Chapter 33 is the heart of Elihu's address. In this part of the chapter, he comes to explain to Iyov a foundational principle in the Holy One, blessed be He's providence: suffering is not vengeance, but a language. The Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to man, and He has several ways of communicating. First, He speaks in a gentle manner, and if a person is not attentive - He speaks in a clearer language. Let us follow the order of the verses and see how the Malbim explains this.
כִּי בְאַחַת יְדַבֶּר אֵל וּבִשְׁתַּיִם לֹא יְשׁוּרֶנָּה׃ - For God speaks in one way, and in a second if one does not perceive it.
The Holy One, blessed be He, notifies a person of the decrees destined to befall him due to his iniquities, in order that he will repent. How does He notify him? In the first way - through dreams, as we will see immediately. "And in a second if one does not perceive it" - the word yeshurenah is from the root of gazing or seeing, as in "maidens stepped over the wall [alei shur]," standing on the wall and gazing out, and like "I see him, but not now; I behold him [ashurenu], but not near." That is to say: if a person does not pay heed to the first communication with which the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke to him, the Holy One, blessed be He, will have to speak to him in a second language - through illness and pain, which themselves serve as a warning to repent.
בַּחֲלוֹם חֶזְיוֹן לַיְלָה בִּנְפֹל תַּרְדֵּמָה עַל אֲנָשִׁים בִּתְנוּמוֹת עֲלֵי מִשְׁכָּב׃ - In a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumbers upon the bed.
Elihu says: The first way is through a dream or a vision of the night. In a true dream, the Holy One, blessed be He, notifies him of what is destined to come upon him; and in a vision of the night, He shows him a scene during sleep indicating the future. The verse specifies the timings: a dream comes "when deep sleep falls upon men" - when a person is in a profound slumber; whereas a vision comes "in slumbers upon the bed" - when a person is neither fully asleep nor awake, in a light slumber, and then he sees a vision. The difference between a dream and a vision, their timings, and the reasons for their names are elaborated upon in the sefer Mishnat HaChalomot, and one who wishes may consult it there.
אָז יִגְלֶה אֹזֶן אֲנָשִׁים וּבְמֹסָרָם יַחְתֹּם׃ - Then He opens the ears of men, and seals their chastisement.
Through the dream and the vision, "He opens the ears of men" - the Holy One, blessed be He, informs them of the heavenly decree issued against them. "And seals their chastisement" - an innate moral force is imprinted in man, which is known as conscience [matzpun]. Why is it called this? Because it shares a root with compass [matzpen]. A compass shows us the right direction, and similarly the conscience shows us where evil lies and how to distance ourselves from it. "Out of the north evil shall break forth" - therefore, the conscience knows to tell a person: this deed you have done veers to the north [tzafon], it is negative and evil. Even the compass itself hints at this: what does it contain? A magnet, metal. And the metal always points north. And what is metal? A sword, war, and the direction of war comes from the north - "Out of the north evil shall break forth." Whichever way you turn the sword, it will ultimately return to the north, showing that the source of evil is from the north.
And this is "and seals their chastisement": through the dream a person dreamed, the moral force within him is awakened to scrutinize his actions. The dream is what shows him that he deviated from moral boundaries, engraving it, as it were, upon the tablet of his heart and saying to him: there is a problem here, there is an improper deed here. And the conscience is the seal - it confirms that what was dreamed is true, and that there is something here requiring rectification: "Here is a rebuke, and I know why it came and what I must correct."
Yet the great misfortune is that the conscience usually does not prevent a person from doing evil, but merely torments him after the deed. The conscience was supposed to tell a person in advance: this is immoral, do not do it. But a person does it anyway, and only afterward do the pangs of conscience come. In truth, many times people do not take this force into account at all. There was once a person who committed many wrongful deeds and said, "My conscience is clean." Someone replied to him: "Certainly clean - you have never used it; it is kept in mint condition." The purpose of the conscience is not merely to torment you after the deed; that too is good, but it is not the main goal. The goal is to feel anguish before the deed, and thereby refrain from sin.
לְהָסִיר אָדָם מַעֲשֶׂה וְגֵוָה מִגֶּבֶר יְכַסֶּה׃ - That He may turn man aside from his deed, and conceal pride from man.
