It is to this veneration, bordering on religious devo-
tion, that we owe the preservation of Rashi's Responsa
and Decisions. Some entered into the collections of the
Babylonian Geonim,--a fact which shows how highly
people regarded the man who was thus ranked with the
greatest rabbinical authorities,--but most of them
formed the basis of several independent works: the Sefer
ha-Pardes ( Book of Paradise), the Sefer ha-Orah ( Book
of Light?), the Sefer Issur-we-Heter ( Book of Things
Prohibited and Things Permitted), and the Maḥzor
Vitry. The first work was edited at the beginning, the
last, at the end, of the nineteenth century, and part
of the second was introduced into the first by the editor
of the first. The whole of the second has just been
published by Mr. Solomon Buber. The third work,
which offers many resemblances to the Maḥzor Vitry, is
still in manuscript; but Mr. Buber has recently prom-
ised us its publication in the near future, as well as a
Siddur, or ritual, of Rashi, related to the Maḥzor Vitry
and to a Sefer ha-Sedarim.

In all these collections it is sometimes difficult to
determine what is Rashi's handiwork, or which of his
pupils is responsible for certain passages. The com-
position of the works is, in fact, original and merits
brief characterization.

The Sefer ha-Pardes, though commonly attributed
to Rashi himself, cannot possibly have been his work,
since it contains rules, decisions, and Responsa made by
several of his contemporaries, and even by some of his
successors. Among others are additions by Joseph Ibn
Plat or his disciples (second half of the twelfth cen-
tury). But in respect of one of its constituent elements,

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