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M essiah There
are two very distinct lines of prophecy in the Scriptures concerning the Messiah. One line portrays him as a
humble suffering-savior. The other line of prophecy
depicts him as a conquering king-redeemer.
These two competing functions of the Messiah are recognized in Talmudic' and
other Jewish sources. (2) One explanation invoked to resolve this dilemma was
that there would be two Messiahs: one who would suffer and be
humbled and one who would rule and be exalted. The suffering
Messiah was referred to as Messiah Ben Yoseph.
Zechariah was said to have prophesied concerning "Messiah Ben Yoseph": Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter
of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is just and having
salvation; lowly and riding upon a colt ... . (3)
Perhaps no other prophet has summarized in such a succinct manner the
humility of the coming Messiah. He is King of Zion yet He is lowly and riding
on a humble donkey. There is little doubt that the Talmud interprets
the verse to refer to the Messiah. It is quoted three times in the Babylonian
Talmud, and always with a messianic connotation. The first occurrence in the
Talmud is a passage dealing with dreams: He that sees a donkey in his
dream should expect salvation because it says, 'Behold thy King cometh unto
thee; He is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass.' (4)
Another Talmudic reference was referred to in Chapter Ten. In response
to Rabbi Hillel's statement that "Israel can expect no Messiah because
they consumed him in the days of Hezekiah," a retort is given by citing
the Zechariah scripture, and noting that it prophesied a coming Messiah after
the days of Hezekiah; hence, the Messiah had not yet come (5) Finally, Rabbi Yehoshua Bar Levi, referring to the Zechariah scripture,
said that if Israel is not worthy, then the Messiah will come in
humility riding upon an ass (6). This is Messiah Ben Yoseph - the Suffering Messiah. A rabbinic commentary
interprets the verse to mean that Messiah is not only humble but is oppressed
as well. (7) Zechariah is not the only prophet who spoke of Messiah's
humiliation. As concerning him, Isaiah wrote: All we like sheep have
gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. [Y]et he opened not his mouth. (8)
We are all unworthy, & hence there was no other way for the Messiah
to come but by humiliation, suffering & sacrifice. Isaiah refers to this
suffering Messiah as "servant." In one passage he says: Behold my
servant, whom I uphold ...I have put my Spirit
upon Him .(9) Many Jewish commentators agree that this passage refers
to the Messiah. (10) One Targum paraphrases it: Behold my Servant, the Messiah, I will
draw Him near, my chosen one in whom my Memra [Logos] is well pleased.
Rashi, however, refers the "servant" to
Israel, as he does all the servant passages in the Tanakh. Ibn Ezra disagrees with both of the positions and,
instead, refers the passages to Isaiah himself. A very similar passage
by Isaiah with a servant bent is: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent
me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captive, & the opening of the prison to those who are
bound... (11) The Midrashim
support the view that Isaiah speaks of the Redeemer in this passage.
(12) However, most Jewish commentators on this passage relate it to
Isaiah himself. This is very unusual, since both Isaiah passages are so
similar. In the first passage the Lord upholds him; in the second passage the
Lord anoints him. In both passages the Spirit is upon him. In both passages
the one of whom the prophet speaks is meek and brings justice to the
oppressed, vindicates the persecuted and brings righteousness to the poor and
needy. It makes more sense to relate both passages to the same Person. (13)
These two passages do not exhaust Isaiah's prophecies concerning the
servant of the Lord. There is a fuller description of him in the last three
verses of the 52nd chapter and in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Although these
scriptures are not part of the Haftora (prophetic)
readings in the synagogue, they are none-the-less important canon and
discussed at length in Jewish religious literature. Concerning those
chapters, Rabbi Moshe Alshekh, a famous rabbinic
scholar who lived in Sfat in the 16th century
remarked: [Our] Rabbis with one voice, accept
and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of king Messiah. (14)
Rabbi Alshekh's claim is true where it pertains to
the last three verses of chapter 52. The Targum begins its paraphrase with:
Behold my Servant the Messiah shall prosper. (15) The
Targum continues into the 53rd chapter of Isaiah: And He will build the
Temple that was polluted because of our sins. (16) This must be the Messiah,
for no one else was to build the Temple according to Jewish religious
tradition, but the Messiah. Additionally, several Midrashim
take the threefold expressions contained within those scriptures,
"exalted, and extolled and be very high," (17) as an indication
that "Messiah shall be more exalted than Abraham ... more extolled than
Moses ... and be very high; that is, higher than the Ministering Angels.
..." (18) As concerning Isaiah 53, there is no unanimity of
interpretation. A Targum clearly
paraphrases the early verses as consistent with a reference to the Messiah.
