tion is effaced, the assertion can safely be made that
Rashi died in the capital of Bohemia.

Rashi's death was less touching and less tragic. We
learn from a manuscript dated Thursday, the twenty-
ninth of Tammuz, in the year 4865 of the Creation
( July 13, 1105), that Rashi died at Troyes. He was
then sixty-five years of age.

It is as though the echo of the regrets caused by
Rashi's death resounded in the following note in an old
manuscript: "As the owner of a fig-tree knows when it
is time to cull the figs, so God knew the appointed time
of Rashi, and carried him away in his hour to let him
enter heaven. Alas! he is no more, for God has taken
him." These few lines, without doubt the note of some
copyist, show with what deep respect the memory of
Rashi came to be cherished but shortly after his death.
Like Rabbenu Gershom he was awarded after his death
the title of "Light of the Captivity." But later the
title was applied only to Gershom, as though Rashi had
no need of it to distinguish him.

Rashi died "full of days," having led a life of few
incidents, because it was uniformly devoted to study
and labor. He was like a patriarch who is surrounded
by the affection of his children and by the respect of his
contemporaries. To future generations he bequeathed
the memory of his virtues and the greatness of his work.
And his memory has survived the neglect of time and
the ingratitude of man. Posterity has enveloped his
brow with a halo of glory, and after the lapse of eight
centuries the radiance of his personality remains un-
diminished.

-72-