RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Rankin Eatneiius
that idiom; he was therefore forced to choose Hebrew for the expression of his ideas and theories. He wrote commentaries on all the books of the Old Testament except I and II Chronicles, Nehemiah, and the second part of Job ; these were annotated by the adherents of his school. Starting with the Massoretic text, which he scrupulously followed, Rashi treats the exegetical difficulties in a clear, literal, and simple manner. He solves lexicographical problems by analogous cases and grammatical difficulties by the citation of a similar or allied form. Repeatedly he emphazises his view that the simple natural sense of the Biblical passages should be accepted, and (on Gen. iii. 8) declares as his sole purpose to explain Scripture in its literal sense; even the Song of Solomon was so treated. His desire to give the natural sense explains his frequent reference to the targum of Onkelos; wherever " according to its targum " occurs, the targum of Onkelos is meant. The targum to the prophets is also used, and Rashi finds it far superior to Onkelos. Nevertheless, the influence of the traditional Midrash exegesis with its spiritualized and mystic interpretation was too powerful in France in the eleventh century for Rashi to escape its influence altogether; but his sound judgment and fine tact usually led him to choose the one among the many explanations which came nearest to the literal sense. In many cases, indeed, Rashi expressly requires the haggadic interpretation (e.g., in Gen. i. 1), but sometimes the simple exposition is followed by the most contradictory comments, so that Rashi seems only partly to have attained the high aim he proposed to himself. This is partly due to the minuteness of his exegesis. Moreover, since he clings closely to the literal sense of the words, he is not successful in interpreting continuous passages, neither does he attempt to explain any miracle. Karl Siegfried (in Archiv fiLr wissenschaftliche Erforschung des A. T 's, I., 428 sqq., II., 39 sqq.) has shown Rashi's influence over Nicolaus of Lyra and Luther, especially in the exposition of Genesis.
Rashi surpasses all his predecessors as an expositor of the Talmud. With a few well-chosen words he illuminates the obscurity of the often incomprehensible text. The readings he proposed are still authoritative and he is an indispensable aid to those who study the Talmud. Menahem ben Zerah justly remarks in his work Zedah la-Derek (" Viaticum"; Ferrara, 1554) that without Rashi the Babylonian Talmud would be as much neglected as is the Jerusalem Talmud. The commentary to Bereshith rabba ascribed to Rashi is not his work but that of an Italian contemporary. On his death in 1105, he left a flourishing school of disciples who continued his work and brought it to a close, always in his spirit. (A. Wunsche.)
Bibliography: The commentary on the Pentateuch was first printed at Reggio, 1475, then at Soncino, 1487, new critical ed., by A. Berliner, Berlin, 1866; the first ed. of the commentary on the O. T. was Venice, 1525, under the title Mikraoth Gedholoth. For full information of editions of the commentary or parts cf. J. Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, ii. 78 sqq., Leipsic, 1863; cf. JE, x. 325-326. The first ed. of the commentary on the Talmud was Venice, 1520-22. On Rashi consult: M. Liber, Rashi, Philadelphia, 1906; JE, x. 324-328; L. Zunz, in Zeitschrift far
die Wissenschaft des Judenthums, 1823, pp. 277-384; J. M. Jost, Geschichte der Israeliten, v. 243-248, 375-376, Berlin, 1822; H. Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, vi. 64 sqq., Leipsic, 1894; A. Berliner, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Raschi-Kommentare, Berlin, 1903.
RASKOLNIKS. See Russia, II.
RASLE, rel (RASLES, RALE, RALLE), SEBAS- TIEN: French Jesuit missionary to the North American Indians; b. at Dole (180 m. s.e. of Paris) in 1658; d. at Norridgewock, Me., Aug. 12 (23, new style), 1724. He arrived in Quebec Oct 13, 1689, and after laboring in the Abenaki mission of St. Francis, near the Falls of the Chaudiere, seven miles above Quebec, and in the Illinois country, among the Algonquins (1691 or 1692), he returned to the Abenakis (1693 or 1694), and finally settled at Norridgewock on the Kennebec. There he built a chapel (1698), and acquired so much influence among the Abenakis, that he was popularly believed to have incited them to attack the Protestant settlers on the coast. A price was set upon his head. In 1705, 1722, and 1724 Norridgewock was attacked by the settlers, with the result that the first time the chapel was burnt; the second time the rebuilt chapel and Rasle's house were pillaged, and his papers carried off, among them a manuscript dictionary of Abenaki, now in Harvard College library, printed in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, ed. with introduction and notes, John Pickering (Cambridge, 1833) ; and, the third time, he and seven Indians who had undertaken to defend him were killed.
Bibliography: Consult the Memoir by C. Francis in J. Sparks, Library of American Biography, 25 vols., Boston, 1834—47; the massive Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, ed. R. G. Thwaites, 73 vols., Cleveland, O., 1896- 1902; and literature under Jesuits; and Indians op North America, Missions to.
RASMUSSEN, ras-mu'sen, CHRISTIAN VIL- HELM: Danish missionary to Greenland; b. in Skrodsbjarg near Kjoge (28 m. s.w. of Copenhagen), Denmark, Nov. 25, 1846. He was educated at Herlufsholm (B.A., 1865) and Copenhagen (Candidate in Theology, 1872) ; was missionary in Jakobshavn in the northern part of Greenland (1873- 1895), having charge for about fifteen years of the missionary work in the colony of Umanak and oversight of the work in Egedesminde. On his return to Denmark, he was appointed provost of Lynge and TJggelose (1896); since 1904 he has been lector, giving instruction to the Greenlandic catechists; he also assists the bishops and the minister of state in matters pertaining to church and education in Greenland. Besides translating Balslev's Bible History (first Danish ed., 1844) into Greenlandic, he has written a valuable Greenlandic grammar, Gronlandsk Sprogldre (Copenhagen, 1888), and, with J. Kjer, has given philology its first Danish- Greenlandic dictionary, Dansk-Gronlandsk Ordbog (1893). In the new Greenlandic Bible, the translation of the books from Joshua to Esther is his work.
John O. Evjen.
RATHERIUS, ra"-ther' i-us: Bishop of Verona; b. near Liege shortly after 887; d. at Namur (36 m. s.e. of Brussels) 974. As a child of five he entered the monastery of Laubach in Hennegau, but
Ratherius Rationalism