The Forbidden Chapter 53

Isaiah ch.53 and the Jewish People. 11 May 2025, 13 Iyar, 5785.

Chapter 53 is sometimes referred to as "The Forbidden Chapter." Christian Missionaries on the Internet claim that this chapter Isaiah 53 predicts the suffering of their messiah and that the Rabbis forbid Jews to read it!
This is not true on both counts. Isaiah 53 does not speak of the Christian messiah and Jews are not forbidden to read it.

We understand Isaiah 53 and all the chapters leading up to it to be concerned especially with Judah but also with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel among Western Nations. Most Rabbinical Commentators agree with this. Nevertheless, some opinions (e.g. Rabbi David Moshe Valle, 1697- 1776, see RABBIS QUOTED https://hebrewnations.com/articles/sources.html) say the chapter concerns the Future Messiah who will (among other things) be someone of whom it is written,  "HE SHALL SEE CHILDREN, HE SHALL PROLONG HIS DAYS, AND GOD'S PURPOSE SHALL PROSPER IN HIS HAND" (Isaiah 53:10). 
So too, an expression is found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 14a) that may in some way be equating the Suffering Servant with the Messiah.
Concerning this Nachmanides (1194-1270) commented:
"It is true that our masters, their memory be blessed, in the books of the Haggadah they refer to the Messiah the interpretation of this passage "(referring to the 'suffering servant' in Isaiah 52:13 and later;editor's note). But they never said that the Messiah would die at the hands of the enemies" ('Sefer Vikkuah haRamban', the famous 'Barcelona Dispute').
See Also:
https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/73754/the-suffering-servant-yeshayahu-isaiah-chapter-53/73756#73756

 Jews are encouraged to read the Bible.
Anyway at present we are concerned with clarifying what Isaiah 53 really does say.
Isaiah 53 is a continuation of previous chapters.

Isaiah 49:3 the Almighty says to the Chosen People, "YOU ARE MY SERVANT, ISRAEL, ABOUT WHOM I WILL BOAST."
God says HE will bring Jacob (Judah) and Israel back to HIM.

They will be an enlightening influence over the heathen.
 Isaiah 49:6 "IT IS TOO LIGHT FOR YOU TO BE MY SERVANT, TO ESTABLISH THE TRIBES OF JACOB AND TO BRING BACK THE BESIEGED OF ISRAEL, BUT I WILL MAKE YOU A LIGHT OF NATIONS, SO THAT MY SALVATION SHALL BE UNTIL THE END OF THE EARTH."
Judah will have been oppressed and despised by Nations but in the End Times he will be exalted (49:6).
The Israelites will be redeemed. Judah will think God has abandoned them. The opposite is the case. Judah was always under Divine Protection. Judah will be restored.

Isaiah ch. 50 tells us that whoever condemns Judah will have to contend with God Almighty who refers to Judah as His Servant" (Isaiah 50:10).

Israelites are described as "PURSUERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Isaiah 51:2). Zion (Judah) will be consoled.
The 10 Tribes in the  ISLANDS will trust in God and hope for HIS salvation.
So too, for Judah:

Isaiah 50:7 HEARKEN TO ME, YOU WHO KNOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, A PEOPLE THAT HAS MY TORAH IN THEIR HEART, FEAR NOT REPROACH OF MAN, AND FROM THEIR REVILINGS BE NOT DISMAYED.
Isaiah 50:16... SAY TO ZION [THAT] YOU ARE MY PEOPLE.

Isaiah 51 says the city of Jerusalem will be delivered. The coming of Salvation will be announced.

Isaiah 51:9 BURST OUT IN SONG, SING TOGETHER, O RUINS OF JERUSALEM, FOR THE LORD HAS CONSOLED HIS PEOPLE; HE HAS REDEEMED JERUSALEM.

The Almighty will prepare the ways for HIS PEOPLE to return.

 Isaiah 52.
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/isaiah/isaiah52.html

Isaiah 52 and Israel as the Servant of the Almighty.

[Isaiah 52:6] THEREFORE MY PEOPLE SHALL KNOW MY NAME: THEREFORE THEY SHALL KNOW IN THAT DAY THAT I AM HE THAT DOTH SPEAK: BEHOLD, IT IS I.
God will save us and lead us forward. We shall know that it is by His power we are led onwards. We shall know His name. The name reflects the essence of the one named. By knowing His name it means we shall know and realize in our existence the meaning of His name. We shall be renewed.

Previously Judah will have been persecuted and oppressed and of sorry appearance. This will change.

