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Is Rabbi Solomon Jarchi the same as Rashi? I saw Jarchi on the Internet on a Google search awhile ago, that it was Salomo son of Isaac, a French Biblical commentator and was wondering if it was the same thing as Rashi.

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Can you cite where you saw it? – Double AA♦ Jul 19 '12 at 20:19
OK, now this is a great question. – Seth J Jul 19 '12 at 20:56

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Yes, they are the same, according to this article. It was apparently his last name (maybe what he went by in legal papers).

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interesting source. – Menachem Jul 19 '12 at 21:21
Thanks B.A., +1. – Adam Mosheh Aug 1 '12 at 22:13
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To quote S. from On The Main Line:

Rashi was known by Christians as Rabbi Solomon Jarchi (Yarchi) because of a mistake, the mistake being that it was thought that 1) he was from Lunel and 2) that the yud stood for ירחי, which was Hebrew for "from Lunel" (Lunel as in luna as in moon).

This mistake was so entrenched that the Chida (page 6 in linked PDF) seriously considers it in his Shem Hagedolim in his entry on Rashi. As I have noted elsewhere, by the 18th century Christian scholars were already noting that it is a mistake, and by the mid 1800s it almost became common knowledge.

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+1, thanks josh – Adam Mosheh Aug 1 '12 at 22:13
Do we know where "As I have noted elsewhere" refers to? I wasn't able to find it on the site (which is a little hard to search through) – Menachem Aug 2 '12 at 8:21
The Chida does say that it may have been Rashi's father who was from Lunel. – Menachem Aug 2 '12 at 8:42
unsure. a search on his blog for rashi lunel yields a partial result, but you could ask him. The book Toldos Rashi says the same, identifying Johannes Buxtorf the first as the first Christian scholar to make this error, and that others followed him in the error. See books.google.com/… – josh waxman Aug 2 '12 at 10:19
up vote 6 down vote

"Rashi was also called Jarchi, derived from the name of the city in which he lived, "Lunel." Jerach being the Hebrew, as lune is the French for moon."

~taken from this webpage.

~The Chida brings this in Shem HaGedolim, in his entry on Rashi (page 6 of this pdf)

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Jerach = Yerach – Adam Mosheh Jul 19 '12 at 21:40

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