Not at all implausible. Figure, conservatively, 1 generation = 30 years. In one generation, you have 2 ancestors; in 2 generations you have 4 ancestors. Rashi lived 900 years, or 30 generations ago. Therefore you had 2^30 ancestors back then, which is just about 1 billion people, which is more people than were on Earth at that time.
I'm not disputing the mathematical possibility, just the idea that most Ashkenazim are descended from Rashi. How could this be? Why would that be?
I've read that there were only about 20-50,000 Ashkenazi Jews in the whole world at that time. Put another way, there is a large probability (over 99.9999%) that if you are Ashkenazi you are descended from all the Ashkenazi Jews of that time.
Okay, that makes some sense, I think.
But then it's not significant.
Thanks for the link. I probably didn't do Rabbi Wein justice. Then again what he told me was a variation of what Jeff wrote. Rabbi Wein said that there were roughly 30 Ashkenazi families total in the world. I don't remember much more about his complete response, except the percentage.
Right, and it's all the more meaningless that Rashi is descended from King David, as one article mentioned.
The statistics are very plausible. Remember that the entirety of ashkenazi Jewry at Rashi's time numbered in the tens of thousands, at best. And don't forget that rabbinic families have always had a greater chance of survival (wealth, connections, etc.)
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