Great Regulars: Speaking to [Elie] Wiesel by phone,

I asked him whether he believed there was a lineage of the kind [Harold] Rosenberg saw, from Rashi to secular literary critics and commentators. He was skeptical: "I hope so, anyway. But if the commentator doesn't know who Rashi was, it's impossible. What they are doing may be in the same line, but I wouldn't say it's a continuation or a result or a consequence." Nor did he agree that, in some cultural sense, Jews are predisposed to commentary as a literary form: "I as a Jew would like to say that, I would be proud. But let's be honest--other cultures also have their commentators. What was Pascal, what was Descartes? They are also commentators."

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: A Nation of Commentators

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