OU TORAH Introduction to the Book of (IYOV) Job By Rabbi Jack Abramowitz

PLEASE LEARN FOR PESYA BAS YAAKOV MY BOBIE ON HER YORTZEIT. Sefer Iyov is a most unusual book... By Rabbi Jack Abramowitz Job is a very unusual Book, unique in many ways. For starters, there is no consensus as to when Job lived – or even if he ever actually lived at all! The Talmud, in tractate Baba Basra (15a-b) relates a number of opinions. R. Yehoshua b. Levi says Job lived in Moses’ day; R. Yochanan and R. Eleazar say Job was one of the Babylonian exiles; R. Yehoshua b. Korcha says Job lived in the time of Esther; others say he lived at the time of Jacob. (There are still more views that I am not recounting here.) These opinions are generally based on other references in the text. For example, if I referred in writing to Hessians, you might infer that my piece was set during the time of the American Revolution, whereas a reference to Czechoslovakia would suggest that my piece was set between 1918 and 1992. Of course, this method is neither foolproof nor conclusive, as I could say that Abraham lived in Israel, although the territory was certainly not known by that name at the time.