Following in Rachi's footsteps

« We don’t take away any funerary stele in memory of the Righteous. The reminder of their teaching represents the best tribute we could pay to them.” Talmud of Jerusalem – Treaty of Shekalim (II, 5) Discover the symbolic places of the city of Troyes by following the steps of Rachi…

SALOMON BEN ITSHAK, more known under the acronym of RACHI, Rabbi Chlomo, son of Isaac, born in Troyes in 1040.
Little is known about his youth, although we heard about many legends.
Rachi spends his young years at Troyes, before he leaves to go to Rhineland during a decade. There, he studies at the Talmudic schools of Mayence and Worms. In Worms, he studies with Jacob Ben YAKAR, student of Rabbenou GUERSHOM, also known as “The light of the Exile”.
Back to Troyes, Rachi founds his own Talmudic school at the age of twenty five years old. This Yechiva gets such a recognition that it will welcome students from all over Europe. Rachi will lead his school until the end of his life.
Maried in 1067, Rachi has three daughters that he marries to his best disciples. Those take over the passing on and the comment, thus forming the famous school of the Tosafists.
Rachi, considered as the wise character of his generation, dies on July 13th 1105 in Troyes, at the age of sixty five years old. According to the tradition, he would have died while writing the word “pure”. His burial site is still unknown, even though we can suppose that his tomb is in the middle of the Jewish medieval cemetery of the City of Troyes, which no longer exist today.
Rachi was called during his life by the nickname Parshandata, an Aramaic word meaning “the ultimate commentator”, a quality that we still attribute to him today.
He was called by this nickname by Abraham Ibn Ezra since the second half of the XIIth century in Spain.
Rachi develops a very modern exegesis (a deep study and critique of the Holy Scriptures) of the Bible and of the Talmud which will mark the interpretation of the sacred writings used in the Jewish religion. In his commentaries, he emphasizes the first meaning of the text, phsat, and his reasoning, taâm, with precision and concision, while insisting in explaining the text in its integrality.

Dernière mise à jour le 25/07/2019 - Troyes La Champagne Tourisme