Page Two What Rashi Means Today By PROF. ISMAR ELBOGEN ] Editor’s Note: The following Is the text of an address de livered recently by Prof. El bogen at a meeting of the American Academy of Jew ish Research, dedicated to the 900th anniversary of Ra shi, beloved interpreter of the Bible and the Talmud. In the midst of a gigantic world revolution and the severest on slaught on the very existence of our Jewish people, we are com memorating a man of letters who was entirely a-political despite tl*e legend that he predicted the early collapse of the prospective Chris tian Kingdom of Jerusalem. The question is whether we are cele brating Rashi’s anniversary out of mere reverance to tradition or be cause his work has a special ap peal to us. When I was young the repre sentative of the Rashi Research was Abraham Berliner who had published a critical edition of Ra shi’s commentary on the Penta teuch and many a valuable con tribution about Rashi’s life, his work and school. When his 70th birthday was celebrated David Hoffman, the famous scholar and critic, in a toast full of humor raised the question w'hy the Yid dish language applies to Rashi the female article—we say: der Rif, der Rambam, der Bet Josef, etc., but we are used to saying ‘“die Rashi,” and he gave the answer that Rashi is like an attractive woman, with whom one cannot start a flirtation without falling in love with her. Indeed, the attitude of the Jew ish people towards Rashi is that of motherly love; in his spiritual sorrows the Jew found in Rashi’s works refuge and shelter just as one finds open doors at his moth er’s house. Rashi is not a hero who fills with awe all who come near to him, he is rather like the Bib lical gentlewoman who “opens her mouth in wisdom and has teaching of love on her tongue.” He is not a systematic thinker, but he is systematic in his think ing, a master of even and clear reasoning, of seeing and present ing things as they are. He got these qualities as a gift from Hea ven and is to be compared to the manna, the bread from Heaven, of which our sages say that every body in Israel found in it the flavor he liked best—children, that of oil; adults, that of bread; old aged, that of honey. Such is the case with Rashi. Ev ery generation and every age found and is finding in his writings what suits it—no difference be tween countries and centuries, be tween the old-fashioned Beth ha Midrash and the modern critical school, between young and old peo ple. Wherein lies Rashi’s greatness? What are Rashi’s achievements? He was an eminent master of Ha- HARRY E. JAMES, Inc. GENERAL INSURANCE Phone 5-3871 Barnett National Bank Bldg. Name Your Station We Serve the Nation GREYHOUND BUS DEPOT, INC. 23 HOGAN ST. Seminole Hotel Phone 5-6171 100% Owned and Operated in Jacksonville “TEN BEAUTIFUL STORES” lakha. He established an impor tant school which lasted for two centuries after his death and was dispersed only because of the ex pulsion of the Jews from Northern France. But it was not his Halak- i ha authority which preserved his fame for the Jewish people. Os the 336 responsa (answers to legal and religious questions) which have come down to us in his name, only . a small portion were written by ; himself. Most of the responsa were preserved in the collected writings of his seliool, some of which were not published until fifty years ago, and then only through the iniative of Abraham Berliner. It was not on his original works, therefore, that Rashi’s glory is founded. His ambition was not to be an author, but to be an inter preter of the author, his faithful servant to help the reader under stand and love the author. He sub limates his own personality. He does not intrude his personal ideas, but makes every effort to explain, to make plain the meaning of the author. If we do not grasp the ex planation, it is our own failure, originating in our lack of know ledge of parallel pasages which are cited. Where Rashi found it necessary to offer explanations in his com mentaries on the Bible and the Babylonian Talmud, and we do not immediately understand his rea soning, we must meditate and re flect until we perceive it. Os his commentaries, the old saying is appropriate that “If one were to detract or to add one single letter, he would destroy the whole build ing.” In explaining details of the text, Rashi does so in the simplest way, sometimes by substituting a com mon expression for a rare one, a Hebrew word for an Aramaic. He is not content with explanations of single words. He strives to give the meaning of the whole context. If we gain a different impression in studying our present editions, especially of the commentary on the Talmud, it is the guilt of the copyists and printers who separat ed by dots what they considered quotations from the text or the end of a passage. In reality, Rashi wrote full continuous paragraphs, illustrating the whole discussion. That is the main reason why the writings of his predecessors were neglected and lost. They were of little