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 double
interest for us to an eminent degree. His physiognomy
has well-marked, individual features, and yet he is the
best exponent of French Judaism in the middle ages.
He is somebody, and he represents something. Through
this double claim, he forms an integral part of Jewish
history and literature. There are great men who despite
their distinguished attributes stand apart from the gen-
eral intellectual movements. They can be estimated
without reference to an historical background. Rashi
forms, so to say, an organic part of Jewish history. A
whole department of Jewish literature would be enig-
matical without him. Like a star which leaves a track
of light in its passage across the skies, Rashi aroused
the enthusiasm of his contemporaries, but no less was
he admired and venerated by posterity, and to-day, after
the lapse of eight centuries, he is, as the poet says, "still
young in glory and immortality."

His name is most prominently connected with Rab-
binical literature. Whether large questions are dealt
with, or the minutest details are considered, it is always
Rashi who is referred to--he has a share in all its
destinies, and he seems inseparable from it forever.

It is this circumstance that makes the writing of his
biography as awkward a task for the writer as reading
it may be for the public. To write it one must be a
scholar, to read it a specialist. To know Rashi well is as
difficult as it is necessary. Singularly enough, popular
as he was, he was essentially a Talmudist, and at no time
have connoisseurs of the Talmud formed a majority.

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