A dream serves two purposes. The first is "that He may turn man aside from his deed" - if you have committed an improper deed, abandon it, and do not continue along those flawed paths. The second is "and conceal pride from man" - if negative thoughts arise in a person's heart stemming from the corrupt character traits nesting within him, such as envy, hatred, lust, and the like, bursting forth from the depths of the heart, he must take care to eradicate them; and if he cannot, at least not allow them to erupt. That is to say: even if a person feels angry, he should contain the anger within. On a higher level, he should not become angry at all; on a lower level, at least do not express the anger, do not rage or scream. The same applies to pride: one should not feel proud inside, and if he has not yet reached that level, at least he should not express pride in his dealings with others, nor act with haughtiness.
The word gevah relates to what is internal, like the Aramaic word bego ("there is something inside"). That is, a person must conceal the gevah from himself: drown the negative traits deep within the recesses of the soul, so that they remain covered and do not break out into the open.
Yet it must be emphasized again: this is not the highest level. The highest level is to eradicate the negative trait entirely, for if one does not do so, eventually something will come along and trigger it. Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian compared this to an unexploded artillery shell that can lie dormant in the ground for thirty years. Then a shepherd comes along, touches it, and it detonates. What happened? For thirty years it did not budge because no one touched it; now someone touched it. So it is with bad character traits that a person did not truly address, applying only cosmetic treatment - merely preventing them from emerging. They remain nesting inside him, and when a tremor shakes him, they erupt. Therefore, the ultimate goal is to nullify the bad trait at its root, so that one does not even feel sensations of anger, rather than merely withholding them from being expressed outward. And through habit, a person can truly succeed in mastering anger, not just outwardly but internally as well.
This is what we find regarding Doeg the Edomite and his companions. The Gemara asks: How could they have arrived at such deeds, which led to the massacre of Nov, the city of Kohanim, and Achimelech the Kohen Gadol - so many grave sins? It answers: "There was rancor [tina] in their hearts." And what is tina? In Aramaic, tina means mud or clay. They had mud in their hearts. A person might look at a glass of water and see clear, transparent water; only if he looks closely at the bottom will he notice the sediment that settled there. Someone comes and stirs it, and everything becomes murky again. So it was with them: they were shaken slightly, and everything floated to the surface. As the Chazon Ish remarked, a person is comparable to a barrel: if there are two kilograms of sugar at the bottom and you shake it, taste it and it is sweet and wonderful; but if there is salt in it and you shake it, it is bitter as wormwood. The question is what lies inside. In Doeg and his companions there was mud, and a slight shake brought all the muck to the surface.
It turns out that by accepting the rebuke of a dream, a person first rectifies his deeds - "that He may turn man aside from his deed" - and second, "and conceal pride from man," so that those negative internal traits remain suppressed and do not turn into traits by which he actively lives.
יַחְשֹׂךְ נַפְשׁוֹ מִנִּי שָׁחַת וְחַיָּתוֹ מֵעֲבֹר בַּשָּׁלַח׃ - He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Through this, he spares his spiritual soul from the pit, so that it will not be destroyed and he will not receive spiritual punishment after one hundred and twenty. "And his life from perishing by the sword" - "his life" refers to the living, sentient body, and "sword" [shelach] refers to a knife or weapon. That is to say, he will not come to an early death. For if he awakens in time, his days will be prolonged; and if not, heaven forbid, they will be shortened.
וְהוּכַח בְּמַכְאוֹב עַל מִשְׁכָּבוֹ וְרוֹב עֲצָמָיו אֵתָן׃ - He is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with an unceasing strife in his bones.
Elihu already said, "and in a second, he will not perceive it" - meaning that if the first warning does not suffice, he must receive another. The first warning is dreams, and now he speaks of the second: Did you not awaken from the dream? The Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to you in clearer language, reproving you through pain upon your bed. "With an unceasing strife in his bones" - it is written with the letters of riv [strife], meaning that there is contention among his bones. When a person is healthy, there is peace in his body, and all of it functions in harmony. Every illness begins from a state of disharmony, where a particular organ fails to perform its function properly and does not supply the rest of the body with what it is supposed to provide. The pancreas does not process sugars properly, and the person requires insulin injections. Complete health is peace among all the foundations of the body, whereas here the bones and internal parts are in conflict with one another, there is no peace among them, and consequently health deteriorates.
וְזִהֲמַתּוּ חַיָּתוֹ לָחֶם וְנַפְשׁוֹ מַאֲכַל תַּאֲוָה׃ - So his life loathes bread, and his soul desirable food.
