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| Volume 12 Number 51 | Wed Apr 2 23:55:01 US/Pacific 2003 |
From: Sholom Simon <sholom@aishdas.org> Date: Thu Mar 27 9:33:37 US/Pacific 2003 Subject: The Book of Job >So, how do **I** reconcile Job? I look on it as a book that had its >function in a place and time when it was written and that time and place no >longer exist. We have grown past that and so must totally ignore it, just >as we ignore books on the "fine art of construction of buggy whips". > >Trying to find "answers" to why good is "punished" and "evil" is rewarded is >a useless endeavor. There is a contemporay saying "shit happens". It means >that life **IS**. It isn't necessarily fair, it just is. Trying to explain >it away is doomed to failure. I found great irony in the above two consecutive paragraphs. After describing why you think the book of Job is irrelevant -- you then proceed to postulate, as your answer, the very same answer that the book of Job gives! HaShem is basically telling Job, at the end, that we only see part of the picture, and how the universe works, in terms of good and evil, is simply beyond our comprehension. If you are postulating the same thing, then, well, I guess the book is relevant after all! Sholom
From: Julian Yudelson <jeybbu@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Date: Wed Apr 2 17:38:14 US/Pacific 2003 Subject: The Book of Job I do not know the reason that Sheldon does not accept any explanation for the book of Job other than his own, but I believe that whatever its origins it can speak eloquently to today's world, if we would just listen. Sheldon Glickler <sheldonlg@attbi.com> writes: > That book is not about "gee, we can't understand the ways of God". It is > about "why is God acting as such a "*(*&_&#" ? The book provides no answer. > If I felt that this was an accurate description of the Jewish concept of God > then I would run, not walk, to the nearest non-Jewish place. > Job: > (1) God looks at a good man and says "how can I make this shmuck > miserable?". > (2) He takes away his possessions (ok, possessions can be replaced). > (3) He murders all his children (do they get resurrected?). > (4) In the end he has wealth restored (goody for him). > (5) He has more children -- as if that compensates in any way for those that > were murdered, never mind the capriciousness of simply killing the children > on a whim. > Sheldon states later "As for Job's dead children, they were capriciously > murdered by the God depicted in the book of Job. It is that simple. " But it is not that simple. There are many in recent times who have suffered the torments of Job. Some lost faith, some sustained it, and some acquired it. "More children" are not compensation for a dead child, but they can restore psychological and emotional life to the parent who would otherwise want to die himself. I personally know too many individuals who survived the Holocaust and after loosing parents, children, and countless loved one, continued to live a life reflecting a personal acceptance of the message at the end of the Book of Job. Ilan Ramon's story is one of the more vivid example of meaningful life after undeserved torment. The Book of Job is an accurate description of ONE Jewish concept of God. It describes a God that is ultimately responsible for both the good and bad things that happen in life. It describes a divine being that is not answerable to human understanding. Julian Yudelson
From: Rabbi Moshe ben Asher & Magidah Khulda bat Sarah <kharakim@jps.net> Date: Wed Apr 2 17:39:20 US/Pacific 2003 Subject: New drashot on parshiot of the week Gather the People has added to its web site more than 50 brief drashot on selected verses from the parshiot of the week. The drashot may be freely downloaded as Adobe pdf (Portable Document Format) files. Gather the People is a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, founded by a sponsor committee of rabbis representing all the major movements and branches of Judaism. GTP supports congregational and community organizing by providing extensive web-based training and education resources without charge at http://www.gatherthepeople.org.
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