[Avodah] Rashi's income

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 05, 2011 at 10:08:58AM -0500, R Dr Meir Shinnar wrot to Areivim:
: While Chaim Soloveichik argues against the common statement that rashi
: was a wine grower, Avraham Grossman argues that he traded with non Jews,
: and brings proof from a teshuva of rashi (teshuvot rashi siman 180,
: page 200) dealing with a commercial dispute he had with a nonjew.

: However, to argue that he made money on his yeshiva - rashi is explicit
: that even someone who paid to learn is expected to teach for free
: (mishle 23:23), and it is clear that the standard from early ashkenaz
: was not to pay directly rabbanim

On Wed, Jan 05, 2011 at 07:09:17PM +0200, R Eli Turkel wrote on the
same thread (not in reply):
:> ...    Rashi made money from his yeshivah, and there is no evidence
:> that he had any other source of income.

: see the seforim blog
: http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/08/mayer-i-gruber-how-did-rashi-make.html
: for a discussion of how Rashi made his income

: "Apparently, it was from the funding he received from communal assets
: paid on behalf of his students by the communities from which they came,[26]
: Rashi was able to dress himself, his wife, and his daughters in the style
: that befits a spiritual, intellectual, and communal leader of Jewry
: far beyond the boundaries of Troyes."

With all due respect to R' Dr Mayer I Gruber (the author of the article
on the Sefarim blog), the shu"t seems pretty open-and-shut proof that
he had means of earning money other than teaching. It's about Rashi
having a business partner who was oveid AZ and the situation required
him to make an oath, but Rashi didn't make him do it -- lest the oath
be made in the name of Yeishu. And after that Rashi resolved not to do
any large business with an oveid AZ without a contract.

Also, given his comment on Mishlei, I would be inclined to assume that
the tuition in Rashi's yeshiva was used for bedeq habayis, not paying
the rebbe.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Despair is the worst of ailments. No worries
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