Values

This chapter explains how no subject was treated by Rashi more extensively and lovingly than Torah study and its practitioners. The subject occupies a central place in the Bible itself and in rabbinic Midrash, and that no doubt had a bearing on Rashi's approach to it. But his devotion to the subject cannot be detached from his intellectual world or from the pedagogical goals he set for himself in writing his commentaries. The highest of those goals was to educate people to love the Torah and its study. Although Rashi did not try to provide detailed rationales for the existence and purpose of specific commandments, he referred several times to the basic idea that the commandments had been given to the Jewish people because of their merit and that their purpose was to enhance the sanctity of the nation and its connection to God. The chapter then considers Rashi's teachings on prayer, truth and humility, human dignity, and peace and factionalism.