Our chapter continues Iyov's words, and we enter it from its middle, from the verses that speak of searching for the Creator: "Behold, I go forward, but He is not there." It is clear to all of us that the language here is metaphorical - Iyov does not mean that he went out to search for the Holy One, Blessed is He, in the east with binoculars. He is expressing a profound spiritual idea through poetic language, around which the rest of the chapter revolves: What is the perception of Divinity, and what can man know of the ways of Providence?
"Kedem" and "Achor" - Two Modes of Perception
הֵן קֶדֶם אֶהֱלֹךְ וְאֵינֶנּוּ וְאָחוֹר וְלֹא אָבִין לוֹ׃ - Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him.
שְׂמֹאול בַּעֲשֹׂתוֹ וְלֹא אָחַז יַעְטֹף יָמִין וְלֹא אֶרְאֶה׃ - On the left hand, where He works, I cannot grasp Him; He veils Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him.
The Malbim explains: To comprehend the Holy One, Blessed is He, in Himself is called perception of "panim" (the front). Thus Moshe Rabbeinu asked, "Please show me Your glory," and the Holy One, Blessed is He, answered him, "And you shall see My back." That is, to grasp Hashem from the aspect of "panim" is completely impossible. And Heaven forbid that one should err and picture front and back literally, for Hashem, may He be blessed, has neither front nor back, having no body and no physical form. The aspect of "panim" means the revealed aspect, and the aspect of "achor" (the back) means the concealed aspect. When I see a person from behind, he is hidden from me; when I see him from the front, he is revealed. To perceive Hashem in revelation - "for man shall not see Me and live." What is possible is only from the aspect of "achor."
Introduction: The Tzimtzum and the Descent of the Worlds
In order to understand what the perception of "achor" is, an introduction is needed, which we have already addressed in previous shiurim: To grasp Hashem in His Essence is entirely impossible, and "no thought can grasp Him at all." All the expressions we use regarding the Holy One, Blessed is He, apply only after He created the Ten Sefirot and the worlds. This is how the books of Kabbalah begin: Before the Holy One, Blessed is He, created all the worlds, His simple Will filled everything. There was no world at all, but He, blessed be He, alone was the sole reality. And in order to create a world, He had to, as it were, constrict (tzimtzum) His light in a certain place, to make it possible for creations other than Himself to exist; for as long as everything was filled with His light, any created being would instantly be nullified by the overwhelming light and return to being Him, blessed be He.
Therefore, as taught by the holy Ari and Rabbi Chaim Vital, the Holy One, Blessed is He, constricted His light in the center in the form of a sphere, creating a vacant space (chalal panui) wherein, as it were, His light is not present. Understanding the secret of the Tzimtzum is exceedingly vast - whether the Tzimtzum is literal or not literal, a major dispute among the Kabbalists into which we will not enter. Into that void, the Holy One, Blessed is He, drew down a thin ray (kav) of light, and from that ray all the worlds were emanated and constructed. Cloaked upon the kav was the world of Adam Kadmon, and upon it were cloaked Atzilus, Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, down to our physical world of Asiyah.
And here is the crucial point: When we speak of Hashem, blessed be He, we do not speak, as it were, of what is outside that circle, for there we have no perception whatsoever. What we do have some perception of is what exists after the Tzimtzum, in that thin ray through which the Sefirot began to take form. And why did Hashem draw down a thin ray like a conduit? All the Sefirot are garments, contractions, and screens designed to enable us to receive this immense light - like an electrical transformer. Therefore, in the world of Atzilus, the highest of the worlds, the Sitra Achra has no access at all, "no evil can abide with You"; in Beriyah there is already more connection, in Yetzirah even more, and in Asiyah more still. As one descends, there is more materialization and less spirituality. Without these contractions, it would be like someone trying to power a light bulb directly from a power station - he would be incinerated along with it. He has neither the strength nor the vessels to receive it. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed is He, constricted and constricted, until the recipients at the bottom - we in the physical world of Asiyah - could receive.
