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Yesha’yahu 53: HOW DO THE RABBIS INTERPRET THIS?

Rabbi Moshe Alschech(1508-1600) says:
"Our Rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the Messiah, and we shall ourselves also adhere to the same view."

Abrabanel (1437-1508) said earlier:
"This is also the opinion of our own learned men in the majority of their Midrashim."

Rabbi Yafeth ben Ali ( second half of the 10th Century):
"As for myself, I am inclined to regard it as alluding to the Messiah."

Abraham Farissol ( 1451- 1526) says:
"In this chapter there seem to be considerable resemblance and allusion 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."

Targum Jonathan ( 4th Century ) gives the introduction on Yesha’yahu   52:13:
"Behold, my servant the Messiah..."

Gersonides (1288-1344) on D’varim 18:18:
"In fact Messiah is such a prophet, as it is stated in the Midrash on the verse,' Behold, my servant shall prosper...' (Yesha’yahu  52:13)."

Midrash Tanchuma:
"He was more exalted than Abraham, more extolled than Moshe, higher than the archangels" (Yesha’yahu 52:13).

Yalkut Schimeon ( ascribed to Rabbi Simeon Kara, 12th Century ) says on Z’kharyah 4:7:
"He ( the king Messiah ) is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, 'My servant shall be high, and lifted up, and lofty exceedingly' (Yesha’yahu  52:13)."

Maimonides (1135-12O4) wrote to Rabbi Jacob Alfajumi:
"Likewise said Yesha’yahu that He (Messiah) would appear without acknowledging a father or mother: 'He grew up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground' etc. (Yesha’yahu 53:2)."

Tanchuma:
"Rabbi Nachman says: ,The Word MAN in the passage, 'Every man a head of the house of his father' (Num.1,4), refers to the Messiah, the son of David, as it is written, 'Behold the man whose name is Zemach'(the Branch) where Jonathan interprets,' Behold the man Messiah' (Z’kharyah 6:12); and so it is said,' A man of pains and known to sickness' (Yesha’yahu 53:3)."

Talmud Sanhedrin (98b):
"Messiah ...what is his name? The Rabbis say,' The leprous one'; those of the house of the Rabbi (Jehuda Hanassi, the author of the Mishna, 135-200) say: 'Cholaja' (The sickly), for it says, 'Surely he has borne our sicknesses' etc. (Yesha’yahu 53,4)."

Pesiqta Rabbati (ca.845) on Yesha’yahu  61,10:
"The world-fathers (patriarchs) will one day in the month of Nisan arise and say to (the Messiah): 'Ephraim, our righteous Anointed, although we are your grandparents, yet you are greater than we, for you have borne the sins of our children, as it says: ‘But surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of Eloheim and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and through his wounds we are healed’ (Yesha’yahu 53,4-5)."

Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai (2thCentury), Zohar,, part II, page 212a and III, page 218a, Amsterdam Ed.):
"There is in the garden of Eden a palace called : 'The palace of the sons of sickness, Draw near to the throne, The bread of the kingdom.' This refers to the chastisements:
"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, it follows that whoever will not admit that Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for them himself."

Siphre:
"Rabbi Jose the Galilean said, 'Come and learn the merits of the King Messiah and the reward of the Just — from the first man who received but one commandment, a prohibition, and transgressed it. Consider how many deaths were inflicted upon himself, upon his own generation, and upon those who followed them, till the end of all generations. Which attribute is greater, the attribute of goodness, or the attribute of vengeance?'— He answered, 'The attribute of goodness is greater, and the attribute of vengeance is the less.' — 'How much more then, will the King Messiah, who endures affliction and pains for the transgressions (as it is written, 'He was wounded,' etc.), justify all generations. This is the meaning of the word, 'And HASHEM made the iniquity of us all to meet upon Him' (Yesha’yahu 53:6)."

Rabbi Eleazer Kalir (9th Century) wrote the following Musaf Prayer:
"Our righteous Messiah has departed from us. Horror has seized us and we have no one to justify us. He has borne our transgressions and the yoke of our iniquities, and is wounded because of our transgressions. He bore our sins upon His shoulders that we may find pardon for our iniquity. We shall be healed by His wounds, at the time when the Eternal will recreate Him a new creature. Oh bring Him up from the circle of the earth, raise Him up from Seir, that we may hear Him the second time."

Rabbi Moshe, 'The Preacher' (11th Century) wrote in his commentary on B’reshit (page 660):
"From the beginning Eloheim has made a covenant with the Messiah and told Him, ' My righteous Messiah, those who are entrusted to you, their sins will bring you into a heavy yoke' . And He answered, 'I gladly accept all these agonies in order that not one of Israel should be lost.' Immediately, the Messiah accepted all agonies with love, as it is written: 'He was oppressed and he was afflicted'."

Pesiqta (on Yesha’yahu  61:10):
"Great oppressions were laid upon You, as it says: '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' (Yesha’yahu 53:8), as it says: 'But HASHEM has laid on him the guild of us all' (Yesha’yahu 53:6)."