Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 53 says God chose to crush his servant with illness and then give him long life. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Berakhot interprets this as a general rule, that God afflicts the people he cares for and rewards those who accept suffering willingly.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 53:10
Hebrew Bible
9 They intended to bury him with criminals, but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb because he had committed no violent deeds, nor had he spoken deceitfully. 10 Though the Lord desired to crush him and make him ill, once restitution is made, he will see descendants and enjoy long life, and the Lord’s purpose will be accomplished through him. 11 Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. “My servant will acquit many, for he carried their sins.
Berakhot 5a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
And if he did attribute his suffering to dereliction in the study of Torah, and did not find this to be so, he may be confident that these are afflictions of love, as it is stated: “For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes, as does a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12). So too, Rava said that Rav Seḥora said that Rav Huna said: Anyone in whom the Holy One, Blessed be He, delights, He oppresses him with suffering, as it is stated: “Yet in whom the Lord delights, He oppresses him with disease; to see if his soul would offer itself in guilt, that he might see his children, lengthen his days, and that the desire of the Lord might prosper by his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). This verse illustrates that in whomever God delights, he afflicts with illness. I might have thought that God delights in him even if he does not accept his suffering with love. Therefore the verse teaches: “If his soul would offer itself in guilt.” Just as a guilt-offering is brought knowingly, as it is one of the sacrifices offered willingly, without coercion, so too his suffering must be accepted knowingly.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... There are afflictions for which self-examination discovers no explanation either in the way of transgression or of negligence. For such a special category was made, “chastisements of love.” ‘Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth’ (Proverbs 3, 12). Every one “in whom the Holy God takes pleasure, he crushes with sufferings, as it is said, ‘The Lord took pleasure (in him); he crushed him, made him ill’” (Isaiah 53, 10). Such evidences of God’s peculiar love must be accepted in corresponding love: ‘If thou makest his life a sacrifice of restitution (אשם).’ As a restitution-sacrifice is made with consciousness (of the reason), so chastisements (are to be received) with consciousness (of the reason, that is, God’s love). Then only do they have the consequences promised in the second half of the verse, ‘He shall see his posterity and prolong his days; and the purpose of the Lord shall succeed through his instrumentality’ (Isaiah 53, 10b). ...”
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