From this we can understand: When we say the Tetragrammaton, Elokim, and even "Ein Sof" - all of these relate only to the interior of the circle, to that thin ray and everything that extends from it. But regarding the Holy One, Blessed is He, in His Essence, not only can no thought grasp Him, but there is not even a name. Even "Ein Sof" (Infinite) is not an appropriate name there, for any term by which you express Hashem, blessed be He, places Him within a definition and a framework, whereas He, blessed be He, is boundless. And why is it called "Ein Sof" (No End) rather than "Ein Techilah" (No Beginning)? After all, something that has no beginning has no end. Rather, "Ein Sof" does not refer to a physical end, but to an end in comprehension: Once Hashem created the world, He gave us the beginning of comprehension - you can comprehend Ten Sefirot, comprehend four worlds, comprehend spiritual reality; we begin to comprehend something. Yet to reach the end of that comprehension, we have no chance. In contrast, in the reality outside the Tzimtzum, in His Essence, even the term "Ein Sof" does not apply, for there is not even the beginning of comprehension there, and there are no descriptions, no names, no emanations, and nothing at all.
What Is the Perception of "Achor"?
It follows, therefore, that whatever we perceive of Hashem, blessed be He, is in the aspect of "achor." For to perceive Him, as it were, beyond that sphere, in the realm prior to the Tzimtzum - that is the aspect of "panim," and we have no perception of it whatsoever. What, then, do we perceive? That which exists after the Tzimtzum, through the creation that unfolds from it, and this is the aspect of "And you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen." The analogy is: When I see a person from behind, I try to identify his face and may err - perhaps it is Reuven? No, he is too broad. Perhaps Shimon? No, he is too tall. From the back, I attempt to deduce the face. In this way, we grasp spiritual matters through physical reality: "From my flesh I shall see God."
Consider how the Sefirot are described: the GAR - the three highest, Keter, Chochmah, and Binah, are termed the head, the intellect (mochin), and the upper realm. Chesed and Gevurah are the right arm and left arm (deroa yemina u-deroa semala). Tiferet is the torso itself (ihu gufa). Yesod is the foundation. Netzach and Hod are the two thighs, the two pillars (trein shokin, trein samchin), in the language of Patach Eliyahu. And Malchut is below. In other words, through the physical realm we are able in some measure to apprehend the spiritual reality, how the worlds are constructed and how the Sefirot descend through the chain of emanation. So too with the Thirteen Attributes of the Beard (Yud-Gimmel Tikunei Dikna) that we study from the Idra Rabba on Shavuot, and recite at Tashlich. Once again, one must be exceedingly careful when discussing Kabbalistic matters never to imagine, Heaven forbid, actual hair, sidelocks, or a beard Above. Rather, 'From my flesh I shall behold God' and 'In the image of God He made man' - meaning that Above there is, as it were, a framework for channeling divine influence throughout all the worlds. Through his deeds down here, man affects this framework: he performs lovingkindness and thereby arouses the right arm to bestow influence, and so forth. The same applies to the Tikunei Dikna: we understand that there is a conduit of influence Above in Partzuf Arich that bestows through the Dikna, and the Kabbalists elaborate on how these influences - chesed, gevurah, and din - unfold.
Yet all of this is termed 'achor' (from behind) rather than 'panim' (face to face). For we deduce the Divine from the physical, and this is an apprehension born of logical inference: if A resembles C, and B resembles C, then A resembles B, even though you have never directly examined A against B. It is an inference, not direct perception. In the same way, our contemplation of the physical world and our conclusions regarding Divinity constitute a rear view, not direct vision.
Explanation of the Verses: Kedem, Achor, Left, and Right
This is what Iyov means: 'Behold, I go forward (kedem), but He is not there' - if I seek to grasp Hashem in His true Essence, He is not there; the matter is hidden from man. And why does he use the word 'kedem'? Because He is the Primordial One of the world (Kadmono shel Olam), existing before He created the universe, even before the contraction of His light (tzimtzum). Who could possibly comprehend His Essence, blessed be He, before He contracted His light? Such a thing is utterly impossible. 'And backward (achor), but I cannot perceive Him' - even that apprehension which should be accessible to me, through the existing physical reality in the world, I cannot comprehend; that is, I cannot grasp it with my intellect to fathom it and attain a complete understanding.
