Rashi had many admirers, but
few successors."[157]
Isaiah Horwitz (1570-1630), whose ritual and ethical collection
is still very popular in Eastern Europe, compares Rashi's
commentaries to the revelation on Sinai. "In every one of his
phrases," he says, "marvellous [marvelous sic] things are
concealed, for he wrote under Divine inspiration." His son
Sabbatai Sheftel is even more striking in his expressions; he
says, "I know by tradition that whoever finds a defect in Rashi,
has a defect in his own brain." It was related that when Rashi
was worried by some difficult question, he shut himself up in a
room, where God appeared to throw light upon his doubts. The
apparition came to him when he was plunged in profound sleep, and
he did not return to his waking senses until some one brought him
an article from the wall of his room. Thus a superstitious,
sterile respect replaced the intelligent and productive
admiration of the earlier centuries.
To revive the scientific spirit and the rational study of the
Scriptures, a Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was needed. With the
year 1780, when his translation of the Pentateuch and his
commentary upon it appeared, the renaissance of Jewish learning
commenced; even the study of the Talmud, regenerated by the
critical spirit of the time, was resumed. Mendelssohn himself
drew largely upon Rashi's commentary, correcting the text when it
seemed corrupt, trying to decipher the French
laazim, and
paying attention to the essential meaning of Rashi's
explanations, either for the sake of completing or defending
them, or for the sake of refuting them in the name of taste and
good sense.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253