Job, Chapter 8, presents the fourth speech in the book, delivered by Bildad the Shuhite. As is our practice, we will begin with the general outline: what Bildad is fundamentally arguing, and only then examine how these ideas are articulated within the text itself.
Bildad the Shuhite asserts that he possesses an answer received by tradition from his forefathers. He tells Iyov: I too, like Eliphaz, believe in individual divine providence (hashgachah pratit), and believe that man has free will - two foundational principles that Iyov denied. Iyov accepted neither individual providence nor free will. Nor does Bildad accept the view of the astrologers, who claim that the celestial order - the stars and heavenly bodies - determines everything. Rather, all is guided by God's providence, on the one hand; and events unfold according to human actions, for man possesses free will, and what happens to him corresponds to his deeds, on the other.
The proof he brings him is: "Does God pervert judgment?" (הַאֵל יְעַוֵּת מִשְׁפָּט?) - could it be conceived that God would administer crooked justice? For if you claim there is no individual providence, it follows that a righteous person could receive the fate of the wicked, which would mean the Holy One, blessed be He, perverts judgment. His point is: a prerequisite of faith in God is that all perfections are found in Him, and all deficiencies are absent from Him. It is inconceivable to say of the Holy One, blessed be He, that there is any virtue lacking in Him, or any flaw attributable to Him. This is something even Iyov concedes - there is no dispute over this. It is an axiom acknowledged and accepted by all the disputants: the Holy One, blessed be He, is absolute, perfect goodness, devoid of any flaw.
Iyov argues that personal guidance - meaning individual providence - is not governed by justice and righteousness. His proof is himself. "Look," he says, "I am enduring severe suffering." Throughout, as we have explained, Iyov maintains that he is entirely righteous, free from sin or wrongdoing that could warrant such suffering. And if he suffers nonetheless, it must indicate that individual providence does not emanate from God, but rather that individual providence does not exist at all.
Yet how does Iyov resolve the contradiction in his own stance? On the one hand, he admits that there is no flaw in the Holy One, blessed be He, and that His judgment is righteous; on the other hand, he insists that he is suffering unjustly. Rather, Iyov distinguishes between general providence and individual providence: the Holy One, blessed be He, exercises general providence, while the particulars - what happens to each individual person at every moment - He entrusted to agents, namely the celestial mechanisms. The Malbim terms this: a blind ruler. Why blind? Because it acts mechanically and heedlessly, without knowing how or what it is doing.
In other words, the righteousness of the Holy One, blessed be He, is absolute. Why, then, does a person suffer? Because when one descends to the details, those details are no longer directly governed by God. In general, everything is ordered, but when it comes to the specifics, governance was delegated to officials. To what may this be compared? To a king who cannot sit and verify whether your municipal tax bill was calculated too high or too low, or whether your trash was collected - he is a king. With the Holy One, blessed be He, according to Iyov's conception, this is not due to a lack of ability, but due to His loftiness. (To emphasize: this is Iyov's premise, not the Jewish view). Just as an earthly ruler does not descend into minute details, so too the Holy One, blessed be He, does not wish or choose to attend to mundane particulars. Who, then, governs them? The celestial system - the heavenly bodies, the stars, Aries, and the various constellations - they exert influence, and from them events unfold. According to this, Iyov says: do not wonder that I suffer unjustly and without cause. It is a blind ruler. It is not the president of the country; it is the mayor, and the mayor is blind. He commits all manner of injustices, drawing no distinction between one who serves God and one who does not, and therefore injustice issues from him.
To this, Bildad responds by proving the exact opposite, precisely from the concept of general providence. Injustice and the Holy One, blessed be He, are mutually exclusive, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is absolute goodness devoid of any imperfection, and injustice is a flaw. To commit injustice and unfairness is an imperfection. And do you mean to say that the Holy One, blessed be He, handed His governance over to a blind ruler who deals with people unjustly? If so, you have not resolved the problem; you have merely relocated it. Is it just to hand governance over to a blind ruler who distributes fates unfairly? That in itself is an injustice. You wished to absolve God, but you have not cleared Him, for in the end you are asserting that God handed His leadership over to a blind ruler who perpetrates injustice.
