this as frankly and as fre­quent­ly.” Why do you think Wiesel makes a point of this char­ac­ter­is­tic, and what impor­tance does it have for under­stand­ing Rashi’s teach­ings overall? 

5. Some­times stu­dents have the joy­ful feel­ing that they are learn­ing not from Rashi but by his side.” What has your per­son­al expe­ri­ence been of Rashi’s teach­ings? Do you feel this char­ac­ter­is­tic of close­ness to Rashi that Wiesel describes? Wiesel begins his book by talk­ing about how inte­gral Rashi has been to his own stud­ies. What teach­ers have that place in your life, and why? 

6. Dis­cuss the Bib­li­cal com­men­taries that Wiesel uses to illu­mi­nate and explore Rashi’s work. What have oth­er teach­ers said about these pas­sages and stories? 

7. Turn to the third sec­tion in the book, and dis­cuss what Wiesel offers as Rashi’s intepre­ta­tion and belief about the fol­low­ing top­ics: peace, study, com­pas­sion, jus­tice, lead­er­ship, respon­sa, litur­gi­cal poems. What por­trait of Rashi’s teach­ings emerges from this sec­tion? How are these beliefs reflect­ed in the Bib­li­cal com­men­taries that Wiesel has explored? 

8. To begin, Wiesel offers to us his rea­son for writ­ing this book — his love and respect for Rashi. What was your rela­tion­ship to Rashi before read­ing the book? Do you feel dif­fer­ent­ly about Rashi now and, if so, in what ways? What will you take away from your reading?