Pemikiran Yahudi Yesaya 8:10: Akeidat Yitzchak, Kol Dodi Dofek & Guide for the Perplexed

C) There is a special hashgachah for Tzaddikim to whom G-d relates as if they were part of His own Self. Whenever G-d’s personal intervention is mentioned, this suggests that it was occasioned through the merit of our forefathers. Redemption is due to the good deeds of our ancestors. For instance, when G-d talks about redeeming Israel from Egypt, keeping His promise to Abraham the tzaddik, He says "I shall pass through Egypt," which our sages interpret to mean that G-d personally, will do this, not by means of an angel, and emissary. (Exodus 12, 12) Or, "I shall make it rain bread from heaven." (due to the merit of Moses) There are numerous other examples of this. To sum up, hashgachah exists everywhere, but its specific manifestation varies according to the merit of the individual or people concerned. A similar thought is expressed in Psalm 33. a) "G-d frustrates the counsel of nations." b) "Hail to the nation which counts the Lord as its G-d." c) "Express jubilation to G-d, O righteous people." In the first instance hashgachah manifests itself negatively, preventing harm from befalling G-d’s people, preserving G-d’s master plan from being interfered with. Even when G-d exercises His personal hashgachah over the nations of the world, the objective is the preservation of His people." To save the life of His servants from death." (Psalms 33, 1) The four kings of Sodom that were saved, were saved for the sake of Lot, even though they themselves had long been guilty of death. Pharaoh was saved for the sake of Sarah. Clearly, whenever we have evidence of G-d’s personal interference in history, it is for the sake of the Jewish people or in order to save individual deserving Jews.

The well-known metaphysical query surfaces and the sufferer asks: “Why do you show me ‎iniquity ‎and cause [us] to behold mischief … for the wicked man besets the righteous, so that ‎justice goes ‎out perverted?” (Habakkuk 1:3–4). Indeed, as we emphasized above, God does not ‎address this ‎question, and it is not answered. It remains hidden, beyond the realm of logic. For ‎‎“you cannot see ‎My face, for man may not see Me and live” (Exodus 33:20). When the desire for ‎rational inquiry ‎seizes man, he can do nothing but fortify his belief in the Creator, accept God’s ‎judgment, and ‎acknowledge the perfection of His action. “He is the Rock, His works are perfect: for ‎all His ways are ‎just” (Deuteronomy 32:4). If we want to ask a penetrating question at a time beset ‎by terrifying ‎nightmares, it is incumbent upon us to do so in a halakhic mode: What obligation ‎accrues to the ‎sufferer as a result of his suffering? What commanding heavenly voice breaks ‎through from the ‎midst of suffering? As we have said, this question has a solution which is ‎expressed in a simple ‎halakhah. There is no need for metaphysical speculation in order to clarify ‎the rules of rectifying ‎evil. “For it is not in Heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12). If we succeed in ‎formulating this doctrine ‎without dealing with questions of cause and telos, we will earn a ‎complete salvation, and the ‎scriptural promise will be fulfilled for us, as it is written: “Take counsel ‎together, and it shall come to ‎naught; speak your harshnesses and they shall not come to fruition, ‎for God is with us” (Isaiah ‎‎8:10). Then and only then shall we emerge from the depths of the ‎Holocaust with enhanced ‎spiritual stature and augmented historical splendor, as it is written, “And ‎the Lord gave Job twice as ‎much as he had before” ( Job 42:10) — double in quantity and quality.‎

First, consider the words: “There was a man in the land Uz.” The term Uz. has different meanings; it is used as a proper noun. Comp. “Uz, his first-born” (Gen. 22:21); it is also imperative of the verb Uẓ, “to take advice.” Comp. uẓu, “take counsel” (Isa. 8:10). The name Uz therefore expresses the exhortation to consider well this lesson, study it, grasp its ideas, and comprehend them, in order to see which is the right view. “The sons of God then came to present themselves before the Lord, and the adversary came also among them and in their number” (chap. 1:6, 2:1). It is not said: “And the sons of God and the adversary came to present themselves before the Lord”; this sentence would have implied that the existence of all that came was of the same kind and rank. The words used are these: “And the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the adversary came also among them.” Such a phrase is only used in reference to one that comes without being expected or invited; he only comes among others whose coming has been sought. The adversary is then described as going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down thereon. He is in no relation to the beings above, and has no place among them. For this reason it is said, “from going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it,” for his “going” and “walking” can only take place on the earth. [Job], the simple and righteous man, is given and handed over to the adversary; whatever evils and misfortunes befell Job as regards his property, children, and health, were all caused by this adversary.