value after Rashi’s works had shown such undreamt of per fection. The works upon which Rashi has commented belong to very differ ent ages and periods, extremely distant from his own. Still, he showed unusual ingenuity in iden tifying himself with these epochs and surroundings. He felt as much at home in the tents of Abraham as in the palace of King David or the Beth ha Midrash of Rav Ashi. He found his way through the slave houses of Egypt as easily as through the vineyards of Samaria or the slums of Pumbedita. He was a true and genuine Jew. Nothing Jewish was alien to him—neither the lawgiver, nor the prophet, nor the psalmist, neither the Halahka nor the Hagadan. He had to com ment on many things of which he did not himself approve, which THE SOUTHERN JEWISH WEEKLY BHmRnIHP& ' ' ' ' RdjLu N,.i Scitfc, NO SHORT CUTS were out of harmony with his own ideas, but it was not his own views he was expounding. His pur pose was to be the mouthpiece of those who had gone before him, and the history of interpretation shows few 7 who were his equal in objective reasoning. One remarkable feature of his method of interpretation was his facile use of ilustration from real life. The Bible and Talmud touch constantly upon the details of ev eryday life, many of which are familiar to us now because of li braries of books on ancient his tory at our disposal, announce ments of archaelogical discoveries, and museums displaying excavated materials. Rashi had none of these. He had to devise his own meth ods of exploration, and he had furthermore to transfer his ideas into a non-spoken language. In this field we must bow before Ra- 1 shi’s genius. He did not give way until he had a complete picture of his goal. He was not satisfied with mere words, which blind con ceptions. He insisted on seeing things concretely and on recon structing as fully as possible the picture of life in remote ages. Though his task was hard to realize in many cases, Rashi strug gled to achieve it. By means of research, he tried to become ac quainted with all accessible rem nants of Jewish tradition. It is amazing hou r much of true tradi tion was handed down in Israel through the ages and how quickly this lore spread in an ever-ex panding diaspora. At a time when scribes and writing materials were extremely scarce, it was even dif ficult to obtain full copies of the Bible or of the Babylonian Tal mud—not to speak of later inter pretative material, oral as well as written. Rashi’s eagerness to enlarge his horizon led him to the Rhenish academies. He was already a trained scholar when he went to Mayence, but he knew that he could find there advanced meth ods and fuller traditions. Golden Mayence, a main center of com- FRANK H. BROWNETT BUILDER 325 W. FORSTTH PHONE 5-6169 Herman Jackson DRY CLEANERS 1891 San Marco Blvd. French Cleaners Furriers Cold Storage Phone 5-8353 FOR DELIVERY SERVICE merce and traffic, and beautiful Worms, one of the imperial capi tals, were in continuous communi cation with Italy and received through the scholars of Rome trea sures of comments an l responsa from the ancient sources of Jew ish learning in Babylonia and Eretz Israel. It is evident that Rashi availed himself of all these sources. He was not a bookworm, confining himself to his library. He travelled about with open eyes, observing the everyday life of the town, viewing the ways of the far mer, the artisan and the merch ant. In Rashi’s busy home town of Troyes he saw well-attended fairs and rich stores of merchandise. He watched, he inquired, he at tended what he saw and found explanations for many secrets of his texts. (Continued on Page Seven) HCNDERJCN’S BAKERS CATERERS Complete Party Service Delicious hot and cold Menus 2011 Pearl St. Phone 5-6881 ECONOMY Dry Cleaners and Shoe Repairers LAUNDRY Ph. 5-6333 1962 San Marco "Quality that equals the best, Prices that compete with the rest.” N & L AUTO SUPPLY CO. JOE BARTLEY, Mgr. 1302 West Adams Street PHONE 5-0725 —: FOR DEPENDABLE SERVICE Call . . . Great Southern Trucking Co. • Serving Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama • 1961 Clarkson St. Phone 5-4250 Friday, June 14, ig 40 Merck Drug Co 223-25 Main at Monroe ' Phone 5-8217 Open All jqt® Miller Electric Co" Exclusive Dealers for * Lightolier and Chase Fixtures 556 Riverside Ave. Phone 7-2101 TRAVIS INSURANCE AGENCY Inc. GENERAL INSURANCE 604 Hildebrandt Bldg. Phone 5-0135 V, Order Your Fuel Oil From Simmons Ice Co. 412 Margar.et St. Ph. 5-3776 J. G. FERRELL JEWELER Repair Work A Specialty Terms To Suit Your Convenience 208 Broad St. Phone 5-3003 SHOP and SAVE AT Setzer's STORES Mov WITTEN’S 52 W. Forsyth St. Featuring what We belie re is the finest $25 suit in town. By Michaels-Stern of Rochester A LOOK WILL CONVINCE YOU. C. S. DUBS Watchmaker and Jeweler WE REPAIR JEWELRY OF ANY KIND 734 W. Adams St. Pit. 5-8755 “We specialize in fancy live poultry” ■ Kri . ‘flH Free delivery on orders of 50c or more. 691 Stockton St. Phone 7-21 J 2010 Kings Ave. Ph- ne 319S '