(19) A later verse, however, is not as
explicit; and it is paraphrased as follows: It was the Lord's will to
purge & to purify the remnant of His people in order to cleanse their
soul from guilt; they will see the Messiah's Kingdom ... & those that do God's
Torah shall prosper in His will. (20) Even here, however, there is no
inconsistency. There is silence as to how the remnant was to be
cleansed. Since, however, they should
see Messiah's Kingdom, it is logical that the Messiah, who should reign in
the Messianic Kingdom, was responsible for their cleansing. In the
Talmud, too, we have a diversity of opinion regarding Isaiah 53. Some verses are assigned to general matters
(21); other portions are assigned to faithful Jews in general (22) or to
Moses in particular. (23) However, the
Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin relates the chapter to the sufferings of the
Messiah. According to it: The Rabanan (rabbis) say that Messiah's name is The suffering
Scholar of Rabbi's House [or The Leper Scholar] for it is written Surely
He hath borne our grief and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. (24) What
seems to be clear from the sources is that rabbinical authorities have been
aware of the clear teaching of Scripture concerning the suffering Messiah who
would die. There was, in addition to this concept of a Messiah Ben Yoseph, a Messiah
Ben David who would be exalted as King Eternal. Though some rabbinic sources
identified these as two Messiahs, REFERENCES
:
(1) Sukkah 52. (2) Raphael Patai,
The Messiah Texts, p. 166; Meyer Waxman, Galut
U'ge'valh Be' Sifrut Yibsra'el (Hotsa'at Oten 1952) chap. 7.(Wayne State Univ. Press
'79) (3) Zechariah 9:9 (4) Berachot
56b (5) Sanhedrin 99a
(6) Sanhedrin 98b (7) " 'He is
humble riding upon an ass.' This refers to Messiah and He is called anee [poor, humble and oppressed] because He was
oppressed all these years in prison, and the sinners of Israel derided Him ..For the merits of Messiah, The Holy One, blessed be
He, will protect and redeem you." (Pesikta Rabbati, Piska 35.)
(8) Isaiah 53:6-7. (9) Isaiah 42:11; see also verses 2-7. (10)
Rabbi David Kimchi exposits the scripture as
follows: "Behold my servant. ... This is King Messiah
... . I have put my Spirit ... refers to what is said of Him, 'And the
Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him' (Isaiah 11:2)." The
commentaries Metsudat David and Metsudat
Zion, also refer the chapter to
Messiah. (11) Isaiah 61:1; see also verse 2-3. (12)
Midrash Rabbah, Lamentations 3:49-50,
59 (13) Accord, Matthew 12:15-18; Luke 4:16-18, 21
(14) Driver & Neubauer, Isaiah 53 According to
Jewish Interpreters (Oxford 1899) [reprinted, KTAV]
(15) Targum on Isaiah 52:13 (16) Targum on
Isaiah 53:5. The Targum continues: "We all have been scattered like
sheep, each was dispatched into captivity to his own way, but it was the will
from before the Lord to forgive all our sins for His sake. ... He removed the
rulership of the Gentile nations from the
land of Israel." Targum on Isaiah 53:6,8
(17) Isaiah 52:13 (18) See Midrash Tanhuma
(KTAV Publishing 1989) & Yalkut,
vol. ii, para. 338, cited
in Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus
the Messiah (Eerdmans 1977) p. 727.
(19) "The Righteous One shall grow up before him. ... He will build the
Temple ... ." The Targum of Isaiah 53:2,5 (20) J.F. Stenning, The Targum of Isaiah (Oxford 1953) p.
180 (21) For example, "shall see his seed" is connected
with blessing. Berakhot 57b
(22) Berakhot 5a (23) Sotah 14a (24) Sanhedrin 98a.
Within this chapter of the tractate there is also the story of Elijah
revealing to Rabbi Yehoshua Bar Levy that Messiah
sits at the gates of Rome among the poor and sick ones and
removes one bandage at a ime,
because he wants to be ready when called to the redemption of
Israel. (25) See e.g., Midrash Rabbah,
Ruth (v.6) (26) Pesikta
Rabbati, Piska
36:142 (27) "There is in the Garden of Eden a palace
named the Palace of the Sons of Sickness. This palace the Messiah enters, and He summons every pain and every chastisement
of Israel. All of these come and rest upon Him. And had He not thus lightened
them upon Himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel's chastisements
for the transgressions of the law; as it is written, 'Surely our sicknesses he
has carried.' " (Zohar 11, 212a)
What The Rabbis Know About The Messiah by Rachmiel Frydland.
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