The
biography of Rashi is the second of the series. It is not for the
author to endorse the order adopted, but he hazards the opinion
that the readers will find the portrait of Rashi no unfitting
companion-piece even to that of the author of the
Moreh.Jewish history may include minds more brilliant and works more
original than Rashi's. But it is incontestable that he is one of
those historical personages who afford a double interest; his own
personality is striking and at the same time he is the
representative of a civilization and of a period. He has this
double interest for us to an eminent degree. His physiognomy has
well-marked, individual features, and yet he is the best exponent
of French Judaism in the middle ages. He is somebody, and he
represents something. Through this double claim, he forms an
integral part of Jewish history and literature. There are great
men who despite their distinguished attributes stand apart from
the general intellectual movements. They can be estimated
without reference to an historical background. Rashi forms, so to
say, an organic part of Jewish history. A whole department of
Jewish literature would be enigmatical without him. Like a star
which leaves a track of light in its passage across the skies,
Rashi aroused the enthusiasm of his contemporaries, but no less
was he admired and venerated by posterity, and to-day, after the
lapse of eight centuries, he is, as the poet says, "still young
in glory and immortality.
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