We have seen that Rashi did not hesitate to acknowledge that he
owed certain information to his friends and pupils, and that his
debates with them had sometimes led him to change his opinion.
The confession he made one day to his grandson Samuel about the
inadequacy of his Biblical Commentary[31] has become celebrated,
and justly so. There is something touching in the way he listened
to the opinions of his grandson, and accepted them because
they appeared correct to him-the man who loved truth and science
above everything else. Like many noble spirits, he considered
his work imperfect, and would have liked to do it all over again.
This modesty and this realization of the truth are the ruling
qualities of his nature.
II
The ideal Jew combines virtue with knowledge, and tradition
ascribes to Rashi universal knowledge. In the first place he was
a polyglot. Popular admiration of him, based upon the myth
concerning his travels and upon a superficial reading of this
works, assigned to him the old miracle of the Apostles. The
languages he was supposed to know were Latin, Greek, Arabic, and
Persian. He was also said to be acquainted with astronomy, and
even with the Kabbalah, of which, according to the Kabbalists, he
was an ardent adept. After his death, they say, he appeared to
his grandson Samuel to teach him the true pronunciation of the
Ineffable Name.
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