Report about Rashi

This report of Rashi’s actions, recounted by Rashi’s student Shemaiah, who edited much of Rashi’s work, is preserved in several manuscripts of works that emerged from Rashi’s school. Shemaiah writes that a certain Christian owed Rashi a debt, and Rashi sought a way to have the Christian take an oath without violating Exodus 23:13, which the rabbis had interpreted as a prohibition against causing another person to mention the name of a foreign deity. Rashi, however, came to realize that his preferred course of action was erroneous. This story illustrates the close contact that even leading rabbinic figures had with Christians and Christian ritual objects.