Judah as the Suffering Servant by Yair Davidiy
https://www.quora.com/How-do-Jews-interpret-Isaiah-53/answer/Yair-Davidiy
The Jew suffered due to other people. He was the first victim, the eternal scape-goat for the faults and misfortunes of others. The Gentiles will admit that Judah was considered accursed yet his affliction was due to our imposing upon him the results of our own calamities (Isaiah 53:4). The Jew was punished for the sins of others (53:5). 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 (53:11). In the Last Days Judah shall be rich and powerful and a great nation, among the greatest that exist. AND HE SHALL DIVIDE THE SPOIL WITH THE STRONG: Judah shall be a military might, an old lion who must be dealt with carefully and with respect. AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS; Jews were accused and still are of all the sins under the sun and still more and of being criminals and controlling all the crime and mischief of the world. AND HE BARE THE SIN OF MANY, Not only was Judah made responsible for the sins of others but he also took upon himself to make retribution for the faults of others. AND MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS. Jews champion the oppressed and seek to help whoever needs help even when those who are in need were the cause of their own downfall (53:12).
Isaiah (NKJV) 53
1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
All of these descriptions are pertinent to the Persecuted Jews of history. The Jews were persecuted, downtrodden, forbidden to dwell in open aired houses, prohibited to leave their ghettoes, compelled to stay confined, and in Germany forbidden to even marry and if they married to have more than a certain number of children etc. All of this influenced the physical form of the Jews. They were often small of stature, stunted, and forced to adopt a servile demean. In some cases his very children would be taken from him, or killed. This influences how a person walks, talks, holds himself. The Jews was forced to act as if he was despicable and consequently he was even more despised. In Muslim Lands it was even worse.
Isaiah 53:
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He wasbruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD .as laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
The Jew came to reflect the values of his persecutors. They needed him to loan them money at interest and to enable them to loan money to others through him. The Jews did things the Gentiles needed and then the Jews were condemned for it. The Gentiles committed sins and transgressions and blamed the Jews for them. Infanticide and child abuse were conducted in many Gentile households. It was relatively rare among Jews and probably non-existent. Nevertheless it was the Jews who were accused of torturing and killing Gentile children. The Jews had to suffer for the sins of others.
Isaiah 53:
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
This was what the Jews experienced.
cf.
Psalm (NKJV) 44:
9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [e]spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the avenger.Isaiah (NKJV) 53 (Continued):
8 He was taken from
prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
Jews were often imprisoned. They did not receive fair trials or even any trial at all but instead simply had to suffer. The Jews was punished due to t he crime done to his own people by they who were punishing him. It may be claimed that, it is unlikely that it all came upon him if he was entirely innocent. Nevertheless the faults that were in him were often those he had acquired through association with his persecutors.
The punishment was not proportionate.
cf.
Zechariah 1:
15 I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease;
For I was a little angry,
And they helped, but with evil intent.Isaiah 53:
9 And they made His grave with the wicked,
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Rabbi David Kimchi ("Radak," 1160 -1235) explains this to mean that the Jew was killed along with the wicked as if he had done something bad. In the eyes of the Stranger just being Jewish was a crime in itself and the penalty very often was capital punishment.
If he was rich he would be killed for his money. Even if he was not rich he would be killed as if he was rich. The Jews were accused of being rich, and of getting rich at the expense of others or even of simply getting rich when other did not. In the Holocaust one of the motivating factors that energized the perpetrators was the lust for gain.
Despite all this he did not requite measure for measure. Jews on the whole do not take vengeance. Whether they should or not is an open question but the reality is that usually do not.
Isaiah 53:
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
For some reason the Almighty wanted the Jew to suffer for the sins of others.
Isaiah 53:
10: He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
In the End Time the Jew will be rewarded. He shall live a longer life. He will have children and children of children. He will see them. The knowledge of the Torah will gladden him.
Isaiah 53:
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.
Jews often intercede for other people.
