If you want to read a good biography of Rashi, I’d suggest Avraham Grossman’s superb text, although he ventures more into social and cultural influences on Rashi’s thought. This book is more of an intellectual biography of Rashi, and is even part of the University of Chicago doctoral bibliography in Jewish Studies (for whatever it’s worth on a forum such as this). I would take most CIS books with a grain of salt, as there is probably no effort to produce books that are well-cited, academic, or peer-reviewed. Just look at the whole fiasco with R’ Nosson Dovid Rabinowich’s “Talmudic Methodology” book, which ended up being his plaigarizing Reform Rabbi Moses Mielziner’s “Talmudic Terminology.” Funny how Hakham Ovadia Yosef ended up giving a haskama to a book written by a Reform Rabbi.
Menu