Job Chapter 29
Job is a Mensch
The most common Creative Writing class trope is “Show, Don't Tell.” You can say a couple is in love, but it's better to show them sharing food, kissing, laughing at private jokes, etc. Same with your villains. You can say that someone is evil, but they have to do something evil, like when Stephen King has his evil politician kill a dog in The Dead Zone.
Up until this chapter, the author has been telling us that Job is righteous but hasn't been showing us his righteousness. For the most part, Job has been on the defense. Both G-d and Satan agree that Job is a good guy, but Job's friends have been arguing on the assumption that he's a sonofabitch. If he's suffering that bad, he must deserve it. He's been pleading for compassion or at least empathy when he hasn't been demanding an explanation from G-d.
Only in this mournful chapter of all that Job has lost does he reveal his character. Yes, he misses the respect of the elders and the way that people took him seriously, but what makes him proud is his generosity. He saved the poor and helped the orphans. He comforted the dying and helped the widows. Many claim that pride is a sin, but if you take pride in your ability to help people who is going to blame you?
Too many people feel important for all the worst reasons. They seduced women. They made a lot of money screwing the competition. They jumped far in some high school track meet. They work hard, work so hard that they can't enjoy their money. LinkedIn is full of the latter.
As a teenager, I admired the assholes, the worst of the worst. My favorite book was No One Here Gets Out Alive, a biography of Jim Morrison heavy on his antics like getting a blowjob from his girlfriend in the recording studio to harassing a woman on a bus. He volunteered to record an anti-speed PSA and he spent the entire time making ads they couldn't use. Did he pull his dick out on that Florida stage? Probably. He also turned the audience against the security guards, security guards hired to protect his drunk ass.
I loved the book. I loved Jim Morrison. I even half-believed that Jim Morrison faked his death, because I didn't want him to be gone. I was awkward and self-conscious and pimply. I was also beautiful with sharp cheekbones and pouty lips, but too miserable to use it to my advantage. So I lived vicariously through a nasty drunk without shame in the same way that today's teenagers live vicariously through Jordan Peterson or Elon Musk or Andy Tate - terrible men who can only sell their bullshit to the extremely vulnerable and stupid. Andy Tate, in particular, won't shut up about how he's a genius but listen to him for more than five minutes and his ignorance is painfully obvious.
Job, on the other hand, isn't boasting about money or muscles. Job isn't spending his money on buildings or museum wings like the Koch Brothers. Job's accomplishments are about the people he's helped and the lives he's made better. There's a rabbinical truism that goes “the poor exist to give us a chance to help.” We do not come into wealth to manufacture ugly cars or sue Chinese people for rightfully stating that our ugly cars are unsafe. When we amass wealth, it's for one reason only. To help people. No, we don't have to give away all of our money. Maimonides classified the types of tzeddaka and stated that the highest charity is giving someone a job. I assume he meant a well-paying job that doesn't drain or exploit the workers.
Either way, Job shows why he's admirable. When he's wealthy, he helps people. Even if he can't help with money, he still provides emotional support. He lucked into a good business and family wealth and a great household and he used it for others. Sadly, today's millionaires can't say the same. Even the philanthropists are only helping others for the sake of a tax break.
A great way to help me out would be to buy the biography of Rashi that I published. I know it’s public domain, but my version is better formatted.
Sadly, I still have to ask for money so if you’d like to subscribe or donate to my Godfundme, I’d be very happy.
Here’s an article on Robert Alter’s take on Job. I don’t agree with everything. Really hate that he translates Leviathan and Behemoth into “whale” and “bear”. However, his books about the literary interpretations of the Bible were very important to my development.