Rulings, Responsa, Liturgical Poems, and Commentaries on Liturgical Poems

This chapter focuses on rulings, responsa, liturgical poems, and commentaries on liturgical poems. Books of halakhic rulings were not an accepted literary genre in eleventh-century Germany and northern France. Like the French sages who preceded him, Rashi couched his halakhic decision-making primarily in the form of responsa. Rashi, however, can be seen as one who inspired and contributed to the development of another important branch of the tree of halakhic creativity: the writing of halakhic monographs. Meanwhile, he cannot be counted among the greatest of the liturgical poets active in Germany and France during the eleventh century, but his poems are important for what they say about his personality and about the feelings of his contemporaries. In them, Rashi describes the persecution and suffering of the Jews, their yearning for redemption, their degradation and humiliation, the economic decrees issued against them, and their devotion to the study of Torah.