Did Rashi have nevuah?

Question

I've heard that nevuah ended about 2000 years ago when the last neviim died. But I've also heard that Rashi had some kind of nevuah. If he didn't, then how could Rashi know so much hidden knowledge about the Torah without nevuah? Did nevuah actually end?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, indeed we do not have prophets today, and Chazal say that the last prophets were Hagai, Zecharia and Malachi.

Rashi's momentous perush on most of the Bible and most of the gemara speak for themselves, however here are a few quotes (loose translations by me, except for the last Rashi) about his special work (this list can go on forever):

The Shla:

כי בכל דיבור ודיבור של רש"י יש בו נסתרים, עניינים מופלאים, כי חיבר החיבור שלו ברוח הקודש.‏

Because each and every word by Rashi contains hidden and wonderful things, as he composed his perush with Ruach HaKodesh.

The Chida:

ומכלל הדברים נראה שרש"י כתב פרושו ע"פ הסוד ויש בדבריו רזין עילאין ולכן התענה תרי"ג תעניות ומשה רבנו עליו השלום אמר לו אשריך וכו'.‏

And it seems that Rashi wrote his commentary based on the Torah Secrets (sod), and it contains heavenly secrets (razin ilain), and therefore he fasted 613 fasts, and Moshe Rabbenu said to him 'well done' (ashrecha).

Or HaChayim (BeMidbar 26, 16):

ורש"י ז"ל רוח הקודש הופיע בו...‏

Rabbi Nachman of Breslev:

שרש"י זכרונו לברכה הוא כמו אחיה של התורה הקדושה...‏

That Rashi z"l is like the brother of the holy Torah.

Rabbi Menachem ben Zerach, Tzeda LaDerech:

ושרתה רה"ק על רבינו שלמה וגברה ידו בגמ' וחבר פירושים על הבבלי בלשון צח וקצר אשר לפניו לא קם כמוהו ואלמלא הוא נשתכחה דרך הבבלי מישראל.‏

And Ruach HaKodesh lay on Rabbenu Shelomo and his hand was strong in the gemara, and he composed commentaries on the Bavli in a short and clear tongue, and there was no one like him before, and without him the Bavli would have been forgotten from the people of Israel.

And we can conclude with Rashi on himself:

ואני לא היה לי לא רב ולא עוזר בכל הבנין הזה אלא כמו שהראוני מן השמים

And I had no teacher or aid concerning this entire edifice; only as they showed me from heaven.

Answer 2

No. Rashi was a tremendously great scholar and recipient of oral traditions from the schools of Germany, but he did not receive supernatural ruah hakodesh.

The Ohr Hahaim (who lived a few centuries after Rashi) writes in his commentary to Genesis (6: 3) that after the destruction of the Temple prophecy ceased but Ruach Hakodesh continued. (I presume this refers to Chazal; the sages of the Talmud). Afterwards, however, there is no ruah hakodesh, and there is not even traces of "reiah hakodesh".

"Afterwards" seems to refer to the post-Talmudic era. (References to "these days" to refer to the post-Talmudic era are common in rabbinic literature):

ומשחרב המעון נסתם חזון ונשארה בחינת רוח הקודש, וכשנסתתמו עיני ישראל אין אתנו משיג ריח הקודש ואין צריך לומר רוח הקודש

A more limited form of his statement can be found in the Tosefta Sota (13:3), Bavli Sotah (48b) and Sanhedrin (11a) which states that after Haggai Zekharia and Malakhi died, ruah hakodesh was removed from Israel.

Note also the following passage penned by R. Dr. Haym Soloveitchik :

Most people...have heard in their childhood-the story goes back to the fourteenth-century Spain-that Rashi's commentary was written be-ruah hakodesh (inspired by the Holy Spirit.) Plausibly enough, for how else could he have known all of the minute details of the countless Talmudic narratives, not to speak of is command of the underlying concepts of all the talmudic discussion...? I here suggest that these astonishing feats can be explained without recourse to miracles-a proposal, if you wish, by a litavk to counter claims of the Holy Spirit. [2]

He proceeds to frame Rashi's knowledge as stemming from tradition.

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[2] The 'Third Yeshiva of Bavel'. Published in Collected Writings II page 151.