I was offended by his surrender in the text. Job’s resignation as man was an insult to man. He should not have given in so easily. He should have continued to protest, to refuse the handouts. He should have said to God: Very well, I forgive You, I forgive You to the extent of my sorrow, my anguish. But what about my dead children, do they forgive You? What right have I to speak on their behalf? Do I have the moral, the human right to accept an ending, a solution to this story, in which they have played roles that You imposed on them, not because of them, but because of me? By accepting Your inequities, do I not become Your accomplice? Now it is my turn to choose between You and my children, and I refuse to repudiate them. I demand that justice be done to them, if not to me, and that the trial continue . . . Yes, that is what he should have said. Only he did not. He agreed to go back to living as before. Therein lay God’s true victory: He forced Job to welcome happiness. After the catastrophe Job lived happily in spite of himself.

• • •

At the end of his struggle, which Job recognized as being lost in advance—for how can man hope to defeat God?—Job discovered a novel method to persevere in his resistance: he pretended to abdicate before he even engaged his battle.

Had he remained firm, had he discussed the divine arguments point by point, one would conclude that he had to concede defeat in the face of his interlocutor’s rhetorical superiority. But he said yes to God, immediately. He did not hesitate or procrastinate, nor did he point out the slightest contradiction. Therefore we know that in spite or perhaps because of appearances, Job continued to interrogate God. By repenting sins he did not commit, by justifying a sorrow he did not deserve, he communicates to us that he did not believe in his own confessions; they were nothing but decoys. Job personified man’s eternal quest for justice and truth—he did not choose resignation. Thus he did not suffer in vain; thanks to him, we know that it is given to man to transform divine injustice into human justice and compassion.

• • •

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a legendary man, a just and generous man who, in his solitude and despair, found the courage to stand up to God. And to force Him to look at His creation. And to speak to those men who sometimes succeed, in spite of Him and of themselves, in achieving triumphs over Him, triumphs that are grave and disquieting.

What remains of Job? A fable? A shadow? Not even the shadow of a shadow. An example, perhaps.

SOURCES

Mishna

Talmud Bavli

Talmud Yerushalmi

Avot d’rabbi Nathan

Midrash Rabba

Midrash Tankhuma

Midrash Tehilim

Pirkei d’rabbi Eliezer

Divrei hayamim shel Moshe Rabenu (Venice, 1544)