His commentary, says Wogue, "is a master-piece of logic, keen-
wittedness, and Talmudic learning."
However, as if the creative force of the Jews had been exhausted
by a prolific period lasting several centuries, Rashi's
commentaries were not productive of original works in a similar
style. Accepted everywhere, they became the law everywhere, but
they did not stimulate to fresh effort. Scholars followed him,
as the poet said, in adoring his footsteps from afar.
For if his works had spent their impulse, his personality, on the
other hand, became more and more popular. Legends sprang up
ascribing to him the attributes of a saint and universal scholar,
almost a magician.[152] He was venerated as the father of
rabbinical literature. In certain German communities, he,
together with a few other rabbis, is mentioned in the prayer
recited in commemoration of the dead, and his name is followed by
the formula, "who enlightened the eyes of the Captivity by his
commentaries." Rashi's commentaries not only exercised profound
influence upon the literary movement of the Jews, but also wove a
strain into the destinies of the Jews of France and Germany.
During this entire period of terror, the true middle ages of the
Jews, for whom the horrors of the First Crusade, like a
"disastrous twilight," did not draw to an end until the bright
dawn of the French Revolution, the thing that sustained and
animated them, that enabled them to bear pillage and
exploitation, martyrdom and exile, was their unremitting study of
the Bible and the Talmud.
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