The Revolutionary Tale Behind Rashi's Commentaries

Rabbi Kalonymus of Speyer arrived at his study hall, as he did every day in recent years, to teach his students the Talmud, according to the order. The city of Speyer is one of three ancient cities in Germany with a long-standing Jewish community: Speyer, Worms, and Mainz (the ShUM communities). Teaching the Talmud to Ashkenazi students was challenging, as the Talmud was written in Aramaic. In the Babylonian yeshivas, the text was understood upon reading, and the rabbi's role was merely to explain the logic behind it. However, the Ashkenazi students did not comprehend what was written. The children, and even the older students, struggled to understand, which greatly burdened the rabbi, who had to make an effort to explain what he had heard from his own teachers when he was young.

Then, one morning, Rabbi Kalonymus found a roll of pages on his desk, referred to in those days as a "Kuntres." As he flipped through it, he discovered an extraordinary idea—a commentary on the Talmud! Up until that time, the notion of writing a commentary on the Talmud had not been conceived. There were answers from the Geonim on various matters, but the Talmud was written as a book to be read in an orderly fashion, as it was in the Babylonian yeshivas. And yet—here was a commentary. The commentary extracted a few words from the Talmud, explained them in Hebrew, and when necessary, translated them into French, a language spoken by those living in the Rhine Valley near France. Not only was the idea revolutionary, but the content was also unique. All the commentaries matched what Rabbi Kalonymus knew from his teachers, everything was clear, concise, and organized, sometimes even introducing significant new insights.

Rabbi Kalonymus did not know who authored the Kuntres, but from that day on, he used the Kuntres and taught the Talmud from it.

The anonymous author was Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, the holy Rashi, who lived in the city of Troyes across the Rhine, where he wrote his commentaries on the Talmud, Torah, and Prophets. All were written with masterful skill, in polished language, addressing both word explanations and the broader context, unfurling the entire Torah like a garment. Out of humility, Rashi distributed his Kuntresim without his name, solely to magnify and glorify the Torah.

But over time, his name spread throughout the land, and Rashi's commentary became the foundational interpretation, without which the Talmud would not be printed, nor the Torah. Rashi's grandchildren delved into his commentary and wrote around it the "Tosafot," where they discussed various parts of the Kuntres. Among them, three grandsons stood out, forming the base of the Tosafist tradition: Rabbi Jacob, known as Rabbeinu Tam, Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, known as Rashbam, and Rabbi Yitzchak ben Meir, known as Rivam.

When Rabbeinu Tam was a small child, Rashi was very ill, and suddenly young Jacob heard cries of lamentation coming from the room. He asked his mother, Mistress Yocheved, what happened. His mother replied in a tearful voice, "I fear that the Light of Israel has been extinguished." Young Jacob responded, "Do not weep, mother, I will relight it." And indeed, Rabbeinu Tam succeeded in illuminating the world together with his friends and students, the Tosafists.