Abstract
The most influential biblical commentary in Jewish history is that of the late eleventh century scholar, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzḥaki (“Rashi”) of northern France. This essay examines Rashi’s Torah Commentary as a midrashic anthology and examines Rashi’s reception of the Bible through the lens of his use of midrash. After highlighting shared traits of first-millennium midrashic corpora and Rashi’s Torah Commentary, I offer a new reading of Rashi’s “methodological statement.” I then turn to Rashi’s historical context to suggest that the Commentary’s lemmatized form demonstrates that Scripture cannot be properly understood without its rabbinic accompaniment, the midrash of the rabbis’ Oral Torah. Finally, I offer examples of the range of ways Rashi employed midrash in his Commentary, the primary lens through which traditional Jews have received Scripture for a millennium.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Midrash as Rabbinic Reception of the Bible
- Pentateuchal Women Portrayed in Tannaitic Midrash: A Close Reading of Ancient Rabbinic Texts that Closely Read the Text
- As Sweet as Their Original Utterance: The Reception of the Bible in Aggadic Midrashim
- ‘From Where Are These Words?’ The Reception of the Bible in the Babylonian Talmud
- Reception of the Bible in Rabbinic Liturgy: Expression and Interpretation
- The Reception of the Bible in Geonic Literature
- Reception of Scripture in Rashi’s Torah Commentary
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Midrash as Rabbinic Reception of the Bible
- Pentateuchal Women Portrayed in Tannaitic Midrash: A Close Reading of Ancient Rabbinic Texts that Closely Read the Text
- As Sweet as Their Original Utterance: The Reception of the Bible in Aggadic Midrashim
- ‘From Where Are These Words?’ The Reception of the Bible in the Babylonian Talmud
- Reception of the Bible in Rabbinic Liturgy: Expression and Interpretation
- The Reception of the Bible in Geonic Literature
- Reception of Scripture in Rashi’s Torah Commentary