A NEW BOOK ON RASHI is reviewed in Haaretz

'I will sing for Rashi'
By Rafael Benjamin Posen

"Rashi" by Avraham Grossman, The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 311 pages, NIS 76

[...]

The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History came up with a worthy idea: publishing a 15-volume series of works by masters of Jewish thought. At the gathering held to celebrate the appearance of the first three volumes (the one discussed here, as well as Shmuel Feiner's book on Moses Mendelssohn and Joseph Dan's on Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid), series editor Prof. Avi Ravitzky described the deliberations of the editorial team over the choice of writers. To demonstrate the dilemma, he listed a number of illustrious figures who were included after many arguments, and others who were reluctantly left out despite their considerable renown.

Greatest figures

However, Rashi's uniqueness was above dispute; the claim made by the book's author, Prof. Avraham Grossman, that "in a historical perspective, Rashi is one of the greatest figures the Jewish nation has produced over the generations," is a matter of consensus. One need only mention his exegetical writing on the Torah: Rashi's commentary, the first Hebrew book to appear in print, has itself been the subject of hundreds of interpretive works, a labor that continues to this day.

[...]

And still, Rashi - who lived a century before Maimonides (1040-1105) and owed his fame mainly to his two tremendous interpretive projects, his commentary on the Bible and on the Babylonian Talmud - has additional qualities to recommend him: his delightful and captivating personality, his exquisite style, his simplicity and humility. In my opinion, the achievement of the present monograph lies in its handling of this secondary aspect - Rashi's personality - of which the author has managed to provide a masterful portrait.

[...]