"
His name is most prominently connected with Rabbinical
literature. Whether large questions are dealt with, or the
minutest details are considered, it is always Rashi who is
referred to-he has a share in all its destinies, and he seems
inseparable from it forever.
It is this circumstance that makes the writing of his biography
as awkward a task for the writer as reading it may be for the
public. To write it one must be a scholar, to read it a
specialist. To know Rashi well is as difficult as it is
necessary. Singularly enough, popular as he was, he was
essentially a Talmudist, and at no time have connoisseurs of the
Talmud formed a majority. This is the reason why historians like
Graetz, though they dilate upon the unparalleled qualities of
Rashi's genius, can devote only a disproportionately small number
of pages to him and his works.
Though the writer has throughout been aware of the difficulties
inherent in his task, yet he is also conscious that he has
sometimes succeeded in removing them only by eluding them. In
parts, when the matter to be treated was unyielding, it became
necessary to dwell on side issues, or fill up gaps and replace
obscurities by legends and hypotheses. The object in view being
a book popular in character and accessible to all, technical
discussions had to be eschewed. Many knotty points had to be
brushed aside lightly, and the most debatable points passed over
in silence.
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