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From Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, comes a magical book that introduces us to the towering figure of Rashi—Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki—the great biblical and Talmudic commentator of the Middle Ages.
Wiesel brilliantly evokes the world of medieval European Jewry, a world of profound scholars and closed communities ravaged by outbursts of anti-Semitism and decimated by the Crusades. The incomparable scholar Rashi, whose phrase-by-phrase explication of the oral law has been included in every printing of the Talmud since the fifteenth century, was also a spiritual and religious leader: His perspective, encompassing both the mundane and the profound, is timeless.
Wiesel’s Rashi is a heartbroken witness to the suffering of his people, and through his responses to major religious questions of the day we see still another side of this greatest of all interpreters of the sacred writings.
Both beginners and advanced students of the Bible rely on Rashi’s groundbreaking commentary for simple text explanations and Midrashic interpretations. Wiesel, a descendant of Rashi, proves an incomparable guide who enables us to appreciate both the lucidity of Rashi’s writings and the milieu in which they were formed.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 11, 2009 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307378675
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307378675
- File size: 1775 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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August 1, 2009
The dean of Holocaust awareness here discusses his favorite Talmudic authority, the eleventh-century French scholar known by the abbreviation Rashi (for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki). Revered for the clarity of his exegesis of the Torah, which Wiesels citations reveal as strikingly interactive, Rashi asked not just what a text meant, but how it acquired that meaning and its particular place within its written context. To literal-minded, minimalist moderns, he can seem to extrapolate unconscionably; without question, he psychologizes and dramatizes. A prime example comes in his reading of the exchange between God and Abraham about the sacrifice of Isaac, which he interprets as God gradually revealing his shocking demand so that Abraham wont be driven insane by it. Rashi always affirms the goodness of God and Gods faithfulness to Israel, his chosen people forever. Given such emphases, no wonder Wiesel and Jews ever since Rashis time have considered him Judaisms greatest teacher. Though it often reads like unpolished jottings rather than a careful composition, Wiesels contribution to the Jewish Encounters series is an informative gem.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
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