Rashi & the Jews of Ashkenaz

Trying to read the Torah or Talmud before the 11th century would be like trying to read a poem written in Old English. The characters were unfamiliar, the references obscure, and the story hard to make out. Amidst the violent First Crusade, a Jewish scholar known as Rashi illuminated a path for the Jews of Ashkenaz who, without him, might have been lost... to the Dark Ages.