IYOV 2

Earlier tonight I was complaining to one of the people doing daily nach that I have so much to write I can’t fit it all in, so he told me to just write more often. So I will but if it’s too much for you guys feel free to ignore me. Again I would like to say, a lot of this is from the book by Rabbi Eliezer Parkoff.

Ok so yesterday the Saton got to IYOV’s body and this time it really got to him, this time he didn’t bless hashem like he did the first time. His wife voiced her opinion which wasn’t very supportive for him and now his friends arrive to comfort or debate with him.

With perek three IYOV shows his philosophy I hope to show it to you in logical steps for you to truly appreciate it. And maybe even understand it.

Firstly he comes to the conclusion ones lifetime has more pain in it than happiness this idea has sources in Muslim philosophy and has its hints in the gemora in some ways. The gemora brings down this:

There was a copher (heretic) called Elisha ben Avura or as he was later known acher. He wasn’t ever really the best pupil in the yeshivah, but one day he saw a father tell his son to shoo away a mother bird and take the eggs. The boy did fell of the ladder and died acher said this, here are two mitzvos both of which hashem said lengthens ones days (nonering parents and shluch hakan sending away the mother bird), and this child dies young. With that he said zu torah zu zchora? (This is torah and this is its reward?) And he gave up Judaism years later his grandson answer this question saying: if ones life is 70 or 80 years at the end it feels like a second so what difference the extra ten years and most of ones life is hard and painful anyway so this can’t be what the torah meant when it said lengthen your days, it must mean something else i.e. olam habo.

This is a clear source of a jewish idea of overall suffering in this world and it has a kind of logic to it, everything you get in this world you loss as eventually you will die so if not before then you will loss everything, the logic of joy and sadness in this world is only with improvement and deterioration as things we already have we don’t appreciate and pains we already have we are used to. As a lot of the things we get in this world we don’t realise at the time in order to appreciate them (our bodies are health two massive things both given to us at a point in our life we can’t remember) so since we start off above zero and we go down to zero and joy and sadness is only movement therefore total joy must be negative. Also since “time flies when your having fun the positive seem much smaller than the negatives which seem drawn out so over all it seems all bad. Did you follow that? It has a few logical flaws, you can talk to me about it or email me but a lot of people see the world that way and it’s not too foreign to Jewish thought we believe happiness is in the world to come so this is not such a crazy thing to say. (perkai avos perek beis last mishna) This is the opposite of rabbi Akiva who used to say everything hashem does is good.

Now even if you don’t agree with the previous bit the next bit stands look at IYOV he is having a lot of pain:- WHY?

PUNISHMENT – but IYOV is righteous

G-D is a big BULLY – g-d is ultimately good (another topic to prove but even so IYOV believed it)

IT’S LOGIC ACTION REACTION – now we don’t believe in this too much, we believe things are controlled by g-d but this does have some effect on the world it’s the idea that because of other events it lead to IYOVS pain by no evil or good simple cause and effect, but it’s not possible here as some of IYOV’s downfalls where quite spectacular like fire coming down from heaven.

SOME ONE ELSE’S BECHIRO IS CAUSEING YOU PAIN – again not such an easy topic happy to discuss it if people want but again couldn’t be here due to the fire from heaven stuff

Finally we reach IYOV’s final logic PREDETERMINATION. IYOV curses the day, this means he curses the day he was born, he curses the stars and the destiny he was born into, he comes to the conclusion there is a predetermined life for all of us irrespective of our bechera (free will), therefore it doesn’t matter if he was good or bad but stuff happens (as they don’t say because they use a ruder word) now this has to be incorrect and Iyov’s friends will answer him back soon but until now this is where we stand It’s how IYOV faced the contradicting logic’s of g-d

IYOV has a simple claim if I was born to suffer I would be better off having died in the womb.

We see somewhere else a similar dilemma Avroham was told to sacrifice his son, and a few years ago hashem told him that his son would be a great nation, seemingly a contradiction Avroham has to deal with. Now Avroham didn’t ask or probe or query he did it and he is massively rewarded for it. None of us can imagine either of IYOV’s of Avroham’s position but we can compare them.

I hope you all have a great Yom Tov if any of you have any question on any of the ides here, any of the theories of pain I didn’t go into them much and I didn’t have a long time to think up too many others so please put forward your own, and please email me with any questions or ask me to clarify something clearer. The thing earlier about how most of ones life being bad shouldn’t get you down I have whole other things about happiness but al lot of people argue for many other reasons and people support it for other reasons but you can appreciate why IYOV thought so. And even people who do believe it can still be solid Jews with the idea that the next world is where we reap the benefit.