Chapter 28 deals with the momentous question: "Where can wisdom be found?" Iyov begins by noting that man knows how to dig and uncover all of nature's treasures - silver, gold, iron, and copper - yet Divine wisdom, the comprehension of the ways of Providence, he cannot find. In this part of the chapter, we reach the stage where Iyov clarifies that wisdom cannot be acquired with money or precious stones, nor can it even be evaluated using the measures by which we evaluate valuable things in this world. At the end of the chapter comes the conclusion: "Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom" - and from this, Iyov's argument will proceed.
לֹא יֻתַּן סְגוֹר תַּחְתֶּיהָ וְלֹא יִשָּׁקֵל כֶּסֶף מְחִירָהּ׃ - Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can silver be weighed as its price.
Wisdom cannot be attained through barter. "Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it" - one cannot offer something else in place of wisdom and say: Here, take this and give me wisdom. "Nor can silver be weighed as its price" - even if one were to weigh out vast amounts of silver, one could not purchase wisdom with it. That is simply not the way wisdom is acquired.
לֹא תְסֻלֶּה בְּכֶתֶם אוֹפִיר בְּשֹׁהַם יָקָר וְסַפִּיר׃ - It cannot be valued against the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx and sapphire.
It is the way of the world that precious items are set within things of lesser value, and through this, the precious item is elevated - "apples of gold in imagery of silver." Consider: what is more precious, a diamond or gold? A diamond, certainly. A diamond weighing a few grams can be worth ten or a hundred times more than gold of the same weight, and as it gets larger, its value multiplies exponentially. Yet when someone wants to display the diamond handsomely, they take something of lesser value and set the diamond within it: a gold ring, with the diamond mounted inside.
This is what the verse means by "It cannot be set against the gold of Ophir." Tesuleh denotes overlaying or setting, as in "overlaid (hamesula'im) with fine gold." Wisdom is so priceless that if you were to set it in the gold of Ophir, or in precious onyx and sapphire, you would not enhance it at all, for all of them are as nothing compared to it. To be sure, one mounts a precious object within something of lesser value, but there must still be a fitting proportion: apples of gold in imagery of silver, a diamond in a gold ring. No one would mount a diamond in rotten wood and say, "Behold, I have provided a background for the diamond" - that makes no sense at all.
Rashi interprets tesuleh as an expression of praise, related to "extol (solu) Him Who rides upon the clouds": it cannot be praised by comparing it to the gold of Ophir, for it is vastly more precious. According to the Ibn Ezra and the Ralbag, "it cannot be evaluated (lo tesuleh)" is an expression of appraisal: its value cannot be likened to the value of the gold of Ophir.
לֹא יַעַרְכֶנָּה זָהָב וּזְכוֹכִית וּתְמוּרָתָהּ כְּלִי פָז׃ - Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can vessels of fine gold be its exchange.
"It cannot be equated with it" - if one sought to assess its value and worth, neither gold nor glass could be set beside it. And why is glass mentioned here, when it seems so cheap to us? Because in their time, glass was exceedingly precious - "kasa demukra," "zgugita chivarta," a white, crystal-like glass that was even more precious than gold.
"Nor can its exchange be vessels of fine gold" - and why add vessels of fine gold after gold has already been mentioned? Because vessels of fine gold are precious not only for their raw material, but for the craftsmanship invested in them. How much does a silver candlestick cost? Suppose a thousand dollars. Yet if one were to sell just the raw silver in it, one might receive two hundred or five hundred dollars. The same kilogram of silver - why did it become so expensive? Because of the craftsmanship invested in it. The silversmith invested long hours, and all these candlesticks are handcrafted; even if machines are used, the engraving and ornamentation are done by hand. He invested his time and created an extraordinary vessel. The same applies to designer rings: one might walk past a jewelry store and see a ring for sixty thousand shekels, or earrings for one hundred and twenty thousand. And how much gold is actually in them? Perhaps a thousand shekels' worth. Everything else is the designer, a one-of-a-kind design that is never replicated, a pattern possessed by no one else, not something stamped out by the thousands from a mold. In other words, there is a price for the design itself and the craftsmanship invested in the vessel. This is what the verse means: even vessels of fine gold, which are valuable because of the preciousness of their craftsmanship, are no exchange for wisdom, for the craft of wisdom is far loftier and exalted above them.
