Rashi: The Magic and the Mystery - Keys to Unlocking Rashi's Unique Torah Commentary Paperback – August 6, 2015

This is an excellent intro to understanding the nuances of Rashi's interpretations. The author uses multiple examples to clarify the specifics of the various types of interpretations. Very helpful. Good reference.

If you are a fan of Rashi’s commentaries, this is the book for you. I have always respected Rashi’s commentaries and this book made me truly respect him as a rabbi and a man. I found it really interesting that Rashi’s Torah commentary was the first Hebrew book printed after the invention of the printing press. This phenomenal as it was printed before the Torah was! Rashi was the rare leader that publicly admitted his mistakes. He didn’t try to bluster his way out of them. He treated his students with respect. When Dr. Bonchek was detailing Rashi’s children and grandchildren it brought back what I read of the “Rashi’s Daughters” series by Maggie Anton. (Excellent series!) Rashi had a sensitivity to the subtleties of the language in the Torah. How he used midrash is explained. I liked the question Dr. Bonchek said we should ask – “What about this Torah passage bothered Rashi?” This book is readable by the layperson.

A fascinating revelation of how Rashi answers difficulties in the Biblical text.

perfect

Many individuals of all faiths use the famed biblical and talmudic French rabbi Rashi (1040-1105) to help them understand the Bible. Rashi is a master writer. His commentaries are short, to the point, clarifying, and interesting. People enjoyed his explanations so much that the first Hebrew book printed after the invention of the printing press around 1450 was Rashi’s Torah commentary in 1475. This book was printed before the printing of the Torah in Hebrew. But, as we will see, the love that most Jews had for Rashi was somewhat like an uneducated peasant who is in love with a princess. Users of Rashi’s interpretations lose much by not understanding what the author’s goal is and how what he says implements his goal. In fact, unless a person understands Rashi’s methodology, he or she will get the wrong idea what the sage is saying and why he made his comment. There are many scholarly books that address this problem such as Sarah Kumin’s “Rashi’s Exegetical Categorization: In Respect to the Distinction between Peshat and Derash,” and Avraham Grossman’s “Rashi.”Following his five volume “What’s Bothering Rashi,” composed in English, Rabbi Dr. Avigdor Bonchek has written a short 136 page book, “Rashi: The Magic and the Mystery,” that addresses what Rashi students need to know. He writes in very readable English, with many examples for everything he explains. He addresses Rashi’s history, his style, why his explanations are unique, his use of Midrash, what he means when he states he will only address the plain meaning of the text, why his grandson Rashbam disagreed with his methodology, how everyone should question what Rashi is saying, and much more.Bonchek points out that readers should not be fooled by the seemingly simple style of Rashi’s comments. Rashi was an extremely careful writer. Rashi’s primary goal was to address a problem he sees in the Torah text and he used a Midrash – in seventy percent of his commentaries – only when what the Midrash states fits in with what he considers the plain meaning of the text.Bonchek states that Rashi does many things. Among much else, Rashi explain difficult passages and seeming contradictions, he helps folks avoid misunderstandings, he sometimes does so by translating familiar words in ways that enhance their meaning, he selects one of the many Midrashim that he feels answers a difficulty that he sees in the text – although he does not reveal what difficulty he sees. When using a Midrash, he may select one that is commenting on another verse and may change the Midrash’s wording and he may combine two separate Midrashim, if doing so helps him clarify a passage – for the goal of the Midrash is to teach a moral lesson, while Rashi uses the Midrash to explain a verse. Sometimes he even invents his own Midrash to meet his clarification goal. Sometimes Rashi has two comments one derash and the other peshat, usually because neither one by itself satisfied him in explaining the passage or word.Besides not recognizing what and why Rashi comments as he does, not knowing Rashi’s style could mislead users of his commentary. For example, Rashi starts every parasha (weekly Torah reading) with lead words containing the name of the parasha for no other reason than to indicate where the parasha begins. Many do not know that he is doing so, and mistakenly seek a textual difficulty that Rashi is addressing. He also begins each of the five books of the Torah with a comment showing God’s love of Israel and their land. He apparently did so to inspire Jews and teach Torah values. Failure to recognize this, led many individuals to misread what Rashi is doing.In short, Rashi devotees miss what he is doing unless they understand that something is bothering Rashi and that Rashi does not reveal what this is, and fail to discover what that something is, and how Rashi resolves the problem he sees.This book is an excellent clear introduction to Rashi’s unique interpretative methodology. I had only two problems with it, one minor and one major. The minor one is that Rabbi Dr. Bonchek decided to use the current practice of calling most sages, except Rashi, using the word “the,” as in “the Rashbam,” “the Ramban,” etc. I found this annoying. The other issue is that he did not identify that Rashi is following the methodology of Rabbi Akiva.Two talmudic sages of the second century, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael, disagreed on how to interpret the Bible. Rabbi Akiva, unfortunately in my opinion, won out, and Rashi and most ancient Bible commentators as well as most Midrashim follow his view. He felt that since the Torah is divine, and since God makes no mistakes, and is able to make an idea clear without any repetition, whenever the Bible repeats itself, the seeming repetition must be understood as Scripture making a new statement, and one needs to ask “what is the Torah saying with this seeming repetition?” This explains many Rashi comments. Rashi is saying that the seeming repetition or seeming unnecessary extra word, a practice that occurs very frequently in the Torah, is revealing something new. Rashi quotes many Midrashim because they are reflecting the Akiva methodology.In contrast, Rabbi Ishmael taught that “the Torah [that was given to humans in a manner that they can understand and therefore] speaks in human language.” The frequent repetitions or extra words are used for emphasis and to enhance the beauty of what is said, sometimes giving the statement a near poetic nuance. Maimonides accepted Rabbi Ishmael’s method of understanding the Torah, as did Rashi’s grandson Rashbam, and as do most modern Bible commentators.

The town Troyes, Rashi's home town, has completely disappeared. The medieval walls of the city were torn down in the 17th century. There is no trace left of the buildings of the Jewish ghetto where Rashi lived and worked. Yet Rashi's works, his commentary on the Bible and the Talmud, is very much alive. No serious student can attempt to understand these without Rashi's comments.Boncheck's new book makes the study of Rashi more meaningful, no matter what the reader's background and level. The beginner will want to know about Rashis life and personality. The more experiences student will learn from this book much about Rashi's style and pshat interpretation. And the advanced student will find the chapter on Rashi's use of midrash an eye-opener.This is not Boncheck's first book on Rashi, but almost all of the material in this book is new and illuminating. It is highly recommended.

I am loyal student of Rashi for all my adult life and was amazed to learn so many new and interesting facets of his life and works. Rabbi Dr. Bonchek writes in very clear and interesting manner (at times can be very humorous and always upbeat)..He shows complete mastery of the subject and really does bring the "magic and mystery" of Rashi to life! It makes the "learning" of Rashi much more understandible and meaningful.A very worthwhile read -something to be re-read time and again and to be passed on to family and friends.

I think that this book should be a must read for anyone wishing to know the thinking and methodology in how Rashi arrived at his explanations and interpretations of a word, phase, or sentence. Any teacher who is about to start teaching the Torah with Rashi must read this book to enable him/her to gain insight into who Rashi was. Dr. Boncheck has done a magnificent job in writing this book.