Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi of Troyes)

Studying in the Rhineland yeshivot of Worms and Mainz, Rashi returned to his native Troyes in Champagne, where he earned his livelihood cultivating vineyards while establishing an academy of international renown. His daughters married leading scholars who founded the Tosafist school.

Rashi's commentary achieved what no previous scholar had: elucidating the plain sense (Peshat) of biblical texts while providing a running line-by-line pedagogical guide through the dense legal debates of the Talmud, surviving through the trauma of the First Crusade.