'When He works on the left (semol), I cannot perceive Him' - the holy books explain that the natural order is called the governance of the left, whereas the governance of lovingkindness and miracles is called the right, as in the verse, 'Who guided Moshe at his right hand,' said of the splitting of the Red Sea. Iyov says: If I investigate the orderly governance of nature, I see that it lacks order. The left - the governance of nature - is incomplete, 'and I cannot perceive Him,' as though that side was never fully constructed. The righteous suffer while the wicked prosper; there is apparent disorder and a lack of reason in the governance of creation, as it were; there is no apparent justice here.
'He veils Himself on the right (yamin), and I see Him not' - if I then turn to the right, seeking the miraculous providence which is complete and through which the Creator's hand is clearly seen, still 'I see Him not': the world is not run through miracles, but through the laws of nature. Thus, from that direction as well, I have no comprehension.
Here we must bear in mind the words of the Chazon Ish: nature is simply the more constant will of the Holy One, blessed be He. If you ask what separates nature from a miracle, you might say: a miracle is when Hashem willed it to occur. But did He not will nature as well? Rather, the natural order is His constant will: Hashem wills that every morning the sun rise here and set there. And there is a singular, one-time will, as when Yehoshua fought his battle: 'Sun, stand still at Givon, and moon in the valley of Ayalon.' Everything is His will, blessed be He. It is an error to think of the world as a machine running on its own, with the Master intervening only when He chooses. That is not the case: the moment the sun rises - He causes it to rise, and the moment it sets - He causes it to set. 'Who in His goodness renews the work of creation every day continually' - this is not an automated routine established during the six days of Creation; rather, every single day Hashem renews the work of Creation and sustains all things at every moment, only that on one particular day He chose to do so differently. This is the profound meaning of the verse, 'When He works on the left, I cannot perceive Him; He veils Himself on the right, and I see Him not.'
'When He Has Tested Me, I Shall Come Forth as Gold' - Iyov's Claim of Wholehearted Service
כִּי יָדַע דֶּרֶךְ עִמָּדִי בְּחָנַנִי כַּזָּהָב אֵצֵא׃ - For He knows the way that is with me; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Iyov says: Although I cannot comprehend His ways or understand His providential conduct, He certainly understands me, knows me, and can find me. If so, why does He not draw near to me? Why does He not come to be with me? And then, 'when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold' - let Him examine me and I will emerge like pure gold, without dross and without impurities, for there was never an unworthy motive in my service.
בַּאֲשֻׁרוֹ אָחֲזָה רַגְלִי דַּרְכּוֹ שָׁמַרְתִּי וְלֹא אָט׃ - My foot has held fast to His steps; His way have I kept, and not turned aside.
All my steps were held fast in His footsteps, walking in the way of Hashem. My entire aim and desire was neither spiritual satisfaction nor worldly success, but solely to attain the true bliss of apprehending Him, blessed be He. 'His way have I kept, and not turned aside' - I walked exclusively in Hashem's path and did not deviate; 'ot' denotes veering, and I never veered toward any other path, for all my deeds were performed solely for the sake of Heaven.
מִצְוַת שְׂפָתָיו וְלֹא אָמִישׁ מֵחֻקִּי צָפַנְתִּי אִמְרֵי פִיו׃ - I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; more than my daily bread I have treasured the words of His mouth.
"I have not departed from the commandment of His lips" - I acted solely according to what Hashem commands, and not according to what my human intellect dictates. "More than my daily bread I have treasured the words of His mouth" - I preserved the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, more than my own portion, in the sense of "feed me my allotted bread" (Mishlei 30:8). It was more important to me to observe Hashem's commandments than to secure my livelihood, more than looking after food and sustenance for myself.
