terms which appeared in this location in the original text. The transliterations were created with the aid of Rabbi Manes Kogan of Beth Israel Synagogue in Roanoke, Virginia during fall, 2000. Occasionally no transliteration was available. When transliterating a multi word phrase, the transliteration is done using the Hebrew word ordering of right to left. Following the transliteration, if present, but still within the brackets, are the parenthesized names of the Hebrew letters. The name of each letter is capitalized, and multiple words are separated by commas.

In all cases, the closing bracket will include any punctuation that immediately followed the associated textual material.

The Hebrew letters, vowels and punctuation are named according to the Unicode standard (which is itself based upon ISO 8859-8) as follows: (The Unicode value is in hexadecimal).

             Vowel Unicode Letter Unicode
              Sheva 05B0 Alef 05D0
              Hataf Segol 05B1 Bet 05D1
              Hataf Patah 05B2 Gimel 05D2
              Hataf Qamats 05B3 Dalet 05D3
              Hiriq 05B4 He 05D4
              Tsere 05B5 Vav 05D5
              Segol 05B6 Zayin 05D6
              Patah 05B7 Het 05D7
              Qamats 05B8 Tet 05D8
              Holam 05B9 Yod 05D9
                 <unused> 05BA Final Kaf 05DA
              Qubuts 05BB Kaf 05DB
              Dagesh 05BC Lamed 05DC
              Meteg 05BD Final Mem 05DD
              Maqaf 05BE Mem 05DE
              Rafe 05BF Final Nun 05DF
              Paseq 05C0 Nun 05E0
              Shin dot 05C1 Samekh 05E1
              Sin dot 05C2 Ayin 05E2
              Sof Pasuq 05C3 Final Pe 05E3
                                     Pe 05E4
            Other punctuation Final Tsadi 05E5
              Geresh 05F3 Tsadi 05E6
              Gershayim 05F4 Qof 05E7
                                     Resh 05E8
                                     Shin 05E9
                                     Tav 05EA

[#] bracketed #s are superscripts in the original and note identification numbers. There are some problems with these. Note #4 (Chapter 1) is not referenced in the text. Note #36 appears twice (Chapter 4) and #102 appears twice in Chapter 7.

hyphenation of terms is suppressed, so any hyphens appearing at the end of the line are infix grouping operators from the original.

Two spaces or eol follow each sentence terminator.

One blank line separates each paragraph.

         Multiline quotations (that are in a different font in
             the original), are here indented 3 spaces

         Reference 3 is at the bottom of page 20 in the original,
             Reference 5 is at the top of page 23, I cannot find
             Reference 4 anywhere.

Spelling errors are denoted by [correct_spelling sic]. Most of these are just variants and currently archaic terms, but some appear to be actual errors. Correct version is from my on line dictionary, or when in doubt, from my printed Collegiate Dictionary. This is also used when, IMHO, there is an error in the text.

         The index is not included, as the pagination used in it is
             irrelevant.

         The duplication of reference [36], ([36],[37],[36],[38]) in
             chapter 4 is in the original.

There are many places (see especially chapter 6) where an unbalanced right square bracket appears, often after either an italicized phrase or a Hebrew phrase. These are in the original.

RASHI

BY

MAURICE LIBER

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

BY

ADELE SZOLD

THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA

TO THE MEMORY OF

ZADOC-KAHN

GRAND-RABBIN OF FRANCE

PREFACE ——-

Some months ago the Jewish world celebrated the eight hundredth anniversary of the death of Rashi, who died at Troyes in 1105. On that occasion those whose knowledge authorizes them to speak gave eloquent accounts of his life and work. Science and devotion availed themselves of every possible medium-lectures and books, journals and reviews-to set forth all we owe to the illustrious Rabbi. The writer ventures to express the hope that in the present volume he has made at least a slight contribution toward discharging the common debt of the Jewish nation-that it is not utterly unworthy of him whose name it bears.

This volume, however, is not a product of circumstances; it was not written on the occasion of the centenary celebration. It was designed to form one of the series of the biographies of Jewish Worthies planned by the JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA, the first issue of which was devoted to Maimonides. The biography of Rashi is the second of the series. It is not for the author to endorse the order adopted, but he hazards the opinion that the readers will find the portrait of Rashi no unfitting companion-piece even to that of the author of the <I>Moreh.</I>

Jewish history may include minds more brilliant and works more original than Rashi's. But it is incontestable that he is one of those historical personages who afford a double interest; his own personality is striking and at the same time he is the representative of a civilization and of a period. He has this