Analysis
Who is this “servant” who will prosper? To know who he is we should have a look at the previous passages that are in actual fact related to chapter 53. For example, in Isaiah 41:8 the verse says,”But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen.”
Once again in verse 9 it says,”I said,‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.” In Isaiah 43:1 we read,”..he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel.” And again in Isaiah 44:1 says,”But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.”
In all those instances the same Hebrew word is used namely ‘ebed which means servant(’abd in Arabic). Look carefully at the verses and notice that the servant(’ebed) is mentioned along side Jacob and Israel. Thus it is safe to say that in verse 13 of chapter 52 the servant is not Jesus but rather the nation of Israel portrayed in one man namely, Jacob.
According to Rabbi Rashi and the like it is a representation of the people of Israel.
First, there is no “Rabbi Rashi”. “Rashi” is not a proper name but the acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaqi (*).
He did hold the view that this is about Israel as a nation and he is mostly responsible for this view being held by the overwhelming majority of orthodox Jews today,
though his predecessors and many rabbis after him have rejected this view and applied it to the Messiah instead. For example, Moshe Ibn Crispin (14th century) has said about this chapter:
This Parashah [i.e. passage] the commentators agree in explaining of the Captivity of Israel, although the singular number is used in it throughout. The expression My Servant they compare rashly with Isaiah 41:8, "you Israel are My servant"; here, however, he does not mention Israel, but simply says, My servant; we cannot therefore understand the word in the same sense. … here he says My servant alone, and uniformly employs the singular, as there is no cause constraining us to do so, why should we here interpret the word collectively, and thereby distort the passage from its natural sense? …
As then it seemed to me that the doors of the literal interpretation of the Parashah were shut in their face, and that "they wearied themselves to find the entrance," having forsaken the knowledge of our Teachers [i.e. the Sages], and inclined after the "stubbornness of their own hearts," and of their own opinion, I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis [i.e. the Sages], of the King Messiah, and will be careful, so far as I am able, to adhere to the literal sense; thus, possibly, I shall be free from the forced and far-fetched interpretations of which others have been guilty.
(Adolf Neubauer and S.R. Driver, The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, New York: Ktav, 1969, Vol. II, p. 99-100; boldface and underline emphasis mine; an older edition is available online)
Get your facts straight
@Matthias and since you run to Jews for Judaism-Tovia spearheading the "Revived Sanhedrin"-I make the assumption you believe as he do.
Bring something to the table-hound of Judaism.
Read the link-since most of you do not read "links"
Johann.