A similar story is told about the Chafetz Chaim. When he was already advanced in years and there was a dispute in a certain town, he traveled there to admonish them. He said to them: "Know that I am old and gray, and I would not have come here right now even if they promised me a thousand rubles." And immediately he corrected himself: "What is a thousand rubles? Even if they promised me a thousand mitzvos I would not have come here." That is, he meant something far greater: Why even mention money? Even if you counted it as a thousand mitzvos for me, I would not have been willing to come, were it not that I know there is an exceedingly grave matter here to awaken people about. And this is the concept Iyov is expressing: "More than my daily bread I have treasured the words of His mouth" - safeguarding the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, was dearer to me than my daily bread, more than my livelihood and my money.
"But He is in one" - A Return to the Argument of Foreknowledge and Free Will
וְהוּא בְאֶחָד וּמִי יְשִׁיבֶנּוּ וְנַפְשׁוֹ אִוְּתָה וַיָּעַשׂ׃ - But He is at one, and who can turn Him back? And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
The Holy One, blessed be He, "knows the way that is with me," and He is "in one": He knew from beforehand that I would serve Him, He knew that my service would be pure and refined without dross, and He knew that my feet would cling only to His steps. All of this He knew in advance. And from this, Iyov returns to his earlier claim: If so, I did not possess free will, and all my deeds were known in advance, and it was impossible that I would choose a path different from what He knew from the beginning. For if you were to say that He knew one thing and in the end something else occurred - such a phenomenon applies to us, not to Him, blessed be He. With Hashem, primordial foreknowledge is also present knowledge and future knowledge, and there is no change in Him. And that is "But He is in one": Hashem is true oneness, and multiple knowledges or a change of knowledge cannot exist in Him. If so, He knew from the outset that I would be righteous, and it is as though He created me as a tzaddik.
"And who can turn Him back?" - Who can repeal Hashem's decree, since His decree cannot change? For if it were to change, a change would occur, so to speak, in the Creator, meaning there was something He did not know and now it became known to Him, and that is impossible. Therefore, the primordial decree is bound to be fulfilled. "And whatever His soul desires, that He does" - who is it that can say: I acted this way because my soul desired it, I chose by free will? Hashem knew beforehand that you would act, and His foreknowledge compelled you to act. And if you say, "I will do the opposite" - could it be, Heaven forbid, that He did not know?
We have already answered this question and will not repeat it here; we dedicated an entire lesson to it, explaining how the Holy One, blessed be He, truly has absolute foreknowledge of everything man will do, and yet this does not compel man to choose against his free will. Whoever wishes may listen to this in the previous lessons. Iyov returns from time to time to arguments he raised in the past, and so he argues once again: I was compelled in my good deeds by virtue of His foreknowledge and by virtue of the primordial decree, and if so, I do not deserve reward for them.
"Therefore I Am Terrified at His Presence" - Did He Serve for the Sake of Reward or from Fear of Punishment?
כִּי יַשְׁלִים חֻקִּי וְכָהֵנָּה רַבּוֹת עִמּוֹ׃ - For He will complete my allotted portion, and many such things are with Him.
עַל כֵּן מִפָּנָיו אֶבָּהֵל אֶתְבּוֹנֵן וְאֶפְחַד מִמֶּנּוּ׃ - Therefore I am terrified at His presence; when I consider, I am afraid of Him.
Earlier, Iyov said that his service was complete without any ulterior motive, neither for profit nor for reward nor for material pleasure, but solely for the sake of Heaven. Now he admits that perhaps at times a thought flickered within him of "For He will complete my allotted portion" - that perhaps today it is worthwhile for me to pray with greater intention so that He might also bestow upon me a good livelihood, an inclination of self-interest. "And many such things are with Him" - everything I need, all the matters that I require: life, health, favor, wealth, and children, are all from Him, blessed be He.
