August 27, 2019 · 00:03:27
Welcome to NachDaily with Iyov, Perek 23. This is Iyov’s 3rd response to Elifaz. The Malbim explains that Tsofar had essentially made two points. One, the righteous suffer because it’s Hashem's way of testing them, to raise them up to a higher level of serving Him, not merely for the sake of reward and punishment. Hashem purifies the righteous through suffering in order to give them more reward in the World to Come. Two, the reason why the wicked prosper is to allow free choice to remain intact. If people were punished and rewarded immediately for their actions, free choice would be obstructed because the results would be obvious. People's intentions of serving God would not be for the sake of serving Him, but to avoid punishment. In this perek Iyov directly responds to the first argument and addresses the second point in the next chapter. He first questions how God would inflict him with such serious physical and emotional pain just because he may have harbored a tad of selfishness in his heart and not have served Him l’shem Shamayim to the utmost. After all, did Iyov not try his best to keep the Torah? Certainly the punishment doesn't fit the “crime.” Iyov explains that if he had the ability to speak with God, he would have said that he wasn't serving Him due to ulterior motives. He was trying his best to serve God with sincerity. Iyov concludes, based on his own experience, that the very fact he was righteous to begin with must have been preordained, which is why he wasn't