Rashi by Elie Wiesel Page A

exiled to Babylon.
539 BCE
The Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, having defeated the Babylonian Empire, allows exiled Jews to begin to return to the Land of Israel and undertake rebuilding the Temple.
458 BCE
Ezra, a leader of Jews who has been exiled in Babylonia, returns to the land of Israel with his followers. Also institutes the practice of publicly reading the Torah in synagogue.
C. 300–250 BCE
Emergence of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible, composed for the benefit of Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria.
70 CE
The Roman emperor Titus crushes the Jewish revolt in Jerusalem, destroyingthe Temple. Jews are sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire, some as far as France; the rabbinic leadership reconvenes in the city of Yavneh in northern Israel, where they establish their academy.
CA . 77
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian and commander in the war against Rome who, after his capture by the Romans, became a favorite of the emperor, writes
The Jewish War
, his history of the war against Rome.
CA . 100
Onkelos, a proselyte and contemporary of the Rabban Gamliel and Eliezer ben Hyracnus, prominent rabbis of the Mishnah, translates the Bible into Aramaic, the common language of Jews at that time. Onkelos’s Aramaic translation, which by necessity contains interpretation, is still printed as one of the standard commentaries on the Torah.
CA . 200
Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi codifies the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish Law derived from the Torah.
928
Saadiah ben Joseph, an Egyptian-born scholar then living in Babylonia, appointed head or
gaon
of the Talmud academy in Sura, Babylonia, one of the two cities which were then the centers of Jewish scholarship. He was the creator of rabbinic literature, author of important works on
halakhah
, as well as one of the first Jewish philosophers. He also translated the Bible into Arabic, and was an important compiler of liturgy and author of
piyyutim
(liturgical poems).
CA . 950
Birth of Shimon bar Yitzhak, one of the earliest German authors of liturgical poems, colleague of Rabbenu Gershom, the famed German rabbi and leader of Western European Jewry, and uncle of Rashi.
CA . 950–960
Menahem ben Jacon ibn Saruq, Spanish author and lexicographer, writes
Mahberet, a
Hebrew-language dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic; it is used by scholars throughout Europe.
CA . 960
Dunash ben Librat, a Hebrew poet and lexicographer, attacks ibn Saruq’s
Mahberet
on the grounds that some of its definitions may lead to heresy; the controversy continues for generations, well into the time of Rashi and his descendants.
CA . 11th century
Rabbi Yosef bar Shmuel Tov-elem Bonfils, born in Narbonne, France. An author of
piyyutim
and influential halakhic decisions, he is the first French rabbi who can be identified beyond his name.
1012
Jews briefly expelled from Mainz.
CA . 1021
Birth of Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol, great Spanish philosopher and author of both religious and secular poetry.
1028
Death of Rabbenu Gershom ben Judah Meor ha-Golah, in Mainz. Rabbenu Gershom’s most famous decisions, prohibiting polygamy and the reading of private letters, are known throughout the Ashkenazic world. Rabbenu Gershom’s students, Rabbi Yitzhak ben Yehuda and Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar, who will be Rashi’s teachers, take over the yeshiva.
1038
Shmuel ha-Nagid, the halakhist and leader of Spanish Jewry, becomes vizier of Granada, then under Muslim rule.
1040
Solomon ben Isaac, later known as Rashi, born in Troyes, France.
1064
Death of Rashi’s favorite teacher, Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar, who had been a disciple of Rabbenu Gershom. In Rashi’s commentaries he is identified as “my teacher in Scripture.”
CA . 1070
Rashi founds a school in Troyes.
CA . 1089
Birth of Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, in Tudela, Spain. Ibn Ezra will go on to become one of the most significant Hebrew poets and biblical commentators, a major proponent of the
peshat
school of exegesis.
1095
Pope Urban II preaches that Christian soldiers