And so it is in the ways of the world: when someone appoints an unfit official, to whom do people turn? To the one who appointed him. You appointed someone unscrupulous, and if he commits injustices, you are held accountable. Only politicians hide behind excuses like "my subordinates did it," "I wasn't informed," and similar hollow pretexts that everyone recognizes as futile evasions. What does "I wasn't informed" mean? You bear responsibility. What then do you wish to achieve, Iyov - to clear the Creator of the universe by saying that God is blameless, having merely handed governance to wicked judges and corrupt leaders, so that everyone down here is wicked while God remains unblemished? You have not cleared God, because in practice, you have once again attributed injustice to the Holy One, blessed be He.
You have refuted Iyov's arguments - and now we return to the question: How is it possible that Iyov is righteous and suffers? Bildad maintains that Hashem exercises providence, that divine providence is directly from Him, and there is no such thing as turning over governance to a blind ruler. He is the Ruler, He is the One who sees, understands, and knows, and He is absolute goodness. If so, the burden is upon Bildad to explain why Iyov suffers.
One possibility one might have suggested: that the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, lacks the capacity to execute justice and direct individual providence, and therefore relinquished governance into the hands of others for lack of choice. But whoever says such a thing denies a fundamental principle of faith, for he claims that the Holy One, blessed be He, is powerless. A prime minister may indeed be unable to attend to your private issues with municipal tax payments, and even if he could attend to yours, he certainly could not do so for a million residents. But if we say this about the Creator, we have denied Hashem. This is why the verse asks, "הַאֵל יְעַוֵּת מִשְׁפָּט" - what is "E-l"? The Mighty One, the Master of all capability and all powers. Could He possibly pervert justice due to a lack of ability? Impossible, for He is E-l, and whoever is E-l possesses all power and capability.
A second possibility: that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not watch over each of us individually due to our great lowliness, and does not occupy Himself with trivial matters - like a school principal whom children do not approach to say, "He said this to me, he did that to me," but rather you are sent to your teacher or to the recess monitor. To this Bildad replies: That is not justice. "וְאִם שַׁדַּי יְעַוֵּת צֶדֶק" - if Hashem created His creatures, He must also judge them with justice and govern them with justice. To create creatures and say, "It is not My concern to deal with small matters; I do not care what happens to them" - that is not justice. From this you must reach the conclusion that the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Overseer, the Creator, and the perfection of goodness, and He is the One who grants you everything you have, all with complete and meticulous individual providence.
Yet if so, we have brought the question back to its starting point. Iyov sought to absolve Hashem, while Bildad traces everything back to Hashem, blessed be He, and even magnifies it: the suffering, the dosage, the afflictions - everything is directly in the hands of the Creator of the universe. If so, why does the righteous person suffer?
Here Bildad answers that the Holy One, blessed be He, brings pain upon the righteous person even if he has no sins. In this respect Bildad is kinder than his predecessor: he does not come to tell Iyov that he is wicked, that he harbors hidden sins or things he does not recognize, or that people do not know how flawed he is. He comes and says: It is possible for a person to suffer even without any prior sin. And why? In order to do good to him twofold in the end. He is given a little suffering and a little pain here, but know - this is a misfortune that gives birth to good, and this apparent evil will ultimately be for his benefit in the future.
Bildad wishes to illustrate this with a parable, for "man is a tree of the field," and people are commonly compared to trees and shrubs. Consider a plant growing in an arid, desolate place, in rocky soil, where it cannot develop properly. The master of the garden wants this plant to flourish in all its glory - what does he do? He uproots it from there and transplants it to a favorable place, in prime soil, rich, fertile loam. If we were to ask the plant what the master is doing to it right now, what would it say? "He is tormenting me! At least here I had something, very little, but I had it - and now he has uprooted me." And what would we tell it? Be patient; soon you will see that this is for your own good.
