The value of friendship TB Baba Batra 16

The amoraim on yesterday’s daf TB Baba Batra 15 argue when and where Job lived. One suggested she lived as early as the time of Jacob and his family and another suggested that he lived during the second Temple period. That’s quite a span of time! “The Gemara relates that one of the Sages sat before Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani and he sat and said: Job never existed and was never created; there was never such a person as Job. Rather, his story was a parable.” (Sefari.org translation) This is makes the most sense to me. If you ever read the book of Job, the story line is unbelievable. How could Satan goad God into wagering that he could break Job’s faith! Why would God allow Satan to kill Job’s innocent children and afflicted Job with painful sores on the top of his head to the tip of his toes for sake of a bet He knows He will.

Starting with yesterday’s daf and continues on today’s daf TB Baba Batra 16, the sages cite verse by verse interpreting the text Job. After the first set of calamities befell Job, three friends came to comfort him.

“The verse states: “And Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him” (Job 2:11). What does “they had made an appointment together” mean? Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: This phrase teaches that they all entered through one gate at the same time. And a Sage taught in a baraita: There were three hundred parasangs between each and every one of them, i.e., each one lived three hundred parasangs away from the other…

“Rava said that this closeness between Job and his friends explains the adage that people say: Either a friend like the friends of Job or death (אוֹ חַבְרָא כְּחַבְרֵי דְּאִיּוֹב, אוֹ מִיתוּתָא.). If a person lacks close friends, he is better off dead.” (Sefaria.org translation)

“The value our friendship is mentioned not infrequently in the Rabbinic literature. R. Joshua, when asked by his teacher to discover the best and worst thing in a man’s striving for self-improvement, replied that the best thing is to have a good friend and the worst to have a bad friend (Avot 2:9). A very early teacher is reported as advising a man to get himself a teacher and acquire a friend (Avot 1:6) The editor of the Mishna, R. Judah the Prince, is reported as saying: ‘Much have I learned from my teachers, more from my friends, and most of all for my pupils’(Makkot 10a). In these and similar sayings, however, it is to be noted that the friendship refer to or among colleagues who associated for the purpose of studying the Torah. In a Talmudic legend told of the miracle worker Honi the Circle-Drawer (Ta’anit 23a) it is said that this man slept for 70 years. When he awoke he was given the cold shoulder by those who frequently the House of Study, as he had very little in common with them because of the ‘generation gap.’ When Honi saw this he prayed to be released from his agony by death. The story calls in this connection the saying of the fourth century Babylonian teacher Rava: ‘Either friendship or death. (אוֹ חַבְרָא כְּחַבְרֵי דְּאִיּוֹב, אוֹ מִיתוּתָא.)’” (“Friendship,” What does Judaism say about…? by Louis Jacobs, pages 145-147)

I thank God that the Holy One has blessed me so many wonderful friends. Each and every one of them has made my life worth living.

If you’re looking for a good translation with notes of the book of Job, I recommend Edward L. Greenstein’s Job: A New Translation, published by Yale University press.