Fourth Sunday of Lent (March 11, 2018)
Year A Gospel (Joh 9)
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
3 Jesus said, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
4 We must do the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. Night is coming, when no one can work.
5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Gen 1:4
God saw that the light was good [and that it was not appropriate for light and darkness to serve in combination], and God separated the light from the darkness [making the day the domain of the first and the night the domain of the second].
Rashi’s Commentary
God saw that the light was good, and God separated—Here, also, we must depend upon the statement of the Aggadah: He saw that the wicked were unworthy of using it (the light); he, therefore, separated it, reserving it for the righteous in the world to come (Chagigah 12a). But according to the plain sense explain it thus: He saw that the light was good, and that it was not seemly that light and darkness should function together in a confused manner. He therefore limited this one’s sphere of activity to the daytime, and this one’s sphere of activity to the nighttime (see Genesis Rabbah 3:6).
6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground, and made mud of the saliva, and put the mud to his eyes,
7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which is translated, “Sent”). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
Exo 4:11
But the Lord said to him, “Who gave man a mouth, or who makes one mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
Rashi’s Commentary
Who gave man a mouth etc.?—Who taught you to speak when you were arraigned in judgment before Pharaoh on account of the Egyptian whom you slew?
Or who makes one mute—Who made Pharaoh dumb so that he could not insist upon the carrying out of his command to kill you? Who made his ministers deaf so that they could not hear when he gave orders concerning you? And who made the executioners blind, that they did not see when you fled from the platform (raised place of execution) and escaped? (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 10)
Is it not I whose name is the Lord do all this?
8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who formerly saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said, “This is he.”
Still others said, “No, but he is like him.
He insisted, “I am he.”
10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?”
11 He replied, “The man who is called Jesus made mud, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”
12 They said to him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I do not know.”
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind.
14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made
the mud and opened his eyes.
15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied mud to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.”
17 So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”
And he replied, “He is a prophet.”
25 He then replied, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see!”
26 So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become his disciples too, do you?”
28 They reviled him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses!
29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this fellow, we do not know where he is from.”
30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes.
31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he hears him.
32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 He asked, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and he is the one who is speaking with you.”
38 And he said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see will see, and that those who see will become blind.”
40 Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, “We are not blind too, are we?”
41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight,
19 and asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?”
20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.
21 But how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already decided that if anyone acknowledged him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.”
Year B Gospel (Joh 3:14-21)
14 As Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
Num 21:7-9
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he remove the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
Rashi’s Commentary
So Moses prayed—From this we may learn that he of whom one seeks forgiveness should not be so cruel as not to forgive (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19).
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it on a pole; and let whoever is bitten [even if he were bitten by a dog or an ass, he would waste away] look at it [even without gazing at it intently] and live.”
Rashi’s Commentary
Whoever is bitten—Even though a dog or ass had bitten him, he felt the effects of the injury and became enfeebled more and more (cf. Tanchuma); only that the bite of a snake kills more speedily. On this account it is stated here: “will look at it”—a mere glance. But in the case of the snake’s bite it is stated he would gaze—“if the snake had bitten a man, he would gaze,” for the snake’s bite was not so quick to heal unless he gazed intently (cf. Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 3:9). Our Rabbis said: But could the bronze snake cause death or life? But the explanation is that when the Israelites in gazing at the snake looked up on high and subjected their hearts to their Father in heaven, they would be healed, but if not, they would waste away (Rosh Hashanah 29a).
Rosh Hashanah 29a:7
Similarly, you can say: The verse states: “Make a snake and put it on a pole; and let everyone that is bitten look at it and live” (Num 21:8). Once again it may be asked: Did the snake kill, or did the snake preserve life? Rather, when the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in heaven, they were healed, but if not, they rotted from their snakebites.
9 And Moses made a bronze snake [since the Lord called it “נָחָשׁ,” he made it of נְחשֶׁת] and put it on a pole. And it was, if the snake had bitten a man, he would gaze [intently] at the bronze snake, he lived.
Rashi’s Commentary
A bronze snake—He had not been told to make it of bronze, but Moses said, “The Holy One, blessed be he, terms it נָחָשׁ; I will therefore make it of נְחשֶׁת—one term fitting the other term” (Genesis Rabbah 31:8).
15 so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Gen 22:12
And he said: “Do not lay your hand forth to the boy, and do not do anything to him. For now I know [i.e., I can counter all objections to my election of you; for it is evident to all] that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Rashi’s Commentary
Do not lay your hand forth to the boy to slaughter him. Then he (Abraham) said to God, “If this be so, I have come here for nothing; let me at least inflict a wound on him and draw some blood from him.” God replied, “Do not do anything (מְאוּמָה) to him”—inflict no blemish (מוּם) on him (Genesis Rabbah 56:7).
For now I know—From now on, I have a reply to give to Satan and to the nations who wonder at the love I bear you: I have an opening of the mouth (i.e. I have an excuse, a reason to give them) now that they see that you fear God (Genesis Rabbah 56:7).
17 For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 This is the verdict, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so
This work is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0
that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.