Monday of the Third Week of Advent (December 18, 2017)
Gospel (Mat 1:18-25)
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
Gen 3:15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman [whom you seduced with your wiles],
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel [to bite him].”
Rashi’s Commentary
And I will put enmity—Your sole intention was that Adam should die by eating it first and that you should then take Eve for yourself (Genesis Rabbah 20:5), and you came to speak to Eve first only because women are easily influenced and know how to influence their husbands; therefore “I will put enmity.”
He will crush your head—Like (Deu 9:21), “And crushed it,” which Onkelos translates as וְשָׁפִית יָתֵיהּ
And you will strike his heel—As you will have no height (not stand erect) you will be able to strike him only on the heel, but even at that spot you will kill him. The word תְּשׁוּפֶנוּ is of the same import as the verb in (Isa 40:24): “He blows (נָשַׁף) on them.” When a serpent comes to bite, it blows with a kind of hissing sound, and since they constitute “a play upon words” by sounding similar, they are both used here.
19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away quietly.
Gen 6:9
9 These are the records of the progeny of Noah [Noah’s name having been mentioned, “The name of the righteous will be a blessing”].
Noah was a righteous man and blameless in his time, and Noah walked with God [i.e., with his support].
Rashi’s Commentary
These are the records of the progeny of Noah—Noah was a righteous man—Since the text mentions him it sings his praise, in accordance with what is said, (Pro 10:7) “The name of the righteous will be a blessing.” Another explanation for why the names of the children are not mentioned immediately following “These are the records of the progeny of Noah”: To teach you that the real progeny of righteous people are their good deeds (Genesis Rabbah 30:6).
In his time—Some of our Rabbis explain it (this word) to his credit: he was righteous even in his generation; it follows that had he lived in a generation of righteous people he would have been even more righteous owing to the force of good example. Others, however, explain it to his discredit: in comparison with his own generation he was accounted righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Abraham he would have been accounted as of no importance (cf. Sanhedrin 108a).
Noah walked with God—In the case of Abraham Scripture says, (Gen 24:40) “The Lord, before whom I have walked.” Noah needed God’s support to uphold him in righteousness, Abraham drew his moral strength from himself and walked in his righteousness by his own effort (Genesis Rabbah 30:10).
Gen 38:24
Now it was about three months later [the greater part of the first, the greater part of the last, and all of the middle] that Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law
Tamar has played the harlot, and she is also pregnant by harlotry.”
And Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!” [Tamar being the daughter of Shem, a priest (see Rashi on 14:18 and Lev 21:9)]
Rashi’s Commentary
And let her be burned—Ephraim the Disputant said in the name of Rabbi Meir: She was the daughter of Shem who was a priest (see Rashi on Gen 14:18) on this account they sentenced her to be burnt (cf. Lev 21:9; Genesis Rabbah 85:10).
Lev 19:20
If a man sleeps carnally with a woman who is a [Canaanite] maidservant [half bondswoman-half freewoman] promised [i.e., betrothed] to another man [a Hebrew bondsman] but who has not been fully ransomed [with money] nor given her freedom [by writ], there must be punishment [towards her (but not his) receiving stripes]. They shall not, however, be put to death, because she had not been completely freed [but if she had been freed, the betrothal is bona fide, and the death penalty obtains].
Rashi’s Commentary
Promised to another man— נֶחֱרֶפֶת signifies: destined and designated to a man. I do not know of any similar use of it in Scripture.—And it is of a Canaanite maidservant who is partly a maidservant and partly a free-woman and who is betrothed to a Hebrew servant who is permitted to marry a maidservant, that Scripture is here speaking (Torath Kohanim 19:52; Keritot 11a).
Deu 22:23
If there is a virgin girl betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her [“the breach calls to the thief”—if she remained at home, this would not happen],
Rashi’s Commentary
And another man finds her in the city—(Because he found her outdoors) therefore he lay with her: a breach in the wall invites the thief; if she had remained at home (as becomes a chaste Jewish girl) this would not have happened to her (Sifrei Devarim 242:2-3).
20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife,
25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Gen 24:40
He said to me, “The Lord, before whom I have walked,
will send his angel with you and make your journey successful, and you can get a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s family.
Lev 21:9
And the [betrothed or married] daughter of a man who is a priest, if she defiles herself by fornication, she disgraces her father [They say about him: “Cursed be he who begot such as she! Cursed be he who raised such as she!”]; she must be burned in fire.
Deu 9:21
I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, and ground it very small, even until it was as fine as dust; and I threw the dust into a stream that flowed down from the mountain.
Pro 10:7
The name [i.e., mention] of the righteous will be [accompanied by] a blessing,
but the name of the wicked will rot [from lack of mention].
Isa 40:24
Even as though they were not planted,
even as though they were not sown,
even as though their trunk was not rooted in the ground,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
This work, "Monday 3rd Week Advent," is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0
Joseph Angel by Free Bible Images is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Christmas Jesus Birth by Free Bible Images is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0