He becomes so sick upon his bed that bread, which is the very essence of basic sustenance and something a person never tires of, becomes loathsome in his eyes. For a sick person loses a great deal of weight, and the primary cause is loss of appetite - both because he does not move from his bed, and because he is in a depressed state. "And his soul desirable food" - even special foods he always loved to eat become repulsive in his soul's eyes on account of his illness.
יִכֶל בְּשָׂרוֹ מֵרֹאִי וְשֻׁפּוּ עַצְמֹתָיו לֹא רֻאּוּ׃ - His flesh is consumed from sight, and his bones, which were not seen, protrude.
His flesh is consumed before one's very eyes: anyone looking at him sees how he wastes away, his flesh continually diminishing. "And his bones *shufu*" - from the idea of being dislocated from their place, as in the Talmudic expression *shaf midukteih*, meaning uprooted from its place. His bones, which were never visible until now, now jut outward from within. This is what happens to a person during severe starvation: he becomes skin and bones, and his skeleton protrudes. May Hashem save us, and may distress not rise up twice - anyone who has seen photographs of people during the Holocaust, or people from Biafra and other places afflicted by severe famine, has seen a walking skeleton with skin stretched taut over it. This is the meaning of "and his bones, which were not seen, protrude": that which was previously hidden is now starkly visible from his extreme emaciation and wretchedness.
וַתִּקְרַב לַשַּׁחַת נַפְשׁוֹ וְחַיָּתוֹ לַמְמִתִים׃ - And his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the bringers of death.
Until he reaches the brink of death: his soul approaches the pit, and his body nears a state of death.
אִם יֵשׁ עָלָיו מַלְאָךְ מֵלִיץ אֶחָד מִנִּי אָלֶף לְהַגִּיד לְאָדָם יָשְׁרוֹ׃ - If there be for him an angel, an advocate, one among a thousand, to declare man's uprightness.
From here on, Elihu describes three paths through which a person has a remedy to be saved from distress and illness. The first path is through merits: if a merit is found for him from good deeds he performed in the past, from a mitzvah he fulfilled, through which he will be delivered from death. This merit is called an "angel," because every deed we perform creates a good angel, or, Heaven forbid, a destructive angel. *Mal'ach* (angel) is related to *melachah* (mission or task), for the angel goes on Hashem's errand - carrying out the work and command of the Creator of the world. "One among a thousand" - the Holy One, blessed be He, provided man with thousands of mitzvos to advocate on his behalf, yet the person prepared only a single merit, and that one alone will advocate for him. And this angel is "to declare man's uprightness" - it will proclaim his merit and integrity, pleading on his behalf.
וַיְחֻנֶּנּוּ וַיֹּאמֶר פְּדָעֵהוּ מֵרֶדֶת שָׁחַת מָצָאתִי כֹפֶר׃ - Then He is gracious to him and says: Redeem him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.
The Holy One, blessed be He, will show him favor and take pity on him in the merit of that mitzvah and that angel who advocates for him, and He will say: Redeem him from descending to the pit, I have found a ransom. This merit serves as the ransom for his soul, and through it Hashem will redeem him from descending into the pit.
רֻטְפַשׁ בְּשָׂרוֹ מִנֹּעַר יָשׁוּב לִימֵי עֲלוּמָיו׃ - His flesh becomes fresher than a youth's; he returns to the days of his prime.
The word rutafash (רוטפש) appears nowhere else in Tanach. Its root is related to "their heart is as gross as fat" (טָפַשׁ כַּחֵלֶב לִבָּם), meaning their heart accumulated fat. There it denotes insensitivity or dullness, but here it is used in praise: someone whose bones had previously protruded and begun sticking out, now his flesh will multiply and fill out like the flesh of a youth, just as it was in his youthfulness, as if his youth had been reawakened within him. The Malbim explains that rutafash is a compound of two words: ratov (moist) and tafash (fattened). What was previously dry and completely withered has its moisture and vitality restored; and tafash means that it accumulated healthy fat. Radak explains that pash denotes abundance, as in "and if the tzara'as spreads extensively" (וְאִם פָּשֹׂה תִפְשֶׂה הַצָּרַעַת), and accordingly, rutafash means that fatness will increase upon his flesh. Like a tree that blossoms anew, it is as if his youth has returned from the beginning: "he will return to the days of his youth" - to the days when he was young and healthy.
