He Lived in the Land of Oz

Job 1:1

"A good book tells a story, and the reader is either pleased or displeased, intrigued or bored. A great book invites the reader to respond, to argue, to challenge."

Harold S. Kushner, The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person

Welcome to the Land of Oz—or, more precisely, Utz—where a faithful man named Job may or may not have existed but remains one of the most famous biblical figures in the Western world.

As Kushner reminds us, the Book of Job isn’t just a story; it’s an invitation. It dares us to wrestle with its challenging, sometimes infuriating questions.

Over centuries, rabbis, mystics, poets, artists, philosophers, and playwrights have accepted the challenge.

Today, we join their ranks as we explore this masterpiece of poetry and prose, a timeless wrestling match with suffering, faith, and the chaos of existence.

Job begins with this mythic introduction:

אִישׁ הָיָה בְאֶרֶץ־עוּץ אִיּוֹב שְׁמוֹ וְהָיָה  הָאִישׁ הַהוּא תָּם וְיָשָׁר וִירֵא אֱלֹהִים וְסָר מֵרָע׃
"Once there was a man in the land of Utz named Job. That man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil."

Job 1:1

The book begins with a wink at the mythic, click your heels and go.

Long before L. Frank Baum conjured the Emerald City, Oz—or Utz—was already a land of mystery and moral testing - even if it ever existed at all although mentioned here and elsewhere in the Bible as an actual ‘location’.

Scholars suggest that Baum might have been inspired by Job’s tale when crafting his own bestseller. Dorothy, like Job, embarks on a journey of resilience and questioning, accompanied by three companions and a peek behind the curtain of life’s big truths.

The recent success of Wicked - first as a book, then on stage and now on screen - points at how timeless and compelling these questions remain for people of all ages.

Even the rabbis of the Talmud debated Job’s existence.

Was he real, or was he a parable? In Tractate Bava Batra, one sage declares, "Job never was and never existed but is only a parable." Another retorts, "The text begins with ‘there was a man,’ doesn’t it?" Back and forth they go, delightfully stuck in a debate that reflects Job’s enduring mystery and power.

Dr. Moshe Sokolow offers a fascinating modern take, citing Micah Goodman’s reflections on Maimonides:

“Elsewhere, I argued that the Book of Job was composed by Ezekiel the Prophet in order to air and debate the various opinions over the cause of the destruction of the First Temple that were circulating among the Babylonian exiles in whose midst he lived.

I would like to add a consideration that had not occurred to me previously: namely, that presenting the story of Job as a parable rather than an historical event has a certain advantage, as Micah Goodman has observed apropos of Maimonides’s treatment of several biblical episodes as parables:

"If an event is historical, then it is something that happened in the past; if it is a parable, then it is a story that also ‘happens’ in the present and the future. Turning story into allegory transforms it from an isolated event into a universal truth."

(Maimonides and the Book that Changed Judaism , JPS, 2015, p. 33)”

So, whether Job walked the earth or not matters less than the questions his story asks us to confront: How do we make sense of suffering? How do we keep faith in a world that defies common sense?

The first chapter sets the stage of sorrow:

Job is a rich and generous person of faith, falling victim to a bet between YHWH and the Satanic adversary — will Job lose faith in the good God should tragedies destroy much of his life?

More about this moral bet and who the players are - coming next.

The gradual demise is destruction and death - all that he owns, including the death of his ten children.

Now what?

Job’s faith remains intact here, a literal and liturgical role model for the ages:

וַיֹּאמֶר עָרֹם יָצָתִי מִבֶּטֶן אִמִּי וְעָרֹם אָשׁוּב שָׁמָּה יְהֹוָה נָתַן וַיהֹוָה לָקָח יְהִי שֵׁם יְהֹוָה מְבֹרָךְ׃וַיָּקׇם אִיּוֹב וַיִּקְרַע אֶת־מְעִלוֹ וַיָּגׇז אֶת־רֹאשׁוֹ וַיִּפֹּל אַרְצָה וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ׃

Then Job arose, tore his robe, cut off his hair, and threw himself on the ground and worshiped.He said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; GOD has given, and GOD has taken away; blessed be GOD’s name.”

Job 2:20-21

Not quite a yellow brick road, but Job’s journey begins here, raw, naked —with three friends who join his road to recovery, a lot of perplexing poetic pondering, and some big truths waiting behind the curtain.

Click twice, or thrice. Let’s go.

Welcome to Job’s world.

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