Comentários de Citação sobre Jó 28:27

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.

I believe that the patriarchs received the Torah from Shem who in turn had received it from Noach; Noach had received it from Chanoch who had received it from Adam himself. Adam, of course, had received the Torah from G'd. This is based on Job 28,27: "Then He saw and told, etc.,…and He said to Adam." Zohar 1,199 attributes the revelation of Torah laws to Adam as the basis of G'd instructing him how to work and preserve the גן עדן. I have explained this in connection with Genesis 2,15. At that time Adam (and the patriarchs subsequently) were only commanded seven laws on pain of death. These laws are the ones commonly known as the Noachide laws, those applicable to mankind as a whole. All the other commandments which G'd revealed to Adam had only one purpose, namely to enable man to accumulate reward if he observed them. If he failed to observe those laws he was not liable to punishment. This situation continued until G'd revealed Himself to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.

However, to know the pilpul method, enabling one to comprehend deeply how the traditions are all alluded to in the Torah, and how to [use this comprehension] to derive laws that are not addressed by tradition (as we have written in Part 1, chapters 6 and 7) initially – these were provided only to Moshe and his descendants. When our teacher Moshe arrived at the plains of Moab, he taught [this methodology] to all of Israel, and this is why Moshe taught the Torah a third time on the plains of Moab.⁴⁵See how the Netziv expands on this matter in Ha’amek Davar and Harhev Davar on Deut. 1:3. See Sotah 37b and Hagigah 6b, where R. Akiva states: “Both general and particular laws were proclaimed at Sinai, repeated in the Tent of Meeting, and for the third time in the plains of Moab.” Moshe did not merely review with them what he had previously taught, for why would the Torah specify only “the plains of Moab?” He [continued] to study and teach as much as possible, throughout the entire forty years that they traveled in the wilderness. Rather, the third time Moshe taught them the Torah, he taught them a new methodology, which is pilpul and inference from Scripture. This [idea] is clearly stated in the Midrash Rabbah on Shemos 40, [Scripture states]: “Then did He see it, and declare it; He established it and hikerah, searched it out.”⁴⁶Job 28:27. [This teaches us], “Then did he see it and declare it” at Sinai, [then] “he established it” in the Tent of Meeting, [and he] “hikerah, searched it out” in the plains of Moab.”