Yet one must observe: not all plants are capable of moving from place to place. Plants that grow on an abundance of water and are full of moisture and dampness - when they are uprooted, their roots will never take hold again. Not only that, but when drought arrives, they dry up first. Like weeds, to which the wicked are compared: a bit of rain, an overflow from a drain, and immediately you see a massive thicket of weeds in the garden; yet with a bit of sun - which wilts first? That very weed. A tree grows for years, but afterward even intense sun will not harm it. A weed sprouts in seconds and dies in seconds.
So it is in the governance of man: The wicked person is accustomed to pleasures and luxuries, and the pleasures of this world are compared to water, for water symbolizes desire. That person who is completely filled with water, like a plant growing on abundant water - there is no point in uprooting him to replant him elsewhere, for transplanting will not benefit him and nothing good will grow from him; once you uproot him and replant him, he will die. The same wild person he was here, he will remain there. By contrast, the righteous person, who is compared to a plant with less water, less saturated with the pleasures and desires of this world - with him there is purpose in uprooting from one place and planting in another, and then "they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and freshness," and it will truly be for his benefit, allowing him to develop far better.
In simple words Bildad tells him: Iyov, take heart. Iyov, do not despair. The suffering you receive is for your own good, to bestow goodness upon you in your ultimate end.
וַיַּעַן בִּלְדַּד הַשּׁוּחִי וַיֹּאמַר׃ - Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
עַד־אָן תְּמַלֶּל־אֵלֶּה וְרוּחַ כַּבִּיר אִמְרֵי־פִיךָ׃ - How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a mighty wind?
How long will you utter a fierce wind from your mouth against Hashem, blessed be He, speaking empty words of wind - and what is wind? Futility. Words of vanity and mere wind. How long will you come and claim that Hashem surrendered the guidance of the world into the hands of the celestial system, and that this system does not distinguish between good and bad? To this, I have an answer.
הַאֵל יְעַוֵּת מִשְׁפָּט וְאִם־שַׁדַּי יְעַוֵּת־צֶדֶק׃ - Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
With such an argument, you are effectively claiming that the Holy One, blessed be He, commits an injustice, or that He lacks the capability, as we explained in the introduction. Bildad says to him: The Holy One, blessed be He, is righteous and upright; He does not lack the ability to govern us, and He can descend into the finest details. Furthermore, to say, Heaven forbid, that He does not care about us after having created us, and that as a result the governance of the world is left in the hands of the celestial spheres - this is inconceivable.
If we examine the wording of the verse closely: What is the difference between mishpat (justice) and tzedek (righteousness)? Today these terms have been cheapened - "the High Court of Justice" - where there is neither justice nor righteousness. As someone once quipped, "Tzedek" (Jupiter) is just the name of a planet. But in Lashon HaKodesh, mishpat is strictly according to the law: I judge you, and strictly by the letter of the law I determine your verdict. Tzedek relates to tzedakah (charity), acting beyond the strict letter of the law: I judge you not merely according to the cold facts, but with compassionate consideration of your circumstances.
According to this: If the Holy One, blessed be He, had handed over governance to the celestial system because He lacked the capability, He would be perverting justice, for true justice demands that the Holy One, blessed be He, administers everything with law and fairness, yet here He would allegedly lack the ability to judge with true justice. Regarding this, he says: "Does God [Keil] pervert justice?" What does Keil mean? The Master of all power. Could it be that One who possesses all power would not execute justice? If He possesses ultimate power, He can judge each and every individual, and individual Divine providence (hashgachah pratit) is not difficult for Him at all. And if you should say that Hashem specifically perverted what pertains to you, rather than overall justice, concerning this he states: "Or does the Almighty [Shaddai] pervert righteousness?" For the Name Shaddai denotes individual providence. Righteousness - meaning that which applies specifically to you, where it might have been fitting to judge you beyond the letter of the law and take your circumstances into account - would Hashem pervert that? That is impossible, for Shaddai indicates individual Divine providence, and individual providence judges every single person precisely as he deserves.