יֶעְתַּר אֶל אֱלוֹהַּ וַיִּרְצֵהוּ וַיַּרְא פָּנָיו בִּתְרוּעָה וַיָּשֶׁב לֶאֱנוֹשׁ צִדְקָתוֹ׃ - He shall pray to God, and He will show him favor; he will behold His face with joy, and He will restore to man his righteousness.
The second path is prayer: in the wake of his suffering, he prays to the Holy One, blessed be He, until Hashem accepts him favorably. "He will behold His face with joy (teruah)" - teruah also connotes connection and companionship, from the language of re'ut (friendship) and lehitroa'a (to associate). His soul connects to God and clings to Him, and through this connection we bond with the Holy One, blessed be He. Through this, "and He will restore to man his righteousness" - until now he was deemed wicked in his judgment, but now he is restored to being righteous in his judgment as he was before he sinned, through prayer and repentance.
יָשֹׁר עַל אֲנָשִׁים וַיֹּאמֶר חָטָאתִי וְיָשָׁר הֶעֱוֵיתִי וְלֹא שָׁוָה לִי׃ - He looks upon men and says: I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it profited me not.
The third possibility is when he sinned against his fellow man: he stole, robbed, provoked anger, spoke lashon hara, lied, cursed, caused grief - anything in which he harmed his fellow. Here, prayer does not avail, regret over the sin does not avail, and an interceding angel does not avail, because his fellow bears a grievance against him. What is the remedy? To return what was stolen and make restitution for whatever harm he caused his fellow. "He looks upon men (yashor al anashim)" - he must straighten (leyasher) his standing with people, righting the wrongs and misdeeds he committed. Avlah (injustice) comes from the root of distortion or crookedness, and against it one requires yosher (uprightness), to straighten his ways.
And afterwards, "and says: I have sinned" - he must confess, both regarding the act of sin and the willful intent of his thoughts. Thought is called avon, which is a distortion of the intellect, as explained previously, whereas chet (sin) refers to the action. First he repents and says, "I have sinned" - in the action I committed against you; and then, "and perverted what was right" (ve-yashar he'eviti) - upright things I distorted with my intellect.
"And it profited me not (velo shavah li)" - when I deviated from the upright path and walked in a crooked way, I failed to attain equilibrium (shivui). And what is equilibrium? It is when the entire body functions properly. If one part of the body operates more than it should or less than it should, that is illness. If the heart beats too fast, at a certain point the person will die, and likewise if it beats too slowly. High blood pressure brings illness and death; low blood pressure does as well. Function must be in a state of balance and equilibrium: each organ working at the level it is meant to work, neither too fast nor too slow, producing neither more nor less than necessary.
In this regard, notice the blessing "Healer of the sick of His people Israel" (Rofei cholei amo Yisrael): the word cholei is vocalized with a cholam, and the cholam corresponds to the attribute of Tiferet. And what is Tiferet? The middle line: Chesed is the right arm, Gevurah is the left arm, and Tiferet is the torso. "Healer of the sick of His people Israel" represents the attribute of Tiferet, the middle path, where there is no deviation to one side or the other - the body does not have one organ functioning more than necessary and another less than necessary, but precisely as needed, along the central axis. This is what he means: because I strayed from the upright path, "it profited me not" (velo shavah li) - my body lost its balance and equilibrium in its temperament and faculties, and I fell bedridden, grew ill, Hashem punished me, and I suffered.
פָּדָה נַפְשׁוֹ מֵעֲבֹר בַּשָּׁחַת וְחַיָּתוֹ בָּאוֹר תִּרְאֶה׃ - He has redeemed his soul from going down into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
These three ways - repentance, prayer, and charity - are what avert the evil decree. Therefore, "He has redeemed his soul from going down into the pit": what had previously been a spiritual downfall for his soul will now become spiritual success. "And his life shall see the light" - the physical life of the body will merit the light of life, whereas previously it was immersed in darkness.
הֶן כָּל אֵלֶּה יִפְעַל אֵל פַּעֲמַיִם שָׁלוֹשׁ עִם גָּבֶר׃ לְהָשִׁיב נַפְשׁוֹ מִנִּי שָׁחַת לֵאוֹר בְּאוֹר הַחַיִּים׃ - Behold, all these things God does twice, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
The first notification described through dreams, and the second notification that comes when a person does not heed the first and fails to absorb the message - the Holy One, blessed be He, performs all of these several times. And what is the ultimate purpose? "To bring back his soul from the pit" - to rescue his spiritual soul from destruction, so that through this he may merit to be enlightened with the light of the living.
