{"id":75486,"date":"2020-06-02T10:38:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T07:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75486"},"modified":"2020-06-02T10:41:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T07:41:24","slug":"rashi-and-heavenly-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rashi-and-heavenly-guidance\/","title":{"rendered":"Rashi and Heavenly Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75486","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"494","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"He got his interpretations straight from the Source\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

In our remarks on Chapter 40, we took note of Rashi\u2019s admission that he found Ezekiel\u2019s visions of the Temple particularly perplexing. We cited his commentary to v.3 of this chapter to the effect that: \u201cI was unable to understand these three verses at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as puzzling, perhaps, is the standard (<\/span>Mikra\u2019ot Gedolot<\/span><\/em>) text of Rashi\u2019s commentary to the last nine chapters, so much so that a special study was devoted to its text in the form of a doctoral dissertation at Dropsie College in Philadelphia almost a century ago (Abraham J. Levy: Rashi\u2019s Commentary on Ezekiel 40-48, 1931), edited on the basis of 11 manuscripts.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some of these manuscripts (and in certain early printed editions as well) the comment we just cited from 42:3 is followed by a most incredible remark: \u201cAs for me, I had neither a teacher nor an assistant throughout this edifice [i.e., Ezekiel\u2019s Temple]; rather it is as though it was shown to me from heaven.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Methodologically, this statement needs to be parsed in two distinct ways. First, is it genuinely Rashi\u2019s, and, second, what does it mean? The first question is quite complicated. While there are several hundred manuscripts extant of Rashi\u2019s Bible commentary (in whole or in part), none has ever been identified as having been written in his own lifetime, let alone by his own hand. Furthermore, the popularity it gained earned it the sincerest form of flattery: imitation, and significant portions of the commentaries of some of his students and colleagues (e.g., Rashbam, Yosef Kara) are so like his that they were often interchanged by copyists\u2014and if not by copyists, then by printers. Indeed, the <\/span>Mikra\u2019ot Gedolot<\/span><\/em> text of Rashi to this chapter (among others) even contains several comments that are introduced by the words: \u201cAs Rashi explained,\u201d an unambiguous sign that later hands tampered with the Master\u2019s text.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the second question: What does it mean to get direction \u201cfrom heaven\u201d? A clue may come from an early 13<\/span>th<\/span> century collection of responsa by one of the Tosafists that was entitled: \u201cQuestions and Answers from Heaven\u201d (<\/span>she\u2019elot uteshuvot min hashamayim<\/span><\/em>). This may well signify that medieval Jewish scholars, among them Rashi, referred to inspiration, figuratively, as heavenly guidance. A more literal interpretation, however, may well have led to the folk adage that Rashi was imbued with \u201cthe Holy Spirit\u201d (<\/span>ru`ach hakodesh<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Guillaume de Paris: Rashi, from \u201cPostillae maiores totius anni cum glossis et quaestionibus\u201d (Lyon, 1539) \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75487,"id":75487,"title":"ez42-Rashi","filename":"ez42-Rashi.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez42-Rashi.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rashi-and-heavenly-guidance\/ez42-rashi\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez42-rashi","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75486,"date":"2020-06-02 07:37:56","modified":"2020-06-02 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