אִם־בָּנֶיךָ חָטְאוּ־לוֹ וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם בְּיַד־פִּשְׁעָם׃ - If your children sinned against Him, He cast them away in the hand of their transgression.
אִם־אַתָּה תְּשַׁחֵר אֶל־אֵל וְאֶל־שַׁדַּי תִּתְחַנָּן׃ - If you seek God earnestly and make your supplication to the Almighty.
Regarding your children, Bildad says, I cannot say that they received afflictions by way of reward - meaning, suffering evil today so that good will follow later - for they died and perished. Heaven forbid to say that they engaged in absolute wickedness, yet it is impossible to say that they did not sin at all; surely they sinned against Hashem. Indeed, Iyov himself had said, "Perhaps my children have sinned," which is why he offered a sacrifice for each of his children every week. And this is the meaning of "If your children sinned against Him" - the fact that they died; "He cast them away by means of their transgression" - the transgression they committed was what brought about their death. When they ate and drank, they cursed God in their hearts, Heaven forbid, and therefore the house collapsed upon them and they died - measure for measure.
However, regarding you, you are truly righteous. "If you will seek God" - an expression of prayer, as in "they will seek Me diligently" (yeshacharuneni). If you pray before the Holy One, Blessed be He, "and make supplication to the Almighty" - then hear what will happen.
אִם־זַךְ וְיָשָׁר אָתָּה כִּי־עַתָּה יָעִיר עָלֶיךָ וְשִׁלַּם נְוַת צִדְקֶךָ׃ - If you are pure and upright, surely now He would rouse Himself for you and restore your righteous habitation.
וְהָיָה רֵאשִׁיתְךָ מִצְעָר וְאַחֲרִיתְךָ יִשְׂגֶּה מְאֹד׃ - And though your beginning was small, your latter end will flourish exceedingly.
If the truth is as you say, that you are pure and upright, it will now become clear to you that the suffering the Holy One, Blessed be He, brought upon you is not out of wrath against you, nor is it that He hid His countenance from you due to improper deeds. On the contrary: through these afflictions, "He would rouse Himself for you and restore your righteous habitation" - He will awaken to pay your reward, because you are pure and upright. With you it is not like it was with your children: your children transgressed, received their punishment, and died, whereas you are still alive, and if only you pray to Hashem and plead with Him, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will grant you in their stead great and complete goodness.
"And though your beginning was small (mitz'ar)" - mitz'ar denotes something small, as in "is it not a little one (mitz'ar)?" said regarding Tzo'ar, because it was small. In the beginning it may be modest, "and your latter end will flourish exceedingly" - the suffering you endure today is to benefit you in your latter end, and ultimately it will bring you renown, glory, greatness, and distinction. Hashem sends afflictions upon a person even if he is a tzaddik, in order to elevate him in the end.
כִּי־שְׁאַל־נָא לְדֹר רִישׁוֹן וְכוֹנֵן לְחֵקֶר אֲבוֹתָם׃ - For inquire, please, of the earlier generation, and prepare yourself for the research of their fathers.
כִּי־תְמוֹל אֲנַחְנוּ וְלֹא נֵדָע כִּי צֵל יָמֵינוּ עֲלֵי־אָרֶץ׃ - For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.
The claim that the suffering of the righteous is by way of future compensation, to increase his reward in the end, is not my own invention; it is a tradition I received from my forebears, from an earlier generation, who received it from their ancestors. They investigated the matter, analyzed it, and arrived at this conclusion. "For we are but of yesterday and know nothing" - we cannot discern the truth of this matter or comprehend it through personal experience and observation alone, for in order to grasp divine providence through experience and observation, one requires years, even centuries of investigation to reach firm conclusions. And how long have we been here? "We are of yesterday" - we only arrived yesterday. Not only that, but how long will we remain? "Because our days on earth are a shadow" - like the shadow of a cloud or of the sun, present for a few hours and then gone. Thus, we cannot independently assess divine conduct that requires hundreds and thousands of years to observe. Therefore the counsel is: "Inquire, please, of the earlier generation," who through the breadth of ages have already reached conclusions, "and prepare yourself for the research of their fathers" - investigate their forebears, and they will teach you what was handed down to them.
