A. Significance of the Book: 1. Literary – one of the rare legacies of the human race, Job aims at the heart of the reader. The elements of tragedy, pain and sorrow move through the melancholy lines with rhythmic ease. George Foote Moore calls it “one of the greatest poetical works of the world’s literature.” Tennyson: “Great as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars. There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal merit.” Despite the difficult syntax and rare words in the Book, few can resist the combined emotional and esthetic onslaught of its literary attack. 2. Philosophical – the Book is primarily the study of Man's encounter with Evil. Even more than the emotional consequences are the philosophical or theological ones. It therefore aims at the mind of the reader. How shall Job reconcile G-d’s Justice with His seeming Injustice? Why is the pious man the one to suffer, while the wicked prosper? The discussions between Job and his friends lead us to one of the most profound researches into the nature of Evil. Its results have been the source material for all great thinkers since. 3. Religious – the Book of Job aims at the soul too. Whereas the philosophical material is concentrated in the center of the Book, with its debates and rebuttals, the religious interest is in the prologue and epilogue, where the matters of Faith, the Greatness of G-d and the Smallness of Man are discussed. The Book records the vindication of the unorthodox against the accepted beliefs. Job was not always popular with our Rabbis, but nevertheless the High Priest used to read it in the Temple on Kol Nidre night, and the Prophet Ezekiel, himself a Priest, mentions Job, with Noah, as prototypes of great Zaddikim. B. The Story of Job and Organization of the Book: 1. The Prologue – the Book of Job has a Faustian touch to it. As in Faust, the Devil, or Satan, is a protagonist in the play – for that is what Job seems to be, a play or drama which centers…

The traumatic events of September 11th have left an indelible mark on the psyche of the American people – and, indeed, on people throughout the civilized world. The horror of the senseless killing and the noxious religious fanaticism that occasioned it left us perplexed, angry, and determined to uproot the evil that has been visited upon us. High among the issues suddenly thrust upon our consciousness were those of security and economics. We discovered our vulnerability—something most people in the world were fully aware of and were long coping with, but which we had never considered as a result of living between the two great oceans on each side of us. We now had to protect ourselves from the technologically adept madmen who probably had more such awful tricks up their proverbial sleeves. And the destruction of the d'win Towers, the icons of American capitalism and the symbols of our national and individual wealth, coming at a time of a slowing economy, accelerated the bad news and left many people unemployed or underemployed.These challenges have been, are, and will be met and overcome. American ingenuity and unity sometimes falter when things are going well, but become heroically active when adversity suddenly confronts us. Our military activity in Afghanistan, our readiness to stand up to terrorists of all kinds, has inspired and encouraged us. The civilized world suffered from piracy until it was conquered, and international terrorism too will be vanquished, albeit not without more pain and suffering.But beyond these two obvious consequences of the 9/11 catastrophe was something more insidious, more personal, and more unsettling. And that is the philosophical and theological dilemma that widespread suffering had thrust upon us. As a result, Americans turned to their respective houses of worship in numbers considerably greater than usual, the media uncharacteristically turned introspective, and people who never gave thought to the ultimate questions of existenc…

The enormity of the depraved atrocity that was perpetrated has not yet been fully assimilated, especially by those of us who lived here – so close to the scene of the crime. Yet a number of students felt that before the effects wear off, we ought to think about remembering – how shall we recall what happened and why. We should not underestimate the importance of remembering. The philosopher George Santayana once famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Apparently, everyone agrees that it is important to remember. The question is: what do we remember, whom do we remember, and how do we remember? Let me therefore begin by putting this event into some kind of perspective. There have been many catastrophes in history, both man-made and natural. We shall concentrate on the man-made disasters in my lifetime, and those which undoubtedly will continue in your lifetime. This list of horrors includes the gulag of Stalin, where millions of people perished; the experiment of the Communist regime in China — when millions of people perished; the Khmer Rouge, World War 11, Cambodia.... One can give a whole list of catastrophes invented by human minds — depraved human minds, but human minds nonetheless. And then, of course, there was the Shoah, the Holocaust. If you want to understand the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish people and thereafter for the world, remember that we lost one third of our population. We started World War II with a world Jewish population of eighteen million; after the Shoah, we were reduced to twelve million. Now make the following very simple mathematical calculation: what would have happened if the World Trade Center catastrophe had been expanded to one third of the American people? We would have lost over eighty-two million people! And nevertheless, despite all that, the impact of what happened exactly one year ago today — even without our calculation — was enormous. Someone put it correctly: it exposed our vul…

Q of suffering – צדיק ורע לו וכו׳ = single most trenchant Q f any theistic religion – Samuel, David, & in a way Abr (השופט כל הארץ...). Prophet Joel (2:17) – למה יאמרו בעמים איה אלקיהם. Same Q askd immedtly upon Twin Towers (Televangelists – inane ans!). Yet greatest such Q not in ancient days not Twin Towers – but HOLT! Coincidence: Sept 11 = כ״ג אלול – liquid’n Vilna Ghetto. Also: universal – if catastrophe – all victims = צלם אלקים. Of 6000 langs tod, most universal: Tears... So: compliment SCW women who שומרות f all victims. So, how ans Joel’s Q?? 2 levels: philo / existential. Philo-Theol: (1) Privative. בעש״ט ... BUT: > Holt, nt good enough ans. (2) More acceptable (Augustine): argument from freedom... But – all theodicies – bloodless, abstract, overly rational... existential (1): David: מדוע / למה ... א-לי א-לי למה עזבתני... (Broad level: learn terrorsm infectious – spreads...; also: no moral postur’g as targeted killing...) Personal Level: Learn to cherish lf – pos’y / neg’y: Neg’v: perspective – no complain trivialities, minor frustrations; Don’t blame Gd – may be f your good! Lemberg; footprints beach... Pos’y: mk lf > mnngful – as: apprectg parnts / tchrs / siblings / studnts / strangers; Daven w mr כוונה; learn Tor w mr zest; גמ״ח even w parents... Disaster call f Teshuva: רמב״ם – כל הנביאים לא נתנבאו אלא לתשובה (So, Bratzlav: Gd calls on all of us ~ nature; some w shout / whisper; depends how close we are to Him), (f both: * Do some’g – מה תצעק אלי; * unity –> Cvl War USA are –> is). (2) Most impt! – JOB Read: 38:1–7. 19–23; 40:1–8; 42:1–8. רמב״ם בסה״מ מ״ע להתפלל בכל יום שנא׳ ולעבדו – זו תפילה. משמע״ מז״א רמב״ן = – מד׳ר. והפסוק "ולעבדו" – לגבי עת צרה, כמ״ש "וכי תבוא מלחמה בארצכם על הצר הצורר אתכם והרעותם בחצוצרות..." וזה מצוה על כל צרה שתבוא על הציבור וא״כ קשה על הרמב״ם שבפסוק זה משמע שתפילה מד׳א רק בעת צרה? מר׳ר זצ״ל – הרמב״ם ס״ל שכל החיים הם במשבר קיומי...