First destination, first aid, first friend. In Elie Wiesel’s brief book about Rashi, our people’s most beloved guide to the Bible and Talmud, Wiesel confides: "Rashi is my first destination. My first aid. The first friend whose assistance is invaluable to us, not to say indispensable, if we’ve set our heart on pursuing a thought… A reference [coming] from him, [is] like a smile; everything lights up and becomes clearer.”

Ma kasheh l’Rashi? What’s difficult for Rashi? We can learn so much – about Jewish thought, about how text “works” in Jewish life, about ourselves – by studying Rashi. Over the next five months, we’ll meet this kind, gentle, and modest genius in person, in the sense that we’ll use his commentary to dive into one or two problematic (at least for Rashi) verses in the weekly Torah portions as we study together on Zoom every other Sunday at 11 am ET.

Drop-ins welcome; this is NOT a course! Or at least not a course in the conventional sense. Our ten encounters with Rashi are not cumulative, do not depend on prior knowledge of him or his commentaries or on insights from previous sessions. These sessions require only a willingness to let Rashi’s soul touch your soul.

Background materials, in order of importance:

1) Rashi: A Light After the Dark Ages, a 57-minute YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_75_RkT9Hw, that will give you far more of a feel for Rashi than any book or article possibly could.

2) Wiesel, Elie. Rashi. This slim volume is part of the Jewish Encounters Series, available on Kindle as well as in paper versions.
3) Anton, Maggie. Rashi’s Daughters. These three novels are based on Rashi’s children – Yoheved, Miriam, Rachel; available on Kindle and in paper versions.
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