Comentários de Citação sobre Jó 8:5

I seek You Heb. אשחרך, I seek and search for You, as (Job 7:21): “and You shall seek me (ושחרתני), but I am not here”; (Job 8:5), “If you seek (תשחר) God.”

Every intelligent student knows that entreaty (a form of prayer) is addressed to the attribute of Justice and that it represents G’d’s “left hand.” We have an explicit verse distinguishing between different kinds of prayers [and the addresses to which they are directed in the first instance, Ed.] In Psalms 30,9 David says: אליך י-ה-ו-ה אקרא, ואל א-ד-נ-י אתחנן, ”to You O Lord I called, and to my G’d I made appeal.” Another verse describing an entreaty being addressed to the attribute of Justice is found in Deut. 3,24: א-ד-נ-י אלוקים אתה החילות וגו'. At that time Moses’ prayer had been described as a תחנה in the preceding verse. [The concept with which we are all familiar is that G’d employs the right hand to attract, to draw near to Him, whereas when He has occasion to reject, to push away, He uses His left hand, i.e. the “weaker” hand to do so. Ed.] Our sages also make a distinction between prayers offered and described as לפני ה', and those addressed as לה', the former being addressed to the attribute of Justice.

A kabbalistic approach: with the words ”you have begun to show me Your greatness, etc.,” Moses refers to his first encounter with G’d at the burning bush. When he goes on to describe G’d’s attributes, he means that it had been his privilege to acquaint the Jewish people with these attributes of G’d and His accomplish-ments in his capacity as His prophet. (David uses similar language in Psalms 86,8) Seeing that this has been so, Moses begs to be allowed to see the Holy land with his own eyes. The reason the name of G’d is spelled א-ד-נ-י in his plea here is that Moses alluded to Psalm 114 7-8 in which G’d is called אדון חולי ארץ, in connection with turning the rock into a lake of water. That verse referred to the incident at the rock where Moses had become guilty of this punishment. He now begs forgiveness by alluding to his sin in this indirect way. The word י-ה-ו-ה with the vowels of “elo-him” are an aspect of the attribute of Justice which contains a large measure of the attribute of Mercy. The word ואתחנן is used next to the attribute of Justice by Moses as when one asks forgiveness one does not address the attribute of Mercy but first has to assuage the attribute of Justice. We also learn this from Job 8,5: אם אתה תשחר אל א-ל ואל שדי תחנן, “if you want to pray to the Lord (to forgive your sins) first plead with the attribute Shaddai.”