Third Sunday of Advent (December 17, 2017)
Gospel (Joh 1:6-8, 19-28)
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not the light, but he came to bear witness of that light.
John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah
19 This was the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
Deu 17:9-11
9 And you shall go to the Levitical priests [i.e., from the tribe of Levi] and to the judge who is in office in those days [even if he is inferior to his predecessors, you must abide by his ruling], and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.
Rashi’s Commentary
And you shall go to the Levitical priests—i.e., to the priests, who descend from of the tribe of Levi.
And to the judge who is in office in those days—The last apparently redundant words suggest: and even though he is not as eminent as other judges that have been before him, you must obey him—you have none else but the judge that lives in your days (i.e. you are only concerned with him) (Rosh Hashanah 25b).
10 You must act according to the decisions of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they teach you.
11 According to the terms of the law that they teach you and the judgment that they give you shall you do. You shall not turn aside from the thing that they tell you, to the right or to the left [even if they tell you that right is left and left is right].
Rashi’s Commentary
To the right or to the left, even if he (the judge) tells you about what appears to you to be right that it is left, or about what appears to you to be left that it is right, you have to obey him; how much the more is this so if actually he tells you about what is evidently right that it is right and about what is left that it is left (cf. Sifrei Devarim 154:5).
Deu 24:8
8 Be careful regarding the plague-spot of leprosy to take great care [not to pluck out the signs of uncleanliness and not to cut the leprous spot] and to do according to all that the Levitical priests instruct you [whether to quarantine, to confirm, or to declare clean]. As I have commanded them, so you must be careful to do.
Rashi’s Commentary
Be careful regarding the plague-spot of leprosy—That you pluck not out the symptoms of uncleanness, nor cut out the leprous spot (Makkot 22a).
According to all that the Levitical priests instruct you—Whether to place the leper in quarantine, or to declare him definitely unclean or clean.
20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
And he answered, “No.”
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Deu 18:15-18
15 A prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me [i.e., just as I am among you and from your brothers] the Lord your God will raise up for you [in my place, and so, from prophet to prophet]. You must listen to him.
Rashi’s Commentary
A prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me—This means: One who is as I am among you, from your brothers, so will he raise up for you in my stead, and so likewise from prophet to prophet throughout all ages.
16 This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.”
17 The Lord said to me: “They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth. And he will speak to them all that I command him.
22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
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23 He said, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
25 They questioned him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them saying, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know.
27 It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Reading 1 (Isa 61:1-2)
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom to the captives
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
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Lev 25:9
9 And you shall proclaim with the trumpet blasts [in proclamation of the Jubilee] on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement shall you sound the trumpet throughout your land.
Rashi’s Commentary
On the tenth . . . of the . . . month; on the Day of Atonement—Since Scripture states “on the Day of Atonement,” do I not know that it is “on the tenth . . . of the . . . month”? Why, then, does Scripture add “on the tenth . . . of the . . . month”? But it adds these words in order to tell you: the obligation to sound the trumpet on the tenth day of the month sets aside the Sabbath (supersedes the Sabbath Law) throughout all your land i.e., on the Day of Atonement of the Jubilee year; whilst the blowing of the trumpet on the New Year, the first day of that month, does not supersede the Sabbath Law “throughout your entire land,” but only at the law-court alone where this prohibition does not apply (see Ramban on our verse). (Rosh Hashanah 29b; Torath Kohanim 25:16).
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This work, "Third Sunday of Advent," is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0
John the Baptist by the LumoProject
Parable Good Samaritan by the LumoProject
John the Baptist by the LumoProject