Leah Miriam (Bat Yizchak/Yosef) Tzarfati, RASHI's mother

Private User

9/8/2022 at 12:55 PM

According to Grossman: "We have no information about Rashi's mother either. His considerable concern for the dignity and rights of women allows us to infer, however, that his mother was devoted to her son and that he loved and esteemed her. Rashi's maternal uncle was a renowned scholar, whom Rashi referred to as 'Rabbi Simeon the Elder. It is not known for certain who he was, but chronology makes it evident it was not Rabbi Simeon ben Isaac ben Abun, the greatest liturgical poet of early Ashkenaz. The uncle studied with Rabbenu Gershom in Mainz, Germany. Rashi relied on a halakhic work he had written and probably studied with him. It is quite possible that the uncle's influence contributed to Rash's decision to travel to Mainz and study in its yeshiva. Several other of Rashi's relatives are mentioned in various manuscripts, but their identities are unclear." Grossman, “Rashi” (Littman, 2012), pp. 13-4

Meanwhile, I add that I know of no reference by Rashi himself in his voluminous writings to being descended or in any way related to R' Shimon HaGadol.

In view of this information, the parentage of Rashi's mother as shown on the Geni tree (as of this writing) should be severed except to show a grandfather of unknown name and descent, and an uncle (son of the unnamed grandfather and brother of Rashi's mother) named R' Shimon the Elder.

Is there any reliable evidence to the contrary?

Haim Katz - Hachoen Wartski PRO

9/8/2022 at 10:22 PM

According to Naftali Wakstein, Rashi mentions his mother many times
...
All the attribution attributed to Rashi for being a descendant of King David is true, but through his mother

I have already written in the past that religious Jews have a strong need to present themselves as descendants of a well-known Jewish figure as son after son (in reality, they are descended through ancient mothers), but for them, changing the context as son after son is a necessary necessity, even if it is a matter of forgery, And they don't care that through forgery they delete whole branches from their family tree through their father, and also through their mother.

At the same time, I must point out that Naftali told me that he received a manuscript containing information about Rashi's father, and about him also being a descendant of King David.

Naftali told me that the information was very interesting, and he started to check, and the information that he checked in the meantime, was found to be authentic and true

I have not dealt with this branch for a long time, but to the best of my memory, in Rashi's branch there were three brothers, it is not clear which of them is his ancestor...and from another brother, in later generations, the Luria family began...all three brothers were sons of the same father and the same mother ..

Regarding Grossman: if in his opinion there are errors/falsifications, he must prove it... without providing proof his words (in my humble opinion) have no weight

Private User

9/9/2022 at 7:30 AM

For those interested here is a discussion, including the pages from Grossman's book on Rashi explaining why he does not accept the Mikiel and Zunz interpretation of Rashi's descriptor: R' Shimon the Elder' as being the same as Shimon HaGadol of Mainz

https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/topic/who_was_rashi_s_maternal/...

Both Dr. Wakstein and Grossman agree that Rashi mentions his mother many times, however, it seems to me that neither Grossman nor Wakstein say that Rashi's mother is a descendant of Shimon HaGadol of Mainz

Leah Miriam (Bat Yizchak/Yosef) Tzarfati, RASHI's mother - What Evidence Is There?

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