The holy Ari (Arizal) derives the secret of reincarnation (gilgul) from this verse: "Behold, all these things God does twice, three times with a man" - the soul returns and is reincarnated two or three times. "With a man (gever)" and not a woman, because in principle women do not undergo reincarnation unless she needs to assist a man. When a woman needs rectification, she achieves it through Gehinnom; whereas a man, since he is commanded in Torah study, rectifies through reincarnation. Incidentally, Gehinnom is considered preferable to reincarnation. "To bring back his soul from the pit" - through reincarnation, his soul merits to return from the pit, where "pit" hints at Gehinnom, and thereby merits "to be enlightened with the light of the living."
Now, one might ask: do we not find in many sources that a person can be reincarnated dozens of times, or even a hundred times? For example, regarding the person who cast the first stone at Zechariah son of Jehoiada the Kohen in the Beit HaMikdash - about which it is written, "Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?" - the Arizal states that he has already returned here a hundred times to achieve rectification, each time dying an unnatural death. How can this be reconciled with the verse stating "twice, three times with a man"? The Arizal explains: "twice, three times" applies only to someone who has not begun to rectify his nefesh (the lowest soul level) at all. There are levels of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. If he has not begun to rectify the nefesh at all, he is given a first chance, a second chance, and a third chance, and if he has rectified nothing, it is over - he will not be reincarnated again. However, if he began to rectify his nefesh even slightly, from then on he can return and reincarnate even a thousand times, adding further rectification to his previous state in each lifetime.
הַקְשֵׁב אִיּוֹב שְׁמַע לִי הַחֲרֵשׁ וְאָנֹכִי אֲדַבֵּר׃ - Pay attention, Iyov, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
Elihu says to Iyov: Pay attention and listen to me, for you yourself initially received notifications of this kind through dreams. As you said, "For the fear that I feared has come upon me," and as you said, "And You terrify me with dreams" - we see that you were already given warnings about your future and feared them. "Be silent, and I will speak" - you have heard this, and now allow me to state my words.
אִם יֵשׁ מִלִּין הֲשִׁיבֵנִי דַּבֵּר כִּי חָפַצְתִּי צַדְּקֶךָּ׃ - If you have words, answer me; speak, for I desire your vindication.
If you have an answer to reply to my words, arguing that what I say is incorrect - answer me. "For I desire your vindication": I am different from your friends, each of whom came looking for faults and flaws in you to explain why you are suffering. That is not my intention; on the contrary, I wish to see you acquitted in judgment, I want you to merit good, and Heaven forbid that you be judged unfavorably. One who comes to prove that you are wicked is displeased if you answer that you are righteous; but I, who come to offer rebuke out of a desire to vindicate you, would be all the happier if you prove to me that you are righteous. Therefore, "Answer me; speak, for I desire your vindication" - speak in your defense, for I truly wish to find you justified; but only if you have a genuine answer, not claims that are untrue.
אִם אַיִן אַתָּה שְׁמַע לִי הַחֲרֵשׁ וַאֲאַלֶּפְךָ חָכְמָה׃ - If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.
And if you have no true response - be silent; it is better that you remain quiet and listen to the rest of what I have to say. "And I will teach you wisdom" - va'aalefcha ("I will teach you") shares a root with learning and instruction, as in the Talmudic expressions me'alaf yalfinan and yalfei, which all denote teaching and study. The Holy One, blessed be He, is called Alufo shel Olam (the Master and Teacher of the World) because He teaches man knowledge and imparts the Torah to the entire world, which is the source of the term aluf. In other words: if you remain silent, I will teach you profound wisdom that you have not known until now.
In this section, Elihu reveals the progression of the Holy One, Blessed be He's communication with man: first in a dream and a nocturnal vision, which awaken the conscience to seal its acceptance of rebuke, to turn away from wicked deeds, and to conceal the base character traits within; and if a person pays no heed - the second communication comes, through pain upon the bed, strife within his bones, loss of appetite, and emaciation until he nears the pit. Yet three avenues of salvation still remain open before him: the merit of a mitzvah that advocates on his behalf like an angel, prayer that wins favor for him before his Maker, and the rectification of wrongs between man and his fellow through confession and restitution. All these things God works twice or thrice with a man - all to turn his soul back from the pit and illuminate it with the light of life. And the entirety of Elihu's speech is not to search for fault, but rather, as he says in his conclusion: "For I desire your vindication."