Chasidut su Deuteronomio 25:5

Indeed we find it written in the Zohar (176b), “We learn from this that one who is going to console a mourner needs to prepare his words in order that they will bring consolation. Iyov’s friends spoke words of truth, but said nothing to console him.” The Zohar says that they all spoke the truth, so we cannot say that these views on Divine providence are all philosophies totally foreign to the Torah. Indeed the Zohar proves also that Eliphaz’s view was not completely in harmony with the Torah, either. Elihu, however, did offer a solution to the problem of theodicy called “Tzaddik vetov lo, tzaddik verah lo – a righteous person who prospers, and a righteous person who suffers.”⁵⁰⁶The Talmud (Berachot, 7a) offers several solutions to the problem of theodicy; that is, the seemingly unjust suffering of the righteous. It states that “When a righteous person prospers, it means that he himself is righteous and is the son of a righteous father. A righteous person who suffers is himself righteous, though his father was wicked.” The Talmud questions the validity of this answer, since another verse states, “…sons shall not be put to death because of fathers; each man shall be put to death for his own transgression” (Devarim 24:16). In other words, a righteous person should not suffer on account of his father’s actions. The Talmud clarifies its view by stating, “When the righteous prospers, it means that he is perfectly righteous, but when the righteous suffers, it means that he is not perfectly righteous.” This is as the Zohar says (Pinchas, 116b), “Iyov was the son of a levirate marrage.”⁵⁰⁷See Devarim, 25:5. If a man dies without fathering children, his brother is required to marry his widow to keep his name alive. Stating that Iyov was the son of levirate marriage implies that though he was righteous, his father probably was not, inasmuch as the whole process of leveritic marriage is understood as a kind of Divine punishment. According to R. Gershon Hanokh, Elihu apparently understood the Talmud’s first position (see previous note), inasmuch as Iyov was “a righteous person whose father was wicked.” Elihu’s words enlightened Iyov to the depth of God’s governance of the world, as tte Zohar⁵⁰⁸Perhaps referring to the Zohar on Parshat Mishpatim which discusses yibum. teaches, that the root and depth of God’s governance is hidden from man, yet from there, everything can be redeemed.⁵⁰⁹The author writes in his book, the Sod Yesharim, Parshat Mishpatim, that the whole state of being born out of yibum is a rectification for someone who only thought to serve God but never actually brought this thought into action. All of the negative energy within him join together in this good thought and comes to fruition after he dies in his son born through the yavam and the yavama (his widow and brother). This soul brings all the light of salvation and revelation of Godliness into the world that he could not. In this way the darkness holds the greatest light. From a straightforward understanding of the statements of Iyov’s friends, we do not see that they deny the idea of Divine reward and punishment. They only say that the depth of God’s wisdom is hidden. Their belief in Divine providence is that it exists in the root of the creation and the essence of existence, but still in these foreign views there is no necessity for reward and punishment. The centrality of reward and punishment is only in the Torah’s view.