Rashi's Life

His Milieu and his Family

Rashi's childhood and youth are shrouded in mystery. He was born in Troyes in northern France, where he spent all his life except for the time he studied in Germany. The year of his birth is uncertain: some manuscripts report it as am 4800 (1040 CE), but others—almost certainly more accurate1— give it as 4801 (1041). He died on Thursday, 29 Tamuz 4865 (1105). That date is mentioned in several manuscripts, such as Rashi's commentary on the Torah in MS Parma (De Rossi 175), and is derived from a report by Rashi's students, copied in 1305:

The twenty-ninth of Tamuz 4865 indeed fell on a Thursday, a fact that lends credibility to the date. We see from this that Rashi lived to the age of 65—relatively old for the time. Some scholars have argued that the extent of his oeuvre indicates that he was born earlier, in 1030, but that assumption lacks any basis, and it is his own students here who tell us his age. The expression ‘was taken from us’ likewise lends support to the premise that the passage was written by his disciples. As far as we can tell, Rashi died in Troyes and was buried there. His grandson, Rabbenu Tam (Rabbi Jacob Tam, c. 1100-1171), called the city’ the place of our rabbi Solomon and the city of our ancestors’ graves’. This supports the premise that Rashi—and, apparently, his ancestors—were buried in Troyes.

There are numerous folk legends about Rashi's birth, especially the miracles wrought for his mother during her pregnancy, and about his father and his father's journeys outside France and meetings with various sages, including Maimonides. None of these legends is reliably documented, however, and nothing can be gleaned from them about the events of Rashi's life. They grew as a result of the widespread reverence for Rashi and the luminous halo that became part of his image.