הֲלֹא־הֵם יוֹרוּךָ יֹאמְרוּ לָךְ וּמִלִּבָּם יוֹצִאוּ מִלִּים׃ - Will they not instruct you and tell you, and utter words from their heart?
"And utter words from their heart" - they will even present parables to illustrate the concepts and make them readily understood by the intellect, such as the parable of the plant mentioned earlier.
הֲיִגְאֶה־גֹּמֶא בְּלֹא בִצָּה יִשְׂגֶּה־אָחוּ בְלִי־מָיִם׃ - "Can the papyrus shoot up without a marsh? Can reed grass thrive without water?"
עֹדֶנּוּ בְאִבּוֹ לֹא יִקָּטֵף וְלִפְנֵי כָל־חָצִיר יִיבָשׁ׃ - "While still in its bloom, before it is plucked, it withers before all other grass."
Papyrus and reed grass grow only in saturated soil. Because they are inherently moist and require an abundance of water, they cannot survive without wet ground. Where does the papyrus actually grow? Along the riverbank, right beside water sources. And achu (reed grass) is likewise a plant that thrives only near water, like a damp thicket or wetlands where wild flora flourishes.
"While still in its bloom, before it is plucked" - while it retains its fresh moisture, before its vitality has waned, it cannot be pulled up. There are weeds that one tries to uproot, yet they are so firmly anchored in the earth that one simply cannot dislodge them. But that very abundance of water within it is the very reason it "withers before all other grass" - while it stood there it seemed mighty, impossible to tear out, yet when just a little sun beats down, it is the first to shrivel up.
כֵּן אׇרְחוֹת כׇּל־שֹׁכְחֵי אֵל וְתִקְוַת חָנֵף תֹּאבֵד׃ - "Such are the paths of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish."
This is the moral of the parable: such is the path of all who forget God. They resemble the papyrus and the reed grass - they enjoy pleasures and luxuries, and at first they appear to prosper, lush, vibrant, and flourishing; after two days of rain, the entire garden is overgrown. But "the hope of the hypocrite shall perish" - a chaneif is a wicked person, and for someone who does not walk in Hashem's ways, neither his stability nor his success will endure.
אֲשֶׁר־יָקוֹט כִּסְלוֹ וּבֵית עַכָּבִישׁ מִבְטַחוֹ׃ - "Whose confidence shall be severed, and whose trust is a spider's web."
יִשָּׁעֵן עַל־בֵּיתוֹ וְלֹא יַעֲמֹד יַחֲזִיק בּוֹ וְלֹא יָקוּם׃ - "He leans upon his house, but it shall not stand; he grasps onto it, but it shall not hold."
The word yakot ("shall be severed") stems from the concept of cutting off (ketimah). And kislo and mivtacho are terms of trust and confidence: kesel is that in which a person places his assurance, as in "Is not your fear of God your confidence [kislatecha]?" (Iyov 4:6), and mivtach is that upon which one relies for his well-being. Here, his assurance and trust will be snapped and severed, for they are like a spider's house.
And what is a spider's house? Cobwebs. In terms of material strength, spider silk is said to be the strongest fiber in the world - if one were to take spider silk and braid a cable the thickness of a steel cable, it would be fifty or sixty times stronger, and no steel cable in the world could match it. Why, then, can you tear a web so effortlessly? Because it is exceedingly fine. Even then, it is not so simple - notice how it stretches and does not snap at the slightest touch. Yet here the verse speaks of a spider's web as it actually exists, not as an industrial cable, and in reality a spider's web is fragile nothingness: touch it, and it disintegrates. So it is with this person: the moment he falters even slightly, his confidence and his trust prove to be nothing more than a spider's web.
