RASHI, the post-biblical figure most highly regarded by Jews overall, left an indelible mark on Jewish culture, a mark greater than that left by anyone else since the completion of the Talmud. The present book examines his life, his oeuvre, his world-view, and his vast influence on Jewish culture. Although thousands of articles have been written, two key questions related to how we characterize him have scarcely been considered: ‘Did he have a fully developed conceptual intellectual doctrine?’ and ‘Was he a revolutionary or a conservative?’ A substantial portion of this book is devoted to those issues. Of course, these questions and others (such as the historical reasons for his vast influence) cannot be answered without first reviewing the course of his life, his defining character traits, his ties to the non-Jewish world, and his multi-faceted literary work.

The book forms part of the Zalman Shazar Center's series on ‘Great Minds in Jewish Thought and Creativity’. Consistent with the series’ character, it is not a typical scholarly study. Its scholarly apparatus is very limited, many subjects are discussed only briefly, and I had to refrain from referring to many studies of Rashi's oeuvre. The purpose of the series is to tell the life stories of these people while maintaining a suitable academic framework. But that goal, however worthy, cannot be attained in a study of Rashi, because we lack basic information on many subjects. It is enough to note in that regard that we know nothing of his childhood except the names of his father and his uncle. We know neither his mother's name nor whether he had siblings. The first confirmed information we have of him is that of his presence in the beit midrash in Mainz when he was 20 years old. Dozens of folk legends about his life are in circulation, but they have no historical value: all we can really learn from them is the esteem in which he has been held over the ages. Accordingly, I have made no use of those folk legends in studying the events of his life. Still, almost every subject considered in the book includes something new, especially with respect to his intellectual world.