Researchers Confirm Rashi’s Exact Burial Site in Troyes, France After Centuries of Uncertainty
The longstanding mystery surrounding the precise burial location of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, has been resolved following the discovery of an ancient manuscript in the Oxford Library. Rashi, born in 1040 in Troyes, France, studied in Ashkenaz before returning to Troyes to lead a yeshiva and compose his works until his death on the 29th of Tammuz, 1105. After the expulsion of Jews from France at the end of the Rishonim period, the gravestones in Troyes’ Jewish cemetery were removed, and the Jewish community ceased to reside there for centuries. This led to rumors that Rashi might have been buried elsewhere, such as Prague or Worms, though these claims lacked credible sources and contradicted local traditions.
In 2024, ahead of a pilgrimage by students from the Beit Yisrael Vizhnitz Yeshiva in London to the graves of early sages in France, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Hager and researchers uncovered a rare manuscript titled "Seder HaYachas" from late the 11th century, written in France and preserved in Oxford. This document explicitly states that Rashi was buried in Troyes, aligning with references by his grandson Rabbeinu Tam calling Troyes the "city of my ancestors’ graves." Further confirmation came from French government researchers who recently found additional contemporary non-Jewish sources and detailed maps of the Jewish cemetery in Troyes, which they plan to publish by the end of summer.
Last week, the Vizhnitz yeshiva students visited the graves of the sages in France, including a prayer and completion of the Talmudic tractate Bava Batra at the site of Rashi’s grave in Troyes, coinciding with Rashi’s yahrzeit. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Gabay, chairman of the "Ohel HaTzadikim" organization, met with local lawyers, community representatives, and government officials to arrange for an appropriate tombstone to be erected at Rashi’s confirmed burial site. This will enable thousands of Jews to visit, pray, and seek spiritual and material blessings at the grave of this foundational Jewish scholar.