We must delve deeper into the phrase "it cannot be equated with it." Let us consider the verse, "Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea" (Iyov 11:9). What is meant by "its measure is longer than the earth"? If one says that the length of the Torah is greater than the length of the earth - what is the novelty? Of course it is! The Torah is spiritual and boundless, whereas the earth is finite. Rather, the commentators explain that middah ("measure") does not refer to the size of the object, but to the measuring instrument itself: a meter is a middah.
And how does this work? The distance from here to Netanya is measured in kilometers; the distance between two people in meters; the distance to a cup in centimeters; and the distance between us and the stars in light-years. Everything is measured according to its context. When one is told that a certain thing is measured in light-years, even without knowing its exact size, one knows it is immense; and if it is measured in millions of light-years, it is utterly beyond estimation. This is the meaning of "its measure is longer than the earth": the measuring tool used to measure it is longer than the tools used to measure continents and galaxies.
The same applies here. When one evaluates a building, one might say: it is worth two hundred gold bars. But regarding wisdom - "gold and glass cannot be equated with it": it cannot be appraised at all using the yardstick of gold and glass. These are the most precious materials that exist, and they serve as the standard by which value is measured, yet wisdom cannot be measured by them whatsoever. It is so far above them that whoever comes to weigh it in gold does not come with the right ruler or the right scale. One does not weigh a crate of tomatoes on a jeweler's balance. There is not even the beginning of a comparison between the two.
רָאמוֹת וְגָבִישׁ לֹא יִזָּכֵר וּמֶשֶׁךְ חָכְמָה מִפְּנִינִים׃ - Coral and crystal shall not be mentioned, and the drawing forth of wisdom is beyond pearls.
There are things whose preciousness stems not from their intrinsic value, but from their place of origin, such as ramot and gavish. The Malbim explains that these refer to stones said to have fallen from on high, and ramot is related to a high and exalted place (ram venisa). Yet even these "shall not be mentioned" - they should not be mentioned at all as a standard by which to appraise wisdom, for the place of wisdom is immeasurably higher than them. "And the drawing forth of wisdom is beyond pearls" - the place from which wisdom is drawn is deeper than the depths of the sea from which pearls are retrieved. Its depth is greater than the realm of pearls, and its height is loftier than the realm of ramot and hail-crystals (elgavish).
לֹא יַעַרְכֶנָּה פִּטְדַת כּוּשׁ בְּכֶתֶם טָהוֹר לֹא תְסֻלֶּה׃ - The topaz of Cush cannot equal it; it cannot be weighed against pure gold.
Even the most precious of all creations, the topaz of Cush, cannot compare to it. The topaz of Cush is so precious that even the gold of Ophir - considered the most valuable of metals - is regarded next to it like rotten wood, unworthy of serving as its setting. And yet, even with the topaz of Cush, wisdom cannot be equated. We are still speaking of physical entities, and there is no common ground between them and wisdom that would allow one to compare them and ask, "How many topazes of Cush is wisdom worth?" They belong to entirely different realms.
וְהַחָכְמָה מֵאַיִן תָּבוֹא וְאֵי זֶה מְקוֹם בִּינָה׃ - "And from where will wisdom come, and where is the place of understanding?"
Following all the premises explained earlier - that the source of wisdom is not here in this world, but rather in the Upper World - Iyov asks: from where, then, will it come to us in this world? And where is the place of the roots and foundations of understanding, from which we can begin to comprehend these matters?
