Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 25:14

Overwhelmed by the power of his arguments, Job’s three companions were left wordless at the end of his oration.¹It had not occurred to any of them that Job was undergoing a trial. Each had tried to justify God at the expense of Job's innocence or integrity. Eliphaz had accused him of sinning openly; Zophar, of having sinned secretly; Bildad, of not being all he seemed. But Job had remained steadfast under all their attacks. They had now exhausted all their arguments. However, at this point a brave warrior (1Samuel 16:18) joins the campaign (1Samuel 17:20); who speaks with understanding...God being with him. Addressing the debaters present, Elihu turns back the tide of war (Isaiah 28:6), and displaying his strength (1Samuel 14:48) he reveals the truth concerning these questions. He formulates and scrutinizes them (Job 28:27), with the spirit of God that is upon him (Judges 3:10 et alia); and with the secret of the holy ones (Psalms 89:8) and of the perfect Forms (Job 37:16) in his mind. Until at the conclusion of his speech he discloses God’s secret (Jeremiah 23:18); what had happened when the Sons of God assembled before the Lord and Satan too had joined them (Job 1:6), as was related at the beginning of the book. Thus, the conclusion of the debate is to be found in the book’s Prologue. And all of this was known to Elihu from the secret God reveals to those that fear Him.²Psalms 25:14. Malbim offers no explanation why, if he was present throughout the debate, Elihu is mentioned neither in the Prologue nor in the Epilogue. This is one of the reasons that modern exegetes have regarded Elihu's speech as a later interpolation and not part of the original text of the Book.

And when Rabbi Yose ben Durmaskit visited Rabbi Eliezer in Lod he said to him: what new thing did you have in the house of study today? He said to him: their votes were counted and they decided that Ammon and Moab must give tithe for the poor in the seventh year. Rabbi Eliezer wept and said: "The counsel of the Lord is with them that fear him: and his covenant, to make them know it" (Psalms 25:14). Go and tell them: Don't worry about your voting. I received a tradition from Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai who heard it from his teacher, and his teacher from his teacher, and so back to a halachah given to Moses from Sinai, that Ammon and Moab must give tithe for the poor in the seventh year. There is a fascinating epitaph to this story. Rabbi Eliezer was evidently not there when this vote was taken. According to later legends he was excommunicated. Rabbi Yose ben Durmaskit, an otherwise unknown sage, goes to Rabbi Eliezer to report to him about what happened in the academy. Rabbi Eliezer agrees with the content of the vote, but vehemently seems to disagree with the process. Rabbi Eliezer is saying I don't need your vote because I have a tradition that goes all the way back to Sinai that Ammon and Moab give poor tithe on the sabbatical year. The argument here is between Rabbi Eliezer's way of determining halakhah and that of the other rabbis. The other rabbis, at whose forefront stands Rabbi Joshua, hold that whenever a new situation arises sages must argue about it, present opposing points of view, and then bring the matter up for a vote. There are indeed innovations in halakhah and they are arrived upon through a process of dispute and voting. Rabbi Eliezer is the arch-conservative. Even obviously new situations such as this, Jews living in the lands of Ammon and Moab, were addressed at Sinai. There is no need for a vote and no need for argumentation. Everything that ever will be was already there in the original revelation.

dass er ihn ihnen kund tue. Ps. 25, 14.