Isaiah 52:
13 BEHOLD MY SERVANT SHALL PROSPER; HE SHALL BE EXALTED AND LIFTED UP, AND HE SHALL BE VERY HIGH.
14 AS MANY WONDERED ABOUT YOU, "HOW MARRED HIS APPEARANCE IS FROM THAT OF A MAN, AND HIS FEATURES FROM THAT OF PEOPLE!"
15 SO SHALL HE CAST DOWN MANY NATIONS; KINGS SHALL SHUT THEIR MOUTHS BECAUSE OF HIM, FOR, WHAT HAD NOT BEEN TOLD THEM THEY SAW, AND [AT] WHAT THEY HAD NOT HEARD THEY GAZED.

The servant in Isaiah:  The servant of God in Isaiah is either a Prophet, or a Holy Person, or the nation of  Israel, or Judah (the Jews) especially.

The early Zionist and Religious settlers of the Holy Land
were described as "SERVANTS" of the Almighty:

Psalms 102:
14 YOU WILL RISE, YOU WILL HAVE MERCY ON ZION FOR THERE IS A TIME TO FAVOR IT, FOR THE APPOINTED SEASON HAS ARRIVED.
15 FOR YOUR SERVANTS DESIRED ITS STONES AND FAVORED ITS DUST.

For a list of references to the "SERVANT" in the Bible, especially the Book of Isaiah,  see under the heading:

Isaiah 52 and Israel as the Servant of the Almighty
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/isaiah/isaiah52.html

Isaiah 53:

Isaiah (TCT) 53:
1 WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED OUR REPORT, AND TO WHOM WAS THE ARM OF THE LORD REVEALED?
2 AND HE CAME UP LIKE A SAPLING BEFORE IT, AND LIKE A ROOT FROM DRY GROUND, HE HAD NEITHER FORM NOR COMELINESS; AND WE SAW HIM THAT HE HAD NO APPEARANCE. NOW SHALL WE DESIRE HIM?
The Jews in Exile were often depicted as ugly and repulsive. This was a stereotype. It was not exactly true but in due to oppression and injustice Jews were made to feel miserable. Jews were often oppressed, forbidden to own land or to occupy themselves with many professions, forced to kow-tow to their Gentile neighbours and overseers.
Conditions were bad everywhere but especially oppressive in Muslim countries and in Eastern Europe.

3 DESPISED AND REJECTED BY MEN, A MAN OF PAINS AND ACCUSTOMED TO ILLNESS, AND AS ONE WHO HIDES HIS FACE FROM US, DESPISED AND WE HELD HIM OF NO ACCOUNT.
Jews living in crowded ghettoes were sometimes subject to  sicknesses.
Jews were heavily concentrated in cities. Popular cartoons of the time sometimes depicts Jews in a negative light.
Nevertheless, even then the Protective Hand of Divine Providence was often over them.

William Z. Rilpley in "The Races of Europe" (1899) noticed that relatively indigent Jews in the USA suffered less from disease and lived much longer (twice as long!) than their Gentile counterparts.

https://archive.org/stream/raceseurope00ripluoft#page/-117/mode/2up

Ripley (1899) p. 383 #... THE JEW BETRAYS AN ABSOLUTELY UNPRECEDENTED TENACITY OF LIFE.
IT FAR EXCEEDS, ESPECIALLY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT OF ANY OTHER KNOWN PEOPLE.
THIS WE MAY ILLUSTRATE BY THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE: SUPPOSE TWO GROUPS OF ONE HUNDRED INFANTS EACH, ONE JEWISH, ONE OF AVERAGE AMERICAN (MASSACHUSETTS) PARENTAGE TO BE BORN ON THE SAME DAY. IN SPITE OF ALL THE DISPARITY OF SOCIOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES IN FAVOR OF THE LATTER, THE CHANCES, DETERMINED BY STATISTICAL MEANS, ARE THAT ONE HALF OF THE AMERICANS WILL DIE WITHIN FORTY-SEVEN YEARS; WHILE THE FIRST HALF OF THE JEWS WILL NOT SUCCUMB TO DISEASE OR ACCIDENT BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF SEVENTY-ONE YEARS. THE DEATH RATE IS BUT LITTLE OVER HALF THAT OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION. THIS HOLDS GOOD IN INFANCY AS IN MIDDLE AGE. #

Ripley suggests (p. 384) that this longevity was due to the superior sanitary conditions for Kosher meat; Clean meat in the opinion of Ripley reduced the incidence of consumption and pneumonia which were major causes of death at the time.
Also a relative lack of drunkenness; "TEMPERATE HABITS, A FRUGAL DIET."

This was the statistical reality in the 1800s. It obviously is not the present situation. Nevertheless, the physical health of the Jews in Israel is among the best in the world and that of Religious-Observant among the Jews is markedly better than that of the non-observant.