It is worth noting here that the Kabbalists speak extensively about the concept of "wisdom coming from Ayin (nothingness)." What is "Ayin" according to Kabbalah? It is the sefirah of Keter. Keter is called "Ayin" because it is completely concealed. When the sefirot are mapped onto the four-letter Name of Havayah - where is Keter represented? In the upper thorn of the letter Yud. Not even the Yud itself, for the Yud is already Chochmah (Wisdom); Keter is the thorn atop the Yud, which is an utterly hidden level beyond our comprehension. Following it is the letter Hei, which is Binah (Understanding); the Vav - the six emotional attributes (middot); and the final Hei - Malchut (Sovereignty). From Keter emanates the sefirah of Chochmah, which is already an attainable realm, in contrast to Keter which cannot be grasped. According to this, "Wisdom is found from Ayin" means that its existence and emergence stem from "Ayin," which is Keter.
וְנֶעֶלְמָה מֵעֵינֵי כָל חָי וּמֵעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם נִסְתָּרָה׃ - "It is concealed from the eyes of all living, and hidden from the birds of the heavens."
Its reality in this world, where human beings and animals walk, is concealed and hidden from them. "And hidden from the birds of the heavens" - even in the higher realm it is, so to speak, hidden: concealed from the intellect and hidden from sight.
אֲבַדּוֹן וָמָוֶת אָמְרוּ בְּאָזְנֵינוּ שָׁמַעְנוּ שִׁמְעָהּ׃ - "Destruction and death said: 'With our ears we have heard a report of it.'"
What is Divine wisdom? It is knowing the ways of the Creator's governance, understanding His Providence - how He oversees the world and with what wisdom He directs His universe. And this, as we noted, is concealed, for we seem to witness things that appear to be the very opposite of wisdom: disorder, inequity, an absence of justice - and this leads us to perplexity.
And this was the argument of Iyov's companions: When will you know the answers to all these questions? After death. When will you receive reward for all your righteousness, and when will the wicked against whom you protest receive their retribution? After death. Only then will we behold Hashem's Providence and governance face to face, and only then will we understand that everything that occurred here was for the good. In response, Iyov notes: "Destruction and death said" - according to the perspective of the companions, "with our ears we have heard a report of it": they represent the realm where one can truly hear of wisdom's renown, and only through them can one begin to understand the conduct of the Holy One, Blessed be He, in His world.
אֱלֹהִים הֵבִין דַּרְכָּהּ וְהוּא יָדַע אֶת מְקוֹמָהּ׃ - "God understands its way, and He knows its place."
Only Hashem knows the way of wisdom, how it descends and unfolds into the governance of the lower realms, to give the wicked their share and the righteous their share. He knows the place of wisdom, and He directs His world with justice - only He.
כִּי הוּא לִקְצוֹת הָאָרֶץ יַבִּיט תַּחַת כָּל הַשָּׁמַיִם יִרְאֶה׃ - "For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees beneath all the heavens."
Here he brings proof of the individual Divine Providence that exists over the earth as well. We have already seen that the expansion of the air serves as proof of this, in the explanation of the verse, "He drew a boundary upon the face of the waters, until the end of light with darkness": that originally the air was intermingled with water and consequently filled the entire world, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, separated between the air and the water, causing the sun to heat the water and raise it up into the clouds. He thereby prevented a situation where the sea would continually swell without end - for every single day, billions of square kilometers of water evaporate from the sea, just as, unfortunately, it also evaporates from the Kinneret.
"The ends of the earth" - meaning that through this, the ends of the earth became revealed. Were it not for this providence, all the streams would run into the sea, the seas would continually expand, rains would add to them, and the earth would be completely submerged in water. Even today, there are islands that have already disappeared due to warming at the poles, where massive glaciers are melting, and substantial portions of land in various places around the world are gradually being covered by water. Imagine if there were no evaporation at all - within twenty or thirty years, the entire world would be covered with water. Hashem looks to the ends of the earth and ensures that the dry land rises above the surface of the water, and through this, "He sees beneath all the heavens" - so that the dry land is visible beneath the heavens and is not covered by water.
לַעֲשׂוֹת לָרוּחַ מִשְׁקָל וּמַיִם תִּכֵּן בְּמִדָּה׃ - "To make weight for the wind, and He meted out the waters by measure."
