[Avodah] iyov

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 07:15:50AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
: In our recent discussion of how long Iyov lived in should be noted that
: some opinions held that Iyov was nonJewish and others that he was Jewish
: and so they cant all agree.

And in one opinion he was fictional which is definitely a machloqes with
the ones who say he wasn't.

That gemara was quoted in reponse to my citing the gemara on the previous
amud which says Moshe wrote seifer Iyov. Some of the opinions place
Iyov well after Moshe in history. (Which would be a challenge, but not
an insurmountable one to those who attribute Al Naharos Bavel to David
haMelekh.) I just pointed out that the gemara says the discussion is
about how long he lived, since it was also darshened that he had the
lifetime of a tree.

>From that perspective, each consequent opinion makes the neis of his
longevity longer and longer. Rather than saying they were disagreeing
that he lived in Moshe's day.

I think one should be making the default assumption that the uncontested
point on the prior amud remains unconstested unless the debate is actually
forced upon you. If nothing else, if there was a machloqes we couldn't
be sure of ourselves, why isn't it written out there? So, despite the
dispute whether Iyov was fictional, a non-Jew or a Jew, I think we should
be assuming they agree Moshe wrote seifer Iyov. And if that implies,
as RLbL says in the gemara, that Iyov was alive in Moshe's lifetime (or
a narrative set to take place in Moshe's lifetime), then I am assuming
they agree on that point until I'm forced to conclude otherwise.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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