Report: Ultra-Orthodox in Israel healthier, live longer
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4743567,00.html
Cities with a high concentration of haredi residents have a higher life expectancy, as much as three years, than otherwise expected based on socioeconomic factors.
by
Rotem Elizera (23 December 2015).
Extracts:
The report showed that the vast majority, 73.6 percent, of ultra-Orthodox people defined their health as "very good", compared to 50 percent among other population segments. Furthermore, 18.7 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews reported suffering from health problems, compared to double or more that rate among other populations.
Researchers suggest that ultra-Orthodox people have relatively high social capital, which manifests in a proliferation of friendships, high satisfaction from family relationships, a supportive social system, and community volunteer work.
The report found that the average life expectancy among ultra-Orthodox men was about three years higher than would be expected based on their socioeconomic status. For women, life expectancy was two-and-a-half years higher than expected.

It is only fair to mention that according to the statistics of Ripley (from the 1800s) Jews were more susceptible to nervous and mental disorders (385).

In Italy in the 1800s Insanity (Lombroso) was four times more prevalent amongst Jews than among Gentiles.

Isaiah continues and has now switched to the mode of Gentiles speaking about Judah and about how they despised and oppressed him.

53: 4 INDEED, HE BORE OUR ILLNESSES, AND OUR PAINS-HE CARRIED THEM, YET WE ACCOUNTED HIM AS PLAGUED, SMITTEN BY GOD AND OPPRESSED.

The Jew suffered due to other people. He was the first victim, the eternal scape-goat for the faults and misfortunes of others.
He was considered accursed yet his affliction was due to our imposing upon him the results of our own calamities.
The Gentiles projected over the Jews their own faults and weaknesses.

53:5 BUT HE WAS PAINED BECAUSE OF OUR TRANSGRESSIONS, CRUSHED BECAUSE OF OUR INIQUITIES; THE CHASTISEMENT OF OUR WELFARE WAS UPON HIM, AND WITH HIS WOUND WE WERE HEALED.
The Jew was punished for the sins of others.

53:6 WE ALL WENT ASTRAY LIKE SHEEP, WE HAVE TURNED, EACH ONE ON HIS WAY, AND THE LORD ACCEPTED HIS PRAYERS FOR THE INIQUITY OF ALL OF US.
Jews regularly pray for the welfare of the community they find themselves amongst.
Some of them are  compulsive do-gooders and reformers.

53:7 HE WAS OPPRESSED, AND HE WAS AFFLICTED, YET HE WOULD NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH; LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER HE WOULD BE BROUGHT, AND LIKE A EWE THAT IS MUTE BEFORE HER SHEARERS, AND HE WOULD NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.

53:8 FROM IMPRISONMENT AND FROM JUDGMENT HE IS TAKEN, AND HIS GENERATION WHO SHALL TELL? FOR HE WAS CUT OFF FROM THE LAND OF THE LIVING; BECAUSE OF THE TRANSGRESSION OF MY PEOPLE, A PLAGUE BEFELL THEM.
53:9 AND HE GAVE HIS GRAVE TO THE WICKED, AND TO THE WEALTHY WITH HIS KINDS OF DEATH, BECAUSE HE COMMITTED NO VIOLENCE, AND THERE WAS NO DECEIT IN HIS MOUTH.
Jews are not on the whole violent people. In the past they were often considered pacifist and consequently victimized by vicious criminal elements.

10 AND THE LORD WISHED TO CRUSH HIM, HE MADE HIM ILL; IF HIS SOUL MAKES ITSELF RESTITUTION, HE SHALL SEE CHILDREN, HE SHALL PROLONG HIS DAYS, AND GOD'S PURPOSE SHALL PROSPER IN HIS HAND.
He shall have children and numerous descendants, live a long life, and be successful in his works. The Jew often succeeded in dedicating himself to the Law when he could. When he was forced (by outsiders) or seduced to abandon it he applied his energies in other directions: in jurisprudence, trade, science, philosophy, philanthropy. The Messiah shall come from Judah. The Jew has a natural instinct to reform things, to rectify the world. When the Jew is deprived of Torah this instinct can be misdirected. Sometimes it does good and on occasion it can do damage. Either way the Jew is hated by many Gentiles merely because he is active, is different and stands out.
The sins of others are transposed onto the Jew.

