Rabbinic Support

A major point of conflict is the identity of the Servant mentioned in Isaiah 52:13. HaDavar’s position is that it refers to the personal Messiah. All ancient rabbis with one exception took this passage to be Messianic as well. Rashi in 1050, did not. For a thousand years, with only one exception, the rabbis agree that this speaks of the personal Messiah.

• Midrash Tanchuma (Isa. 52:13):

He was more exalted than Abraham, more extolled than Moses, higher than the archangels.^[1]

• Midrash Thanhumi:

Rabbi Nachman says, “the word ‘man’ in the passage… refers to the Messiah, the Son of David, as it is written, ‘Behold the man whose name is Zemah;’ there Jonathan interprets, Behold the man Messiah; as it is said, ‘a man of pains and known to sickness.'”^[2]

• Targum Yalkut II:338:7:

He shall be exalted and extolled-He shall be Higher than Abraham, higher than Moses, higher than the ministering angels.^[3]

• Pesiqta (on Isaiah 61:10):

The world-fathers (the patriarchs) will one day in the month of Nisan arise and say to (the Messiah): Ephraim our righteous Anointed, although we are Thy grandparents yet Thou art greater than we, for Thou hast borne the sins of our children, as it says (Isaiah 53:4.5): ‘But surely he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and through his wounds we are healed’. Great oppressions were laid upon Thee, as it says (Isaiah 53:8): ‘By oppression and judgment he was taken away; but who considered in his time, that he was cut off out of the land of the living, that he was stricken because of the sins of our children’, as it says (Isaiah 53:6b);’ But the Lord hath laid on him the guilt of us all’.^[4]

• Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon:

In fact the Messiah is such a Prophet as it is stated in the Midrash on the verse, ‘Behold My servant shall prosper’ (Isaiah 52:13)…Moses by the miracles which he wrought drew but a single nation to the worship of God, but the Messiah will draw all nations to the worship of God.^[5]

• Zohar (Part II, fol. 212a and Part III, fol. 218a, Amsterdam edition):

When Israel was in the Holy Land, they had their sufferings and afflictions removed from them by their prayers and sacrifices; but now the Messiah removes them from the children of the world. When the Holy One, blessed be He, wishes the recovery of the children of the world, He afflicts one righteous person from their midst, and for His sake all are healed. How is this known: It is written, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities…and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5).^[6]

• Midrash (To Ruth 2:14):

“And dip thy morsel in the vinegar” refers to the sufferings (of the Messiah) as it is said: “But he was wounded because of our transgression.”^[7]

• Pesikta Rabbati ch. 36 & 37, Bereshith Rabbati by R. Moses HaDarshan of Narbonne (53:7):

Then took the Messiah lovingly all the sufferings upon himself. (Piska 36:142)^[8]

• Elijah de Vidas:

The meaning of ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities’ is, that since the Messiah bears our iniquities, which produce the effect of His being bruised, if follows that who so will not admit that the Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for them himself.^[9]

• Sanhedrin (98a):

The Rabanan say that Messiah’s name is The Suffering Scholar of Rabbi’s House (or The Leper Scholar) for it is written, “Surely he Hath born our grief and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.”^[10]

• Sanhedrin (98b):

Messiah…What is His name? The disciples of the School of the Rabbi (Jehudah Ha-Nassi, the author of the Mishnah) said: Cholaja (The sickly), for it says (Isaiah 53:4): ‘Surely he hath born our sicknesses and carried our pains; and we did regard him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted’.^[11]

• Rabbi Moses Alshech:

Our rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the King Messiah, and we shall ourselves also adhere to the same view.^[12]

• Abarbanel:

The first question is to ascertain to whom (this scripture) refers: for the learned among the Nazarenes expound it of the man who was crucified in Jerusalem at the end of the second temple and who according to them was the Son of God and took flesh in the virgin’s womb as it is stated in their writings. Jonathan ben Uzziel interpreted it the Targum of the future Messiah; but this is also the opinion of our own learned men in the majority of the Midrashim.^[13]

• Targum Jonathan:

Behold, my servant the Messiah…^[14]

• Zohar(Part II, fol. 212a to Exodus 33:23):

It is written, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions’ etc. The Messiah…summons every sickness, every pain, and every chastisement of Israel; they all come and rest upon Him. And were it not that He had thus lightened them off Israel and taken them upon Himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel’s chastisements for the transgression of the law; and this is that which is written: ‘Surely our sickness he hath carried’.^[15]

• Maimonides:

What is to be the manner of Messiah’s advent, … there shall rise up one of whom none have known before, and the signs and wonders which they shall see performed by him will be proofs of his true origin. … And Isaiah speaks … of the time when he will appear, without his father or mother or family being known “He came up as a sucker before him, and as a root out of the dry earth, etc.” But the unique phenomenon attending his manifestation is, that all the kings of the earth will be thrown into terror at the fame of him … that they will lay their hands upon their mouth; in the words of Isaiah, when describing the manner in which the kings will hearken to him, “At him kings will shut their mouth; for that which had not been told them have they seen, and that which they had not heard they have perceived.”^[16]

• Luchoth Habberith (242a):

He (the Messiah) will give Himself and His life over unto death, and His blood will atone for His people.^[17]

