Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany came to an end yesterday with the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas (2 February). Today we move into Ordinary Time, the time between that season and the 40 days of Lent. The Church of England in the calendar in Common Worship today recalls the life of Anskar (865), Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary in Denmark and Sweden.
Charlotte and I are planning to visit Paris next week. So, in these 11 days in Ordinary Time, my reflections each morning are drawing on the lives of 11 French saints and spiritual writers.
In drawing up my list of 11 thinkers, I might have looked at the lives of Denis of Paris, Anselm and Lanfranc, two Archbishops of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercians or Trappists, Joan of Arc, Louis IX who is regarded as a Franciscan saint, John Calvin, John Vianney, the ‘Curé d’Ars’ and patron saint of priests, Vincent de Paul, Francis de Sales, the Huguenot martyrs of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Hermann Cohen, the German Jew who reintroduced the Carmelites to modern France, Thérèse of Lisieux, or theologians such as Oscar Cullman and Jacques Ellul.
Admittedly, I have never been very comfortable with many aspects of French spirituality, such as Sacre Coeur and the political associations of devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the way Joan of Arc has become a symbol of the far-right in France, Bernard’s preaching of the Crusades, or the way Calvin is read today by modern neo-Calvinists.
I realise I need to broaden my reading in French spirituality, and so I have turned to 11 figures or writers you might not otherwise expect. They include men and women, Jews and Christians, immigrants and emigrants, monks, rabbis and philosophers, Catholics and Protestants, and even a few Anglicans too.
Before today begins to get busy, I am taking some time for reflection, prayer and reading this way:
1, A reflection on a French saint or writer in spirituality;
2, today’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
French saints and writers: 1, Rashi (1040-1105):
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105), known popularly as Rashi (רש״י), was a mediaeval French rabbi and the author of outstanding commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is the pre-eminent commentator on nearly the entire Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. His writings are the key works of commentary on both the written and oral Torah.
Rashi was born in Troyes and lived at the same time as the massacres associated with the First Crusade throughout Europe. His father Yitzchak was a great scholar, but very poor, making his living from the sale of wine. On his father’s side, Rashi has been claimed to be a 33rd-generation descendant of Johanan HaSandlar, who was a fourth-generation descendant of Gamaliel, who was reputedly descended from the Davidic line. His mother was the sister of a famous liturgical writer, Simeon ben Isaac.
As a young man, Rashi travelled to Worms and Mainz in Germany and other towns known for their scholars. studied with some of the greatest sages of his time, including Rabbi Gershom Meor HaGolah and Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar. Rashi and became a brilliant student.
At 25, he founded his own academy in Troyes and was later elected Rabbi of the town. By the age of 30 he had opened an academy there, all the while supporting himself as a wine merchant.
Rashi decided to write a commentary in simple language, using as few words as possible, to make it easy to understand the Torah. His commentary on the Bible and the Talmud had a profound influence on Jewish learning and the whole idea of the Jewish book. It helped make the notion of a running textual commentary one of the defining forms of Jewish intellectual culture. His commentary soon supplemented most editions of these texts.
Rashi’s commentary covers the entire Bible, except I and II Chronicles. His commentary on the Bible is a model of brevity, giving the impression that he is unwilling to waste a single word. The commentary has a unique, pleasant, even poetic style, bringing the Torah to life as a story, and illuminating its meaning.
Rashi’s indispensable commentary on Talmud was written as a series of notebooks, called kuntresim. Rashi uses his knowledge of history, logic, philology and psychology to explain obscure texts in just a few short words or lines.
Rashi’s explanations and commentaries on the Talmud were so important that for almost 100 years after his death, Talmud students in France and Germany concentrated on discussing and elaborating on his commentary.
Just as the monks concentrated on deep philosophical discussions of Christian theology, Jewish scholars in France focused on the Talmud and its text. Their complicated commentaries were called Tosafot (‘additions’) and the scholars who created these additions were called the Tosafists (‘those who added’). The most famous of these Tosafists was Rashi’s grandson, Rabbenu Tam, who frequently disagreed with his grandfather.
When preparing Rashi’s commentary to print, the printer had a dilemna: how to make Rashi’s commentary easily distinguishable from the text of the Bible so the reader would not mistake the commentary for the holy text. A simple solution was found – using a special font for Rashi’s commentary.
Ever since, it has been a Jewish tradition to print Rashi’s commentary using that special font, now known simply as ‘Rashi script’. Today, on every page of the Talmud, Rashi’s commentary surrounding the text on the inside of the page, and the Tosafot surrounding the text on the outside of the page.
He died in Troyes on 13 July 13, 1105 (29 Tammuz 4865) at the age of 65. He was the father of three daughters, Yocheved, Miriam and Rachel, and all three married Talmudic scholars. Rashi invested himself in the education of his daughters. His writings and the legends that surround him suggest these daughters were well-versed in the Torah and the Talmud at a time when women were not expected to study and would help him when he was too weak to write. A later legend claims that Rashi’s daughters wore tefillin.
His daughters married his disciples. Most present-day Ashkenazi rabbinical dynasties can trace their lineage back to his daughters Miriam or Yocheved. They include the Epstein, Luria, Katzenellenbogen, Gunzburg, Jaffe, Heilprin, Landau, Lipshitz, Margolis, Rapaport, Shapira, Treves, Heller, Weil, Isserles, Shorr, Klausner, Horowitz, Katz and Teomim families, to name but a few. These families are said comprise the root from which most other rabbinical families stemmed.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi said Rashi’s commentary on the Torah is the ‘wine of Torah.’ ‘It opens the heart and uncovers one’s essential love and fear of God.’
Rashi’s biblical commentary interested Christians as well, and was the first Hebrew book ever printed, in 1475. The first printed edition of the Talmud, and virtually every one afterwards, contains Rashi’s commentary.
Rashi is also important for students of French. Many words in the Bible were unknown to his students, who would ask what a particular word meant. Rashi would give the answer in Old French using Hebrew transliteration. These transliterations provide important insights into the development of French and its pronunciation.
The original printed Bible text by Daniel Bomberg in 1517 included Rashi’s commentary. That commentary became so popular that there are now more than 200 commentaries on his commentary. It is assumed in traditional circles that when you read the Tanakh, you also read Rashi.
The site of the cemetery where Rashi was buried has been identified with a square in Troyes. The Rashi Memorial by the sculptor Raymond Moretti was unveiled in 1990 to mark the 950th anniversary of Rashi’s birth. The sculpture faces the Champagne Theatre, close to the site of the former Jewish cemetery.
The monument rests on a hexagonal granite plinth which represents France. This black and white sculpture symbolises contrasts and presents in cutout, the acronym of Rashi (רש״י). It was officially unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. The granite base of the monument is engraved: ‘Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki – Commentator and Guide.’
Mark 6: 30-34 (NRSVA):
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 3 February 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been: ‘Welcoming the Stranger – A Candlemas Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Father God, we pray for peace throughout the world.
The Collect:
God of grace and might,
who sent your servant Anskar
to spread the gospel to the Nordic peoples:
raise up, we pray, in our generation
messengers of your good news
and heralds of your kingdom
that the world may come to know
the immeasurable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Anskar and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Lent:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection (Candlemas)
Continued Tomorrow (Francis Le Jau)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