In the Middle Ages the host (holy wheat wafer used in Church services) was considered to become the body of Jesus. The Jews were often accused of stealing the host and doing all kinds of things to it in order to torture the Host. The Jews were also accused of killing Christian children to use the blood to make matzoth (unleavened bread) for the Passover service. At that time it appears that a lot of unwanted Gentile children were put to death by their parents or neighbours, sometimes after torture. Infanticide even in the 1800s was still a serious problem in Britain. Disraeli spoke about this in the British Parliament. The Christians had in fact been blaming the Jews for their own sins. In the 1840s there was the Damascus affair of February 1840. This was the disappearance in Syria of an Italian monk and his servant, for which a large number of Jews were summarily tortured until they "confessed" to murder. As an instance of antisemitism and a blood libel, news of the case spread, across the Middle East, to Europe, and the Western world. Anti-Semites all over the world began accusing Jews of ritual murder.
Britain, the USA, and France, in this case, did what they could to protect the Jews who eventually were exonerated. The reverberations in Western Nations of the matter and the resulting arousal of public consciousness in favor of the Jews helped lead to the Balfour Declaration.

53: 11 FROM THE TOIL OF HIS SOUL HE WOULD SEE, HE WOULD BE SATISFIED; WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE MY SERVANT WOULD VINDICATE THE JUST FOR MANY, AND THEIR INIQUITIES HE WOULD BEAR.
12 THEREFORE, I WILL ALLOT HIM A PORTION IN PUBLIC, AND WITH THE STRONG HE SHALL SHARE PLUNDER, BECAUSE HE POURED OUT HIS SOUL TO DEATH, AND WITH TRANSGRESSORS HE WAS COUNTED; AND HE BORE THE SIN OF MANY, AND INTERCEDED FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS.

Nowadays when the Jews are oppressed they can at least usually make their voices heard but this is only due (like it or not) to the western nations especially the Anglo-Saxon ones. In the past they had nobody to protest to, nobody to even listen.


Zechariah 1:15] AND I AM VERY SORE DISPLEASED WITH THE HEATHEN THAT ARE AT EASE: FOR I WAS BUT A LITTLE DISPLEASED, AND THEY HELPED FORWARD THE AFFLICTION.                     

Note: THEY HELPED FORWARD THE AFFLICTION in Hebrew 'azru' [helped] 'leRa' [to make worse].
It means that because the Jews (Judah) had sinned God was angry at them and delivered them into non-Jewish hands as a punishment BUT the non-Jews took advantage of the situation and oppressed the Jews. Therefore, God is angry at them.
Zechariah says that the Jews of Judah prior to their final redemption will have endured a long history
Of having been persecuted and treated with contempt. AS YE WERE A CURSE AMONG THE HEATHEN, O HOUSE OF JUDAH, AND HOUSE OF ISRAEL (Zechariah 8:13). The Jews are mainly from the Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi but representative minorities of the other Israelite tribes are also found among them.

    Historically, the Jews of Judah were often senselessly hated, persecuted, and despised. Isaiah had predicted this situation:

 "HE IS DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN: A MAN OF SORROWS... HE WAS DESPISED AND WE ESTEEMED HIM NOT...HE HATH BORNE OUR GRIEFS AND CARRIED OUR SORROWS YET WE DID ESTEEM HIM STRICKEN, SMITTEN OF GOD AND AFFLICTED... HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH, AS A LAMB TO THE  SLAUGHTER...THE LORD HATH LAID UPON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL"  (Isaiah ch.53).

In Psalm 44 a concrete body of people are spoken of in the same terms and applied to the 'SERVANT' in Isaiah.
"...FOR THY SAKE ARE WE KILLED ALL THE DAY LONG; WE ARE COUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER" (Psalm 44; 22).
"HE WILL AVENGE THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS" (Deuteronomy 32;43).

  "HE THAT TOUCHETH YOU, TOUCHETH THE APPLE OF HIS EYE" (Zechariah 2; 8): also understandable as meaning "HE THAT TOUCHES YOU, TOUCHES THE APPLE OF HIS [i.e. God's] EYE".

  "I AM VERY SORE DISPLEASED WITH THE HEATHEN... FOR I WAS BUT A LITTLE DISPLEASED, AND THEY HELPED FORWARD THE AFFLICTION"  (Zecharia 1; 15). 

"THE SONS ALSO OF THEM THAT AFFLICTED THEE SHALL COME BENDING UNTO THEE" (Isaiah 60; 14).   

Isaiah in  chapter 54 continues on a related theme and consoles Judah who is compared to a bereaved woman who will return and be re-joined with  the Almighty in the Land of Israel.

 [Isaiah 54:9] FOR THIS IS AS THE WATERS OF NOAH UNTO ME: FOR AS I HAVE SWORN THAT THE WATERS OF NOAH SHOULD NO MORE GO OVER THE EARTH; SO HAVE I SWORN THAT I WOULD NOT BE WROTH WITH THEE, NOR REBUKE THEE.
After the Final Redemption there will be no more exiles and no more major disasters.

Continued at:

Isaiah Chapter 53
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/isaiah/isa53.html