The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament. Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik

and cling to his teaching; however, when it is written that she was found pregnant from the Holy Spirit, there is a hidden meaning.” They say: “Those who believe in the plain meaning of things not only demonstrate their foolishness, but blaspheme the living God!” I, the commentator, am not worthy to decide between these two opinions.¹³

       19 Now Yosef, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to subject her to disgrace. So he said, “I will send her away privately.”14

       20 He was thinking this way, but then an angel of YHWH appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Yosef son of David! Do not be afraid to take Miriam, your wife, for what has been formed within her is from the Holy Spirit.

      Is from the Holy Spirit—Since my Jewish and Christian brothers are both mistaken on what the Holy Spirit is, I will explain it to them. It is written in Tanna Devei Eliyahu (chapter 9): “I bear witness before the heavens and the earth that Israel and the nations of the earth, man and woman, manservant and maidservant—the Holy Spirit rests upon all of them in accordance with their actions.”

      If every man adjusts his actions, speech, and thoughts for the better, he will draw the Holy Spirit of God to himself, in that God will help him to do good as is his desire. And further still, in accordance with his good deeds, he will be able to know the hidden and unknown things, and he will be able to know the future, and this is the meaning of the Holy Spirit. This is what was being said in the passage above from Tanna Devei Eliyahu. We will speak more about this concept later.

       21 She is giving birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins.

      He will save, etc.—this means that he will teach the people how to serve YHWH so that they may not sin, and if they do sin, he will teach them how to return in repentance to YHWH and how to return in such a way that they may be saved from their sins. From this section, there is clear evidence that Mattai was written in Hebrew. Take a look, most honored reader: And an angel of YHWH said to her: “Behold you are with child and you shall give birth to a son and you shall call his name Yishma’el, for YHWH has heard your suffering” (Genesis 17:11). Because he has heard is the reason you shall call him Ishmael, for the name Ishmael means “God has heard.”

      It is the same with Isaac: And Abraham called his son Isaac. This name gets its meaning from Sarah’s laughter (Genesis 21:3, 18:12–15). It is the same with Jacob: And his hand was gripped to the ankle [ekev] of Esau, so he called his name Jacob (Genesis 25:26). Even here, the name has the same meaning as the action taking place. And you will see many instances of this where the child is named according to what happens during the time of his birth. If Mattai was written in the Hebrew language, then the angel would have said: “And you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save [yoshia] etc.,” for then in the Hebrew language the name matches the context; but if it was written in Greek, then the name does not match.

       22 All this happened in order to fulfill the word of YHWH that he spoke through the prophet, saying,

       23 “Look! The ‘almah is pregnant and giving birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” which is interpreted, “God is with us.”

      The ‘almah [young woman] is pregnant—this verse is from Isaiah 7:14. Concerning this, there is a great divide between our Jewish and Christian brothers. The Christians have placed this prophecy in Isaiah as the chief foundation of their faith in saying that it prophesied about Yeshua, that he would be born without the strength of a man, citing and the young woman (virgin) will conceive … and this young woman (virgin) is Miriam, who became pregnant without the strength of a man. And our Jewish brothers reject this principle, and the flame of this dispute blazes all the way up to the heavens, and there is not enough water that could extinguish it. With all due respect to our Jewish and Christian brothers who are mistaken in their understanding of these matters of the New Testament, and in order to calm the argument, I must clarify this matter for them.

      It is written: And it was in the days of Ahaz … king of Judah, Retzin king of Aram, and Pekach son of Remaliah king of Israel rose up against Jerusalem to make war with her (Isaiah 7:1), and in verse 4 (ibid.): And say to him: Be firm and be calm, do not fear, and do not lose heart on account of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands. And in verse 10, it is written: And YHWH continued speaking to Ahaz. Our Christian brothers interpret, “behold the young woman [virgin] will conceive” about Miriam, and “she will bear a son” about Yeshua. The verse there speaks about her pregnancy, that it shall be a sign.

      Our Jewish brothers contest in this manner: a) you say that Isaiah prophesied concerning Miriam, but did not Miriam live over six hundred years after Ahaz and Isaiah, and did Isaiah say “will give birth” instead of “has given birth”? And b) didn’t Isaiah say, “Therefore YHWH will give you a sign, behold the young woman is with child and about bear a son”? If the young woman conceiving refers to Miriam, what kind of sign would it have been to Ahaz, since this happened six hundred years after his death? Thus, our Jewish brothers interpret behold the young woman is pregnant as concerning the wife of Isaiah the prophet, as it is written, I will be intimate with the prophetess (Isaiah 8:3). And he called her “young woman” (‘almah), as in how a man has his way with a young woman [‘almah] (Proverbs 30:19).

      And [she] will call him—which is to say, his mother will name him.

      Immanuel—meaning that he will be a complete tzaddik, as the scripture attests (Isaiah 9:5): For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and authority shall be upon his shoulders; and he shall be called Pelei Yo’eṣ (Wonderful Counselor), El Gibbor (Mighty God), Avi-Ad (Everlasting Father), Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace)…. Therefore, Isaiah answered and said to Ahaz that this would be a sign for him, that before the lad knows to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings whom you dread shall be abandoned (Isaiah 7:16), and indeed this was the sign during the days of Ahaz.

      Honored reader, I have brought these two opinions before you, this one saying this and the other saying that, and meanwhile the flame of the controversy has not subsided. However, with all due respect to my Jewish and Christian brothers, they have both interpreted this verse of ours incorrectly. See now, dear reader, that from verse 20, beginning with He was thinking until verse 24, beginning with Yosef woke up, everything Yosef saw was in a dream, as it is written, And an angel of YHWH appeared to him in a dream. And the angel explained: “She will give birth to a son and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins”; and the angel again said to him in the dream: “In order to fulfill the word of YHWH that he spoke through the prophet.” This means that just as the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled to Ahaz when he told him that his wife would “conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel,” so, too, the child that will be born of Miriam shall be called Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.¹⁵

      Therefore, the prophecy is not cited here because she became pregnant but because of the name they gave him. This is why the name El Immanu (i.e., Immanuel, God is with us) is repeated. This is only about the name, not the pregnancy. Look further on in chapter 7, concerning the prophecy of Jeremiah, and you will see that it is the same there. Now the difficulty that our Jewish brothers have with the New Testament is gone, and in these words there is the power to quiet the baseless hatred in the heart of everyone who understands.

       24 Yosef woke up from his sleep and did what the angel of YHWH had commanded. He brought Miriam into his house,

       25 but he did not know her until after she had given birth to a son [her firstborn]. And they named him Yeshua.

      Her firstborn—this means that she had other children after the birth of Yeshua, which is made clear in Mattai 13:55 and Markos 6:3: “Is he not the son of the craftsman? Is not his mother’s name Miriam, and his brothers Ya’akov and Yosei and Shimon and Yehudah?” However, Professor Biesenthal, in his commentary on Luke 2:7, put forth this opinion and decided