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Dr. Lisa Fredman

  For those who were at the event and for those who work and engage with manuscripts, medieval or otherwise, on a regular basis I would love to hear your thoughts and impressions of Dr. Fredman鈥檚 talk! I'm especially curious about how you find the human element through the process of studying manuscripts? These are my impressions from last night's talk Rashi's Biblical Commentaries: Can we Know What Rashi Actually Wrote?" Rashi was a human being and through the magic of history and textual criticism, we can talk to him. Last night Dr. Lisa Fredman showed us how historians and laymen alike can, through careful and methodical reading of the some 250 manuscripts of Rashi鈥檚 commentary, scattered in libraries across the world--find traces of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, his associates and the generations of scribes who transmitted and influenced the body of the commentary we read today. Scribes are at the center of this story. Often they would leave their own comments on the margins of their manuscript copies, which was not the 鈥淩ashi script鈥� at the bottom of the printed Mikraot Gedolot anchored to specific Biblical verses we are familiar with today--- a long continuous parchment scroll. Copying from that scribe鈥檚 manuscript, the next generation of scribes would include these comments into the body of Rashi鈥檚 commentary. Through this transmission it came to be that approximately ten to thirty percent of Rashi鈥檚 commentary--depending on whether you consult Avraham Grossman or Eleazar Touito respectively--was written by someone other then Rashi himself--an astonishing statistic ! Occasionally, as Dr. Fredman noted, 鈥淵ou find a one million dollar notation: 鈥澴��, meaning 转讜住驻转. In the manuscripts where these notations are included, the scribe was cognizant of their explicit additions to the text. While not common the "转鈥� signals that scribes viewed Rashi鈥檚 commentary as a collaborative effort, one in which they could take on Rashi鈥檚 literary voice and with what I imagine was a conservative instinct, build upon Rashi鈥檚 body of exegesis. What I found most exciting about Dr. Fredman鈥檚 presentation was what she described as 鈥渢he fifty million dollar notation: 转专鈥澴�--转讜住驻转 专讘讬谞讜 砖诪注讬讛鈥� an interpolation by Rashi鈥檚 student, scribe, and protege Rabbi Shemaya, found in a number of manuscripts including the oldest and most useful manuscript copy of Rashi鈥檚 commentary, MS Leipzig 1. Even better we have some sense of Rabbi Shemaya as a person through letters written by Rashi to Rabbi Samuel of Auxerre: 注住拽转讬 讜砖砖讗诇: 诇诪讛 讻转讘转讬...诪讻诇 诪拽讜诐 讗谞讬 讟注讬转讬 讘讗讜转讜 驻讬专讜砖...讜住转专讜 讚讘专讬 讝讛 讗转 讝讛鈥� 鈥� 讜注转讛 注住拽转讬 讘讛 注诐 讗讞讬谞讜 专讘讬谞讜 砖诪注讬讛 讜讛讙讛转讬讛 鈥淎t any rate, I erred in that interpretation...and my words contradicted one another but now I have dealt with it together with our brother Shemaya and have edited/corrected it.鈥� In this letter we are given access to to Rashi鈥檚 creative process. When questioned by a colleague he finds that he has made a mistake and honest and humble academic that he is, consults with his student Rabbi Shemaya. However at the time that he made these corrections, versions that did not contain these corrections continued to circulate. Thus variations of Rashi鈥檚 commentary from manuscript to manuscript can reflect different stages of Rashi鈥檚 life and work! Dr. Lisa Fredman showed her audience(which was filled to bursting!) that the methods of textual criticism outlined in her presentation allow for us to, in some sense, participate in and imagine ourselves as part of the the community of scribes and scholars who together formed Rashi鈥檚 commentary into the form we know it today. To read more about Dr. Fredman and how she came to be a renowned Rashi Scholar see the write-up from her lunch with our PhD students here Review By Elisha Fine, current Revel student