Ashkenaz

     Most American Jews are what's known as Ashkenazi Jews, which, we'll often tell you, means that our families are from Eastern Europe (though part of my family is actually Sephardic, and I'm not just saying that because Passover is coming and I want to be allowed to eat rice). But Ashkenaz, originally, actually refers to the France-Germany region around the 11th century. As usual, a period of relative tolerance led to an increase in Jewish population and a flowering of Jewish scholarship. In class, we referred to this period as a "silver age", which I think is an accurate way to describe this period, but is not a clear, agreed-upon concept such as the Golden Age of Spain. During this "silver age" the Jews of Ashkenaz produced one of the most important Jewish scholars of all time: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, or, as he's more commonly known, Rashi.
     Rashi was born in Troyes, France (southeast of Paris) in 1040 to a family that likely owned a vineyard and made wine for a living. He studied at Yeshivot in Mainz and Worms, two cities which had a significant Jewish presence due to their location on the Rhine (which made them major trade hubs). At the age of 25 he returned to his hometown and joined the Beit Din (Jewish court). In this capacity he began answering questions about Halacha in a process known as "she'elot v'tshuvot" (questions and answers, in English it's known as Responsa). Shortly thereafter he became the head of the Beit Din and then opened his own Yeshiva.

Monument to Rashi in his hometown of Troyes, France

     While his voluminous she'elot v'tshuvot were important to the development of Halacha, his most important contributions to Am Yisrael were the massive commentaries he wrote on both the Talmud (the first comprehensive commentary) and the Tanakh. Rashi's commentaries often give the pshat, or simple explanation of the text. It is often said that, with the help of Rashi, any educated child can understand these complicated texts (which makes all the more embarrassing that I still struggle with many of them, but that's a story for another day). Chabad.org explains:

Rashi’s primary quality was his perfect clearness; Rashi’s explanations always seem adequate. Rashi rarely raises questions of his own but, with uncanny anticipation of the difficulties the student will encounter, offers the required solution in a few well-chosen words. Yet Rashi is never diffuse; his terseness is universally conceded. A single word frequently suffices to summarize a remark or anticipate a question.

     One good example of Rashi's commentary is from the story of the Tower of Babel. In Breisheet 11 it is written "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built." The obvious question is, given God's omnipotence and omniscience, why would God need to "come down" in order to see the tower? Rashi explains "He [actually] did not need to do this. This is intended to teach judges not to convict the accused before they have seen [the case] and understood [it].  [This is found] in Midrash R. Tanchuma." (example taken from here) Here we see Rashi addressing the obvious question and providing a clear, simple answer. Why does the text describe Hashem as "coming down"? Because it wants to set the right example for judges.
     Other typical Rashi explanations include defining a challenging word (often in French, making Rashi an important source of 11th century French as well) or explaining why something is repeated. Unlike many other Rabbis (including many of Rashis students) he rarely offers mystical or allegorical explanations, preferring to simply explain the text as it's written. Rashi's commentary is so important that he has a defined place in every version of the Talmud that I'm aware of (the top corner closest to the book's binding). I've also been told that there are more commentaries on the Rashi (supercommentaries) then there are commentaries on the holy books themselves. While I have no idea if that's true or not, the mere fact that it's discussed speaks to Rashi's tremendous importance.
      As usual in Jewish history, the period of tolerance didn't last. The First Crusade, launched by a speech from Pope Urban II in November 1095, began a period of great difficulty for the Jews of Ashkenaz (again, meaning France/Germany). Many of the crusaders wondered why they were traveling across the world to fight the infidels (Muslims), when there were so many infidels (Jews) right here in their midst. This line of thought (along with, I'm sure, a healthy dose of opportunism) led to the Rhineland Massacres, which affected Rashi quite powerfully. Over the next several hundred years the Jews of Ashkenaz began to make their way east, to the burgeoning religious tolerance that would exist in Poland from roughly 1050-1550 (with periodic persecutions, of course). It is this migration that led Ashkenazi Jews to be associated with Eastern Europe. Sephardic Jews, discussed in the previous post, mostly fled by boat to various port cities around the world, such as Amsterdam, Italy, Salonica (in Greece) and Egypt (like Maimonides) among others.

Map of Jewish migrations from Ashkenaz and Sepharad