Rashi's "Commentary on the Torah": canonization and resistance in the reception of a Jewish classic
The Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105) stands out as the most important Jewish Bible commentary of all time. The Commentary has shaped perceptions of the meaning of Judaism's foundation document, the Torah, among leading scholars, lay readers, and initiates in Jewish...
| Résumé: | The Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105) stands out as the most important Jewish Bible commentary of all time. The Commentary has shaped perceptions of the meaning of Judaism's foundation document, the Torah, among leading scholars, lay readers, and initiates in Jewish learning for more than nine centuries. It remains the classic commentary on Judaism's classic text. Lawee's book explores how and why the Commentary has left so indelible an imprint on generations of Jews and the processes that turned it into the closest thing Judaism has to a canonical commentary on scripture. Cover -- Rashi's Commentary on the Torah -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Notes on Translations and Editions -- Introduction-Rashi's Commentary on the Torah: Canonical and Classic -- Part I -- 1. Conundrums of the Commentary: Contours of a Classic -- Textual Vicissitudes -- Character, Aims, Authorial Voice -- 210 Years of Egyptian Exile: A Midrash of Rashi and Its Afterlife -- Bloodstream of Jewish Culture -- 2. Rashi's Commentary: Receptions, 1105-1527 -- Medieval Ashkenaz -- Arrival in Spain -- Sefardic Biblical Scholarship I: Al-Andalus Comes to the Commentary -- Sefardic Biblical Scholarship II: Valorization and Ambivalence in Christian Spain -- Abroad in Hispano-Jewish Society -- Last Century in Spain: Between Embattlement and Diverse Forms of Enthronement -- Southern France: Initial Reception and Intercommunal Strife -- Southern French Exegesis: Integration, Indifference, Indirect Criticism -- Augmented Impress in the Age of Print -- 3. Interpreting the Interpreter: Supercommentarial Receptions in Ashkenaz and Sefarad -- Incipient Supercommentary in France and Germany -- Decline of the Generations: German Supercommentary After the Black Death -- Sefardic "Servants of Solomon": Exegesis and Appropriation -- "Rashi Is the Word of God": Supercommentary and the Omnisignificant Imperative -- The Supercommentarial Difference: A Great Voice That Does Not Cease -- Part II -- 4. "Ridiculousness and Risibility": Rationalist Criticism in an Eastern Mediterranean Key -- Byzantine Jewry: Cultural Confluences and Conflicts -- Eastern Mediterranean Exegetical Reception -- "All Who Hear Will Laugh": Rashi Criticism in a Maimonidean Key -- 5. Rationalism versus the Rashi/Rabbinic Axis: Pseudo-Rabad's Book of Strictures -- A Pseudepigraphic Stricturalist and His Aims -- Midrashic Falsehoods. |
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| Description: | Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources |
| ISBN: | 019093784X |