And likewise, "Therefore I am terrified at His presence" - at times I was terrified of Him, meaning I did not want to disobey His word out of fear of punishment. This too is a flaw in the service of Hashem, for it turns out that you serve Him because you fear He will punish you and cast you into Gehenna. Iyov says: if such a thing ever occurred, know that it crossed my mind for only a fleeting moment, and I immediately dismissed the thought; I instantly overcame that inner impulse that yearns for material gain or shrinks back from punishment. "When I consider, I am afraid of Him" - I would reflect upon the fact that my service of Hashem is flawed if I serve out of fear or out of hope for reward, and then "I am afraid of Him" - out of awe of His exalted majesty: Is this how one serves Hashem, for the sake of receiving a reward? Is this how one serves Him, out of fear of punishment? And awe of His exaltedness is indeed a proper form of fear, through which I would strengthen myself in the service of Hashem. In simple terms: even if what you say about me were true, it was only for a fleeting instant, and Heaven forbid to say that I consistently served Him for personal gain or out of fear of punishment.
"For God has softened my heart" - Afflictions Harder than Death
וְאֵל הֵרַךְ לִבִּי וְשַׁדַּי הִבְהִילָנִי׃ - "For God has softened my heart, and the Almighty has terrified me."
כִּי לֹא נִצְמַתִּי מִפְּנֵי חֹשֶׁךְ וּמִפָּנַי כִּסָּה אֹפֶל׃ - "Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither has He hidden the gloom from my face."
Here Iyov anticipates an obvious counterargument. His friends might say to him: Look at you now; once afflictions came upon you, you fail the test and speak harsh words against the Creator - surely this proves that all your service was for personal gain! As long as you had goodness and abundance, you were righteous, always singing the praises of the Creator of the universe and drawing everyone close to His service; but once the deal ceased to be profitable, you began speaking harshly. Surely this is proof that you served for the sake of reward and out of fear of punishment, and not truly for the sake of Heaven.
Iyov replies: That is not so. "For God has softened my heart" - Hashem inflicted upon me such grief, such anguish, and such suffering that it softened my heart, "and the Almighty has terrified me." And what was the crux of it? "Because I was not cut off before the darkness" - if only I had been cut off! "Nitzmati" denotes drying up and being cut off; had Hashem brought darkness upon me and taken my soul, even death I would have accepted with love. But that is not what He did to me; rather, He left me to live in this life of darkness, in severe afflictions and horrific suffering, and it is over this that my heart grew soft and faint.
This is what Chazal meant when they said: Had Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah been scourged, they would have bowed to the idol. Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah did not worship the idol because they were not tortured; they were simply cast into the fiery furnace. But had they been tortured, had they been told: We will not kill you, we will keep you alive and torment you - a point would have come where they would say: Stop the torture, and I will worship whatever you wish. Thus it turns out that continuous afflictions are far harder to endure than death.
Therefore Iyov says: "For God has softened my heart." If only He had taken my life, I would have joyfully given my soul to sanctify His blessed Name. But afflictions worse than death cannot be endured. "Neither has He hidden the gloom from my face" - had He cut me off before the darkness, He would have concealed and removed the evil from me; but since He did not cut me off, but rather brought me into the darkness and into severe suffering, He thereby veiled my face in gloom. I am now plunged in dreadful gloom, and this day is far harder for me than if He had taken my soul. In such a reality, one cannot prove from what I am saying now that I did not serve for the sake of Heaven. All my service was purely for the sake of Heaven, and it is the agonizing suffering I now endure that brought me to make the arguments I have made.
In summary:
In this section of the chapter, Iyov sets forth the fundamental nature of perceiving Divinity: "forward" (kedem) - His blessed Essence prior to the tzimtzum, in which there is no grasp and not even a name; "backward" (achor) - what we perceive through the unfolding of creation, an understanding derived by inference rather than direct sight. And from neither side of Providence does he find an answer: not from the left, the realm of nature, where disorder seems to reign, nor from the right, the realm of miracles, by which the world is not ordinarily governed - even though in truth everything is His blessed will, and nature itself is nothing other than His constant will renewing the work of Creation every day. From this, Iyov asserts the perfection of his divine service: refined of dross, guided by His path and not his own intellect, prized more than his daily bread; and even if a fleeting thought of reward or fear of punishment ever flickered within him, he immediately nullified it and ascended to the awe of His exalted majesty. And the harsh words now on his lips he attributes not to a lack of faith, but to afflictions harder than death: if only he had been cut off before the darkness, but having been left to live in the gloom, his heart grew faint.