How did the Holy One, Blessed be He, accomplish this? "To make weight for the wind" - that the element of air possesses weight and heaviness. And consider this tremendous marvel: the fact that air has weight was discovered only in recent centuries, and was not known in the era of Iyov. Even today, someone who has not studied physics would ask: What weight does air have? After all, when I place a vessel on a scale, the scale shows only the weight of the vessel itself. But that is a complete misconception: air has weight. Take two hollow metal hemispheres, join them together, and create a vacuum inside - can you pull them apart? There is no compressed air within, yet you cannot separate them, because the atmospheric pressure pressing from the outside exerts immense weight. If you eliminate the outside pressure, they separate immediately. The vacuum itself exists because there is no air inside while there is air outside - and that exerts enormous weight.
And the same is true of water. A child might ask: Does water really have weight? After all, I swim in it and nothing happens to me. Yet two cubic meters of water are currently resting upon me; had one laid a person down on dry land and placed that same quantity on him, he would be crushed flat like a pita. If you submerge a submarine to a depth of two kilometers, you get that same result - and such was the fate of the submarine that vanished years ago. What is atmospheric pressure? Weight, quite literally: the deeper you descend, the more tons of water rest upon you. Why, then, are we not crushed? Because of the equilibrium between the pressure inside our bodies and the pressure outside. But if one were to extract all the air from inside a person, creating a vacuum, he would collapse inward like a balloon from which the air has been sucked out. Everything is this way: the moment we remove the air from within it, the force of the air pressure outside will crush it. And Iyov states this in an explicit verse - "To make weight for the wind" - whereas in his time, people mocked this and asked who could possibly weigh the wind.
"And He meted out the waters by measure" - since air possesses weight and heaviness, and since air is lighter than water, wherever there is both air and water, the water descends below, being heavier. The word "tiken" (תִּכֵּן) is spelled with a chaf, like in the phrase "tikanta Shabbat", meaning to establish something in its proper proportion and structure: Hashem established the natural order such that air would be lighter than water, and consequently the water descended below, the air rose above, and the dry land appeared. Previously, they were mixed together and covered everything.
And when the Holy One, Blessed be He, wishes to bring down rain, what does He do? The sun beats down on the waters of the sea, the water turns into vapor, air becomes mixed into it - and the moment air mixes with water, the combination becomes light, and being light, it rises upward. High up there, it cools, condensation occurs, and rain falls. Who orchestrated all of this? The Holy One, Blessed be He. Because "He looks to the ends of the earth" - He desired that the ends of the earth be revealed and that the dry land be visible beneath all the heavens. And how did He accomplish this? "To make weight for the wind, and He meted out the waters by measure."
בַּעֲשֹׂתוֹ לַמָּטָר חֹק וְדֶרֶךְ לַחֲזִיז קֹלוֹת׃ - "When He made a decree for the rain, and a path for the lightning of thunders."
Because air is lighter and mixes with the water evaporating from the sea, the Holy One, blessed be He, established a fixed law that vapors rise upward, and through this the rain falls. "And a path for the lightning of thunders" - through this, the flash also emerges, and the chaziz is the lightning bolt. A condition of charged clouds is created, and when they meet and collide, lightning and thunder are generated - a tremendous boom. And what follows such a cloudburst? Rain in very great quantities. So too when cold air and warm air meet, which is the natural order of the world.
אָז רָאָהּ וַיְסַפְּרָהּ הֱכִינָהּ וְגַם חֲקָרָהּ׃ - "Then He saw it and declared it; He established it and also searched it out."
Then Hashem saw wisdom and its laws, "and declared it" - He brought the matter from potential into actuality, from thought into deed. "He established it" - He prepared and designed it for the purpose of guiding the world. "And also searched it out" - He investigated the matter so that everything would be precisely aligned with the deeds of the creatures and with the proper, necessary purpose for all created beings.