• Abraham Farissol (to Isaiah 53):

In this Parasha (Chapter) there seem to be considerable resemblances and allusions to the work of the Christian Messiah and to the events which are asserted to have happened to Him, so that no other prophecy is to be found the gist and subject of which can be so immediately applied to Him.” (Unfortunately, after this admission he argues against its fulfillment in Jesus and seeks to apply it to Israel suffering as a nation.)^[18]

• Midrash Cohen:

Elijah says to the Messiah: “Bear the suffering and punishment of thy Lord, with which he chastises thee for the sins of Israel, as it is written, ‘He is pressed for our rebellion-crushed for our iniquities’ until the end come.^[19]

• R. Huna in the name of R. Acha:

All sufferings are divided into three parts. One part goes to David and the Patriarchs, and another to the generations of the rebellion (rebellious Israel), and the third to King Messiah.^[20]

• Mahsor, Rabbi Eliezer Kalir (17th C):

Messiah our Righteousness is departed from us: horror hath seized us, and we have none to justify us. He hath born the yoke of our iniquities, and our transgression, and was wounded because of our transgression. He beareth our sins on his shoulder, that he may find pardon for our iniquities. We shall be healed by his wound, at the time that the Eternal will create him (the Messiah) as a new creature. O bring him up from the circle of the earth, raise him up from the land of Seir, to assemble us on Mt. Lebanon, a second time by the power of Yinon.^[21]

• Commentary of Rabbi Yepheth ben ‘Ali:

As for myself, I am inclined with Benjamin of Nehavend, to regard it as alluding to the Messiah … He (the prophet) thus gives us to understand two things: In the first instance, that the Messiah will only reach his highest degree of honor after long and severe trials; and secondly, that these trials will be sent upon him as a kind of a sign, so that if he finds himself under the yoke of misfortunes while remaining pious in his actions, he may know that he is the designated one. … The expression “my servant” is applied to the Messiah as it is applied to his ancestor in the verse, “I have sworn to David my servant.”^[22]

• Bereshith Rabbah:

The Holy One gave Messiah the opportunity to save souls but to be severely chastised: and forthwith the Messiah accepted the chastisements of love, as it is written, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted.” And when Israel is sinful, the Messiah seeks mercy upon them, as it is written, “By his stripes we were healed.” And, “He carried the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”^[23]

• Lechah Tovah:

And let his kingdom be exalted, in the days of the Messiah, of whom it is said, “Behold my servant shall prosper; he will be high and exalted, and lofty exceedingly.^[24]

• Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai:

Messiah, the son of Ephraim, will die there, and Israel will mourn for him. And afterwards the Holy One will reveal to them Messiah, the son of David, whom Israel will decide to stone, saying, thou spakest falsely; already is the Messiah slain … and so they will despise him, as it is written, “Despised and rejected of men.”^[25]

• Rabbi Moshe Kohen Ibn Crispin:

I am pleased to interpret it in accordance of our Rabbis, of the King Messiah, and will be careful, of far as I am able, to adhere to the literal sense: thus, possibly, I shall be free from the fancied and far fetched interpretations of which other have been guilty. This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah, who is to come and deliver Israel, and his life for the day when he arrives at discretion until his advent as a redeemer, in order that if any one should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here: if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness, but if not, we cannot do so.^[26]

• Rabbi Saadyeh Ibn Danan:

One of these, Rabbi Joseph ben Kaspi, was led so far as to say that those who expounded it of the Messiah, who is shortly to be revealed, gave occasion to the heretics to interpret it of Jesus. May God, however, forgive him for not having spoken the truth! Our Rabbis, the doctors of the Talmud, delivered their opinions by the power of prophecy, possess a tradition concerning the principles of interpretation … alludes solely to King Messiah.^[27]

• Rabbi Naphtali ben Asher Altschuler:

I will proceed to explain these verses of our own Messiah, who, God willing, will come speedily in our days. I am surprised that Rashi and Rabbi David Kimchi have not, with the Targums, applied it to the Messiah likewise.^[28]

• Herz Homburg; Korem:

The fact is, that it refers to the King Messiah, who will come in the latter days, when it will be the Lord’s good pleasure to redeem Israel from among the different nations of the earth.^[29]

• Sepher Ha Gilgalim (Of King Messiah):

He shall be high and exalted etc., or, as our Rabbis say, “He shall be higher than Abraham, exceedingly above Adam!”^[30]

• Pes. Rab. pp. 161a-b:

(When He created the Messiah,) the Holy One, blessed be He, began to tell him the conditions (of his future mission), and said to him: “Those who are hidden with you (your generation), their sins will in the future force you into an iron yoke, and they will render you like unto this calf whose eyes have grown dim, and they will choke your spirit with the yoke, and because of their sins your tongue will cleave to the roof of your mouth. Do you accept this?” … He said before Him: “Master of the Worlds! With gladness in my soul and with joy in my heart I accept it, so that not a single one of Israel should perish; and not only those who will be alive should be saved in my days, but even the dead who have died from the days of Adam the first man until now. And not only they, but even the stillborn should be saved in my days; and not only the stillborn, but even those whose creation you gave thought but who were not created. This is what I want, this is what I accept.^[31]