Christmas is our most important holiday, and its literature is correspondingly rich. Yet until now no adequate bundle of Christmas treasures in poetry and prose has found its way onto the Internet for Winter, Christmas, the birth of Christ, Santa Claus, and so much more..Mary Blessed Beyond all Women
Mary was born and raised in Nazareth, the child of an average family. She played on the streets, as the other children did, and she was subject to parental discipline. Joseph knew her, even though he was four years older. All houses in Nazareth were in the same neighborhood because it was a small town. The biggest event that could occur in Nazareth was for a father to take his children to the nearby Greek city of Sepphoris to shop in the bazaars. The people were knit closely in their daily lives, and the women met in the morning at the village well.
When Mary reached her thirteenth birthday, it was permissible to ask for her in marriage. The proper form was followed. Joseph first asked his parents if he could marry Mary. He was seventeen, an apprentice carpenter in the neighborhood and more than a year away from having his own shop. It was assumed that a serious-minded young Jew of seventeen was a responsible adult.
Joseph’s parents discussed the matter of marriage and, in time, paid a formal call on Mary’s parents. The entire neighborhood knew in advance what negotiations were at hand, and, from draped doorway to draped doorway, the women discussed it as they washed the stones in front of their houses. Mary was not supposed to know of the matter, but had ex facto knowledge of it all along and had made known her wishes to her mother and father. Joseph, who thought it was a deep, pending secret, was amazed and embarrassed to find that the boss carpenter and the tradesmen were not only aware of his wishes, but looked at him archly, stroked their beards, and made him the butt of unsmiling jests.
The parents engaged in their formal discussion. It was necessary, as part of the little ceremonial, to talk of a dowry, but Mary’s people had none. Their economic status was no better, no worse, than Joseph’s: as long as the man of the house remained in good health, they would not starve.
When the two mothers and two fathers were agreed, the qiddushin took place. This is a formal betrothal, and much more binding than any other. The qiddushin has the finality of marriage. Once the marriage contract was negotiated, even though the marriage ceremony had not occurred, the bridegroom-to-be could not be rid of his betrothed except through divorce. The qiddushin, in Judea, also entitled the couple to lawful sexual relations, even though each of the parties was still living at home with his parents. However, in the country of Galilee and in the south, the people had renounced the privilege more than five hundred years before, and purity was maintained through the final marriage vows.
Still, if Joseph had died between qiddushin and marriage, Mary would have been his legal widow. If, in the same period, another man had had knowledge of her, Mary would have been punished as an adulteress. The waiting time was spent, according to custom, in shopping for a small home and furniture. The nissu’in, or wedding ceremony, would be almost anticlimactic. A big part of the ceremony was the solemn welcome of the bridegroom to his bride at the door of his new home.
Throughout the engagement, Mary, of course, lived with her parents and accepted the daily chores set out for her. At a time midway between engagement and formal marriage, Mary was alone one day and was visited by the angel Gabriel. She was alarmed, to be sure, but not as frightened as she would have been had she not heard stories of such visits from the elders. Mary lived after the days of the great prophets, the great visions, the visitations.
Gabriel stood before her and saw a dark, modest child of fourteen. “Rejoice, child of grace,” he said. “The Lord is your helper. You are blessed beyond all women.” Mary did not like the sound of the last sentence. Her hands began to shake. Why should she, a little country girl, be blessed beyond all women? Did it mean that she was about to die? Was she being taken, perhaps, to a far-off place, never again to see her mother and her father and-and Joseph?
She said nothing. She tried to look away, not only because of terror but because it was considered bad manners in Judea for one to stare directly into the eyes of another, but her eyes was magnetized. She stared, and lowered her eyes, and stared again.