For example: if we were just a little closer to the sun, we would all be burned. And make no mistake - this is not about millions of kilometers, but merely a few kilometers. And a few kilometers further from the sun, the North and South Poles would spread across the entire world, and everything would be ice and cold. The Holy One, blessed be He, created a state of immense precision, such that any slight change would completely alter the entire human existence.
A physicist once published a comprehensive article demonstrating how exquisitely precise the world is, bringing examples from water, from air, from atmospheric pressure, and endless other factors, showing that had anything been slightly different, the reality of planet Earth could not exist and all life would be impossible. The atmospheric concentration required for breathing, the rains, the water, the sun - everything had to be at an exceptionally fine-tuned level, and had it been even slightly different, there would be no life here. This is the meaning of "He established it and also searched it out": Hashem examined the exact measure necessary so that everything could endure for mankind.
וַיֹּאמֶר לָאָדָם הֵן יִרְאַת אֲדֹנָי הִיא חָכְמָה וְסוּר מֵרָע בִּינָה׃ - "And He said to man: 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"
Hashem created human intellect in such a way that it cannot grasp the essence of wisdom, and Divine wisdom it certainly cannot grasp. Man can only receive it from someone wiser than himself, who in turn received it through tradition - from Eliyahu the Prophet, from what was revealed from Heaven. But through his own understanding, he lacks even the fundamentals and beginning of wisdom.
Therefore, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom": through the fear of Hashem, a person will believe that the laws of wisdom were given by Hashem. If there appears to be a void in them - something he does not understand - he will recognize that this stems from his own deficiency, for Divine wisdom is sublime, immense, and perfect. He will thus follow the statutes of wisdom. And this is the meaning of "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem" - this is the starting point for understanding wisdom, and this is "The fear of Hashem is the discipline of wisdom."
"And to depart from evil is understanding" - as for understanding (*binah*), which a person derives through his own contemplation, what is its primary focus? It is not investigating how many penguins live at the pole. That gains us nothing. And even if one receives handsome university grants to research ancient Chinese, he has accomplished nothing essential and has not advanced man spiritually in the slightest. Rather, "to depart from evil is understanding": by turning away from evil, understanding is implanted in man's heart to contemplate and live by the moral instruction Hashem gave him to depart from evil. Beyond this, man cannot achieve wisdom on his own, and he cannot comprehend anything of Hashem's governance.
Up to this point, Iyov has described reality. But now he asks: Why did Hashem conceal everything from us? Why does Hashem say that the greatest wisdom available to man is to fear Hashem and depart from evil, while truly understanding Hashem's governance - the true wisdom and the Holy One, Blessed be He's way in creating His world - has been hidden from us?
Incidentally, do you know what the most concealed passage in the entire Torah is? The narrative of the six days of Creation. We understand virtually nothing there: how exactly things were brought about, in what manner, how long it took, how each thing was created - through a chain of development or spontaneously, Hashem spoke and it came to be, and that was that. That is why it is so obscure, and for this reason Chazal taught that one does not expound upon the Work of Creation even to two people, because these matters are exceedingly exalted.
This, then, is his argument: Why did Hashem conceal it from us, and why can we not understand the ways of His providence? For had we understood them, I could have comprehended and plumbed the mystery of the righteous who suffer and the wicked who prosper, and received answers to my questions.
In this part of the chapter, Iyov explains that divine wisdom cannot be acquired through trade or weighed against silver; it is not set in the fine gold of Ophir, onyx, or sapphire, nor is it measured against gold, glass, vessels of fine gold, coral, crystal, or the chrysolite of Cush - not because it is merely somewhat more precious than they are, but because they are simply not its yardstick. It is hidden from the eyes of all living things and concealed from the birds of the heavens; only "God understands its way." Proof of this comes from divine providence itself: the separation of air from water, the weighing of the wind, the metered rationing of water, the decree for the rain and the path for the lightning flash, and the profound precision with which everything was created to sustain mankind. The chapter concludes: "Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding" - this is the portion granted to man. And from here Iyov's complaint arises: if true wisdom is hidden from him, how can he fathom the enigma of the righteous who suffer and the wicked who prosper?