Commentary: On Genesis

The commentaries of Rashi are among the most important medieval Jewish literary productions. They have been studied alongside the biblical text for centuries. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, northern European biblical exegetes, both Jewish and Christian, turned to the plain meaning (peshat) of the biblical text. They shared an interest in understanding its literal, historical meaning, which could only then be used as a source for homiletical or allegorical interpretation. Rashi, among others, also valued traditional midrash and sometimes incorporated it into his commentaries. He directly influenced twelfth-century Christian exegesis, in particular that associated with the Abbey of St. Victor (in Paris, founded in 1108). Andrew of St. Victor (d. 1175), for example, quotes Rashi’s interpretations, which he may have known through Jewish friends. Rashi’s commentaries drew on the various Targums and the Masorah, the work of Moses ha-Darshan and Menaḥem ben Ḥelbo, midrashic literature, and grammatical works by Menaḥem Ibn Sarūq and Dunash ben Labraṭ. Writing terse but clear comments and incorporating words and phrases in Old French, Rashi made the biblical narrative more accessible to his audience.