Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Why did Satan test Iyov?

The Gemara Bava Basra (161) gives the following explanation. Satan was concerned that Hashem's love of Iyov might detract from his love for Avraham and therefore Satan wanted to show that Iyov was not so great.

How are we supposed to understand this? This ascribes petty motives to both Satan an angel as well as Hashem. If Hashem is omniscient and perfect then how could Satan think that Hashem would be swayed by his love for Iyov?

4 comments:

  1. This might be a good illustration of the disconnect of how modern day Jews view Hashem and how much of Chazal did. The impression is that Chazal were impressed by how powerful Hashem is, but still very much like a human ruler, though a really impressive one. Modern Day religious Jews tend to emphasize how perfect Hashem is and specifically perfectly good and loving.
    In ancient times, the reality was there were many kings and rulers and they were usually far from good and loving. Now, we are after the enlightenment, and democracy and human rights are a thing. And so our view of Hashem has been influenced by that.
    Personally, it was picking up on that strain of Hashem as a kind of tough, demanding, punitive god in my learning that made me kind of uncomfortable. Perhaps that made me open to questioning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the shift in how we see Hashem happened much earlier than the Enlightenment. The God of Tanach, especially the parts that were written earlier, is anthropomorphic. As time goes by, he gets less and less so, until we get to the Rambam and his insistence that believing in an anthropomorphic God is kefirah. Even then, there were many rishonim who disagreed. Rashi, for one, was probably a corporealist. But now, a thousand years later, the Rambam's view has won, and Judaism has a tri-omni God.

      Delete
    2. I agree wholeheartedly with your impression of Chazal. We find in numerous places depictions of Hashem behving like a human ruler. In fact, it is not just Chazal, we see this in Tanach as well. A good example is that Hashem says to Moshe that he is going to wipe the Jewish people out. Moshe then answers him but what will the Egyptians say? And with that convinces Hashem not to destroy the Jewish people. There is no way to reconcile this exchange with any understanding of Tefilla from the time of Rishonim and on. At some point I am going to write a post about tefilla further explaing this.

      Delete
    3. Certainly Hashem in Tanach is portrayed quite petulantly (and in Beresihis very humanly). For me, I was innoculated from this realization by early exposure to Chumash, and ignorance of Tanach. So it was learning Gemara that started the recognition of "immaturity" in the divine. Once, questioning began and the blinders came off, the Chumash could be reintroduced to my mind. I am now in the middle of James Kugel's How to Read the Bible to help in this area.
      (And as regards Tanach, has anyone come across a good apologetic for why iron chariots were too tough for Hashem?)
      I am looking forward to your post on tefilla!

      Delete