"He leans on his house, but it does not stand" - even if he leans upon his house, he will not endure. The meaning is this: the righteous person, if he is uprooted from here and transplanted to another place, survives; but the wicked, once uprooted, cannot survive. The papyrus and marsh reed, which serve as the parable for the wicked, cannot be reseeded or replanted if removed from their place. Even if he tries to cling to his house with all his might so as not to be torn away - "he holds fast to it, but does not endure."
רָטֹב הוּא לִפְנֵי־שָׁמֶשׁ וְעַל גַּנָּתוֹ יֹנַקְתּוֹ תֵצֵא׃ - He is moist before the sun, and his shoot spreads over his garden.
עַל־גַּל שׇׁרָשָׁיו יְסֻבָּכוּ בֵּית אֲבָנִים יֶחֱזֶה׃ - His roots become tangled about a heap of stones; he looks upon a house of rock.
The righteous person is "moist before the sun" - even when the sun beats down, it does not harm him, and he retains his moisture, unlike the marsh grass and papyrus which wither in the first heat. Moreover, he does not need a swamp or rivers or an overly moist place: "and his shoot spreads over his garden" - an ordinary garden is enough for him, and from there he draws nourishment and spreads his roots.
However, "his roots become tangled about a heap of stones; he looks upon a house of rock." A gal is a heap of stones, a rock, or a house built of stone. When the roots encounter a stone heap, they become tangled and cannot spread, and the plant cannot develop properly. This location, even though it is a garden, is not suitable for its growth.
אִם־יְבַלְּעֶנּוּ מִמְּקֹמוֹ וְכִחֶשׁ בּוֹ לֹא רְאִיתִיךָ׃ - If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny him: "I have never seen you."
The gardener comes, assesses the situation, and understands that although this is a garden - and the plant indeed does not require a river or a swamp, but it does need a proper garden - here it borders a house and a stone heap, and the roots cannot develop. There is no choice: "If he is uprooted from his place" - they uproot him and transplant him elsewhere. "It will deny him: 'I have never seen you'" - he uproots it completely, so that, if we personify the plant, it is as though it says to that soil: I do not know you, I was never here at all. He tore it out completely, leaving it with no connection whatsoever to the place where it once stood.
הֶן־הוּא מְשׂוֹשׂ דַּרְכּוֹ וּמֵעָפָר אַחֵר יִצְמָחוּ׃ - Behold, this is the joy of his way, and from other soil they will sprout.
Should this plant weep? Quite the opposite: this is the joy of its journey, and it should rejoice in being transplanted. "And from other soil they will sprout" - from other soil free of stones, free of hindrances, where there are no houses - there it will flourish.
הֶן־אֵל לֹא יִמְאַס־תָּם וְלֹא־יַחֲזִיק בְּיַד־מְרֵעִים׃ - Behold, God will not reject the blameless, nor will He grasp the hand of evildoers.
This is the analogy's application to the tzaddik: the tzaddik, who has not become accustomed to luxuries and is not engorged with water like the wicked, endures even when the scorching sun arrives, fully prepared to withstand trials. And when Hashem wishes to raise his stature and brighten his light, seeing that at his current level there are obstacles and hindrances, and that he can be elevated to a far higher and more sublime level - what does Hashem do? He uproots him from his place and destroys his dwelling, and it is all solely for his benefit. "Behold, this is the joy of his way," for through this Hashem will replant him anew, "and out of other dust they shall grow," and this tzaddik will reach an exalted and immense stature that he could never have achieved in that inferior place filled with stones and wedged between houses.
And regarding this he says: "Behold, God will not despise the blameless" - since suffering is not, Heaven forbid, to his detriment, it is impossible that God despises him and afflicts him for no reason. "Nor will He uphold the evildoers" - and it is impossible that the success of the wicked is, Heaven forbid, for his own good. It follows that it is impossible for the righteous to suffer to his detriment, and impossible for the wicked to prosper for his own ultimate benefit. From here you must understand: if the tzaddik suffers - it is for his good, and if the wicked enjoys prosperity - it is to his detriment. For otherwise, you would, Heaven forbid, attribute injustice to the laws of the Creator of the world: that a person is wicked and Hashem does good to him, while a person is righteous and Hashem afflicts him.
