מדרש אויף איוב 31:35

Chapter 1. Rabbi Yishmael says: How great is the strength of Job, who said this verse: "Oh that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!" (Job 31:35) But what can I do, for "Behold my desire is the decree of the Almighty should answer me" (Job ibid.). Job said: What does it matter to me if I die and my spirit is taken away? The Holy One Blessed Be He said: Behold, it is written in the Book of the Dead. "Behold my desire is the decree of the Almighty should answer me" - and this is what it says "and you shall place a mark on the foreheads of the people" (Ezekiel 9:4). "And a book was written: 'Each man's grievance'" (Job ibid) - this is the Book of the Generations of Adam, sealed with all the generations of man. "One fate comes to the righteous and the wicked" (Ecclesiastes 9:2). All the generations of man go just as words go from the mouth, and just as Adam went - what are the generations of Adam the Second, missing the vav, and the First is full - so the generations do not go to die whole until their body loses the kings (four elements) that are in their body. With His great power, the Omnipresent created the entire world in pairs, pairs. This corresponding to this, and this opposite that, in order to contemplate His wisdom, and to make known to them that everything has a partner and everything has a substitute. Without this, that would not be; why are life called "life" and death called "death"? Without death, life would not be called "life" and it would not be known that it is life. And so too death - without life, death would not exist and death would not be known, and how is this death? Rabbi Yishmael said: In this body there are kings - blood, white phlegm, red bile and black bile. And when a person grows up, his strength weakens, and his blood changes, and his face turns pale, and one of the kings overpowers or weakens. "You hide Your face, they vanish" (Psalms 104:29) - to what is this comparable? To an inflated waterskin. When the waterskin is whole, the air remains inside it. When it is punctured or torn, the air departs. So too the body - when the kings remain empowered, the spirit remains inside it like the air in the waterskin. And why is the body compared to a king who has armies and four officers over them, and in his kingdom four states, and the lords of the states are evil. If an officer averts his eyes from them, from his territory or his place, they revolt against him and his entire kingdom becomes confused. So too the body is the king, and the sinews are the armies, and the bones are the states, and the four officers are the four elements of the body, and they are: blood, white phlegm, red bile and black bile. And when one of the officers averts his eyes a little, immediately the body becomes confused and the person becomes ill, and if one of the officers is lacking, the spirit departs and the body expires. Rabbi Akiva said to him: How is it that some people die young, some die old, and some die elderly? He said to him: That's how it is - when one of the elements is lacking, the body dies. And so it corresponds to the four elements in the body - the four kingdoms corresponding to the four directions of the world. White corresponds to the east, where light comes from, and easterners are white. Blood corresponds to the north, and just as the north is open, so too the body is open to the blood, as wherever you make an incision in the body, blood comes out, unlike the other three which don't come out wherever you make an incision. And northerners are all red. Red bile corresponds to the west, as the sun reddens at the western edge, and the faces of the west redden at its setting. Black bile corresponds to the south, which is born from coolness, like shadows. And corresponding to them, the four elements of the world: Black bile corresponds to earth, which is born from coolness and dryness, like the earth. Red bile corresponds to fire, its nature being hot and dry. White corresponds to water, its nature being cold and wet like water. Blood corresponds to air.

"Lord God, You have begun" (Deuteronomy 3:24): There is a [relevant] parable: To what is this comparable? To a king that saw an orphaned woman and sought to marry her. He sent to propose to her. She said, "I am not fit to marry the king." He sent [again] and proposed seven times, but she did not listen to him. After a while, she married the king. [Later,] the king got angry with her and sought to divorce her and marry another [woman]. The first one said, "I have no shame if you divorce me, as it is you who sought me to begin with. However since you are divorcing me, I plead with you, do not do to this [wife] like what you have done to me." So [too] did the Holy One, blessed be He, do to Moshe. He seduced him for seven days. And [Moshe] said to him (Exodus 4:10), "I am not a man of words." After a while, the Holy One, blessed be He, appeased him. [So] he went on His mission, and all of the miracles happened through him. In the end, [God] said to him, "For 'you shall not enter [the land]'" (Deuteronomy 32:52). [So] Moshe our teacher said to Him, "Master of the world, if You do not want me to bring them to the land, I have no shame, as 'You began,'" which is an expression of beginning; "but since You have decreed this upon me, do not do to the one who brings them like You have done to me, 'That he should go in front of them [...] and that he bring them' (Numbers 27:17)." "And the Lord said to me, 'It is enough (rav) for you; do not add'" (Deuteronomy 3:26). As your opponent has preceded you. As so did Iyov state (Job 31:35), "O that I had someone to give me a hearing; O that the Omnipresent would reply to my writ, or my opponent (eesh rivi) write a book (a bill of charges)!" And which book [is that]? "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5:1, as Adam brought death to the world). What did Job say? "Small and great are there, and the slave is free of his master" (Job 3:19). Therefore, "It is enough."

When the first Adam ate from the tree, he caused death for all. Another interpretation (of Deut. 3:26): SO THE LORD SAID UNTO ME: ENOUGH FROM YOU! The litigant against you has already preceded you, as Job has already stated (in Job 31:35): O THAT SOMEONE WOULD GIVE ME A HEARING! [HERE IS MY SIGNATURE. LET THE ALMIGHTY ANSWER ME, AND LET MY ACCUSER WRITE A TRUE BILL (literally: A BOOK.] Which [BOOK]? (Gen. 5:1:) THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM. So what did Job say (in Job 3:19)? THE SMALL AND THE GREAT ARE THERE, AND THE SLAVE ('eved) IS FREE FROM HIS MASTERS. Ergo (in Deut. 3:26): ENOUGH FROM YOU! DO NOT <EVER> SPEAK <UNTO ME ON THIS MATTER> AGAIN.