Protesting God in Jewish Interpretations of Job

Shira Weiss

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7_2

Protesting God in Jewish Interpretations of Job

Shira Weiss

Department of Jewish Thought

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

Characterized as upright and God-fearing, Job is afflicted with devastating losses and suffering, even though no sins are attributed to him to warrant his hardships. Job protests his unfair treatment and charges God with wrongdoing as he hopes for vindication through accusation. But, how are such challenges to divine justice understood from a Jewish theological perspective? Are Job’s contentions against his Creator justified or do they constitute brazen iniquities? This analysis explores the pro-protest and anti-protest traditions within rabbinic literature in an effort to explicate the ambiguous biblical text and examine Judaism’s attitude towards diverse responses to the suffering of the righteous.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Protests of Job
Subtitle of host publication	An Interfaith Dialogue
Publisher	Springer International Publishing
Pages	11-30
Number of pages	20
ISBN (Electronic)	9783030953737
ISBN (Print)	9783030953720
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7_2
State	Published - 1 Jan 2022

Keywords

Injustice
Job
Protest
Suffering
Theodicy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Arts and Humanities

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-95373-7_2

Cite this

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Protesting God in Jewish Interpretations of Job

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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