עַד־יְמַלֵּה שְׂחוֹק פִּיךָ וּשְׂפָתֶיךָ תְרוּעָה׃ - Until He fills your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.
שֹׂנְאֶיךָ יִלְבְּשׁוּ־בֹשֶׁת וְאֹהֶל רְשָׁעִים אֵינֶנּוּ׃ - Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.
Until the day arrives when your mouth will be filled with laughter, when you will even rejoice over the suffering you endured, because in return for it you will receive such goodness and such joy that you will say: How glad I am that I suffered back then! And through this, "those who hate you will be clothed with shame," for "the tent of the wicked shall be no more." Those who initially said: Look, we are wicked and do whatever we please, yet we succeed; while this Job, a tzaddik, with so many mitzvos and so much charity to his credit, look how much he suffers! - they will then receive their well-deserved slap in the face and be clothed in shame. "And the tent of the wicked shall be no more" - it will become clear that everything one took pride in, thinking the wicked person was successful, is nothing: suddenly he is uprooted and gone.
And so it is in the parable: the wicked sprout like grass, which you see shoot up all at once. By contrast, a person says: Two months ago I planted an almond tree here, and barely a tiny shoot has begun to emerge, yet this weed sprang up overnight! They tell him: Do not worry; just as it sprang up overnight, so too with a little sun it will vanish, like Jonah's kikayon gourd. Whereas you will ultimately rejoice over the suffering you endure today.
To what may this be compared? To a king who had a beloved friend, and this friend was granted all sorts of discounts and exemptions from taxes and levies by the king. Once, the king traveled to a diplomatic summit in another country, appointing a minister in his place to manage the kingdom's affairs. This minister thoroughly resented the king's friend and could not stand him, likely feeling that these privileges came at his own expense. As soon as the king departed, the minister began to harass him and obstruct his path: he demanded payments, ordered him to vacate his home, and did several other things that, under the strict letter of the law, embittered his soul.
Hearing this, the man said, "I am the king's beloved friend," and paid him no heed. The minister said to him, "You pay me no heed?" He summoned the police; they seized him and flogged him with fifty lashes in the city square. The man returned to his home broken and aching, his entire body bruised and battered from the lashes, weeping.
Two weeks passed and the king returned. The king's friend went and recounted the events exactly as they had happened. Hearing this, the king became furious. He summoned the minister he had appointed and asked him, "Is this what happened?" He replied, "Yes." The king turned to his friend and asked, "How many lashes did he give you?" He replied, "Fifty lashes." The king said to him, "For every lash you received - one thousand rubles." An enormous sum; imagine, around ten thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars for every single lash! The man returned home with tears streaming down his face. His wife asked him, "What happened?" He told her what the king had said. She asked him, "If so, why are you crying?" He replied, "What a pity he didn't give me a hundred lashes!"
And this is what is written here: "Until He fills your mouth with laughter." You will yet rejoice over the suffering you endured, because you will see how much good you receive in return for it, to the point that you will say: What a pity there was not more!
And this is what our Sages meant when they said that in the Future to Come, people will recite the blessing HaTov VeHaMeitiv ("He Who is good and does good") over their tribulations. Today, over good occurrences we recite HaTov VeHaMeitiv, and over misfortunes we recite Baruch Dayan HaEmes ("Blessed is the True Judge"), but in the Future to Come, we will recite HaTov VeHaMeitiv over the misfortunes as well. Everyone asks: will there be misfortunes in the Future to Come? After all, the Future to Come is a world that is entirely good! Rather, the meaning is that in the Future to Come, we will recite HaTov VeHaMeitiv over the misfortunes that we endured today. Then "our mouth will be filled with laughter," when we see how much the troubles we suffered today helped us, gave to us, built us, and aided us. Then we will rejoice over the hardships we had today, and perhaps even feel sorrow that there were not more. But to look at reality as it appears today and comprehend it - that is impossible for you. And therefore: "Until He fills your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting."