Indeed! This is the answer that was given by the Creator to Job. As long as Job, as a slave ‎of ‎fate, ‎philosophized about reasons, and motives, and demanded insight into the essence of ‎evil, ‎continually ‎asking and murmuring: “Why and wherefore does suffering come,” the Holy ‎One ‎answered him ‎sharply with the pointed question: “Did you know?”(Job 39:1).‎

‎[Did you know] [w]ho it is who ‎darkens counsel by speaking words without knowledge? Gird ‎up ‎now your loins like a man, for I will ‎demand of you and you shall declare unto Me. Where were ‎you ‎when I laid the foundations of the ‎earth? Declare if you have such understanding. … ‎Do you ‎know ‎the time when the wild goats of the ‎rock will give birth; when the hinds will calve? — Job ‎‎38:2-4, Job ‎‎39:1‎.

If you do not know the alphabet of creation, why be so impudent as to ask questions about the ‎workings of the world? But once Job realized how strange his question was and how great his ‎ignorance, and acknowledged it and was not ashamed to say: “[T]herefore I have uttered that ‎which I did not understand; things too wonderful for me which I know not" (Job 42:3), then God ‎was able to reveal to this man of destiny the true principles which are concealed in suffering, as ‎expressed by the halakhah. The Holy One said: Job! True, you will never understand the inner ‎essence of the why, the reason for suffering and its purpose, but there is one thing that you are ‎obligated to know: the basis for the repair of suffering. If by your suffering you are able to elevate ‎yourself to the spiritual level that you have not heretofore attained, you will then know that your ‎travail was intended as a device for your perfection in both spirit and soul. Job! When My ‎graciousness engulfed you in the manner expressed by the prophet, “Behold, I will extend ‎prosperity to [him] a like a river” (Isaiah 66:12) and you were well known and a man of influence ‎‎(“And this man was the greatest of all the children of the East” [Job 1:3]), you did not fulfill the role ‎that My grace placed upon you. You were a sound and just man, God-fearing and avoiding of evil. ‎You did not use your power and wealth for ill. You gave much charity (“Righteousness I wore, and it ‎robed me, my justice was a robe and turban” [Job 29:14]). You did not hesitate to offer assistance ‎and support to others, and you stood by them in their hour of peril and distress (“Did I not deliver ‎the poor that cried out and the orphaned that had none to help him?” [Job 29:12]). However, you ‎were still short of attaining that great trait of loving-kindness in two respects: (a) never did you ‎bear the communal yoke, nor did you participate in the trouble and grief of the community,A and (b) ‎you did not feel the pain of [i.e., empathize with] the individual sufferer. As a man blessed with a ‎good heart, you may have momentarily pitied the orphan. You had vast amounts of money and ‎you wanted for nothing, hence you gave a respectable amount of tzedakah [charity]. However, ‎loving-kindness encompasses more than fleeting sentiment and cheap sentimentality. Loving-‎kindness demands more than a momentary tear and a cold coin.B Loving-kindness means ‎empathizing with one’s fellow man, identifying with his hurt and feeling responsibility for his fate. ‎You did not possess this attribute of overflowing loving-kindness [in imitation of the Creator], ‎neither in your public nor in your personal relationships.‎

You ‎were a contemporary of Jacob,4 who wrestled with Laban, Esau, and the angel at the stream ‎of ‎Yabok ‎‎(Genesis 32:23–32). Did you help Jacob with advice? Who was Jacob? A poor shepherd. ‎And ‎you? You ‎were rich and a man of influence. Had you related to Jacob with appropriate ‎sympathy ‎and with ‎steadfast loving kindness, he would not have had to pass through such a ‎multitude ‎of ‎tribulations.‎

You lived in the time of Moses, and you were numbered among the advisers of ‎Pharaoh. Did ‎you ‎lift a finger when Pharaoh issued his evil decree that “Every son that is born you shall ‎cast into ‎the ‎river” (Exodus 1:22), or when the oppressors enslaved your brethren with back-‎breaking ‎work? ‎You were silent then and did not protest, for you were afraid of identifying ‎yourself with ‎the ‎unfortunate slaves. To toss them a coin? Yes; but to publicly demonstrate for ‎them? No! You ‎were ‎afraid that you would be accused of dual-loyalty.‎

You were active in the generation of ‎‏ ‏Ezra and Nehemiah, the returnees to Zion. You, Job, ‎with ‎your wealth and influence, could have hastened the process of settling the Land of Israel ‎and ‎rebuilding the Temple. However, your ear was deafened and did not heed the historical cries ‎of ‎the nation.‎

You did not storm out in protest against the Sanballites, the Samaritans, and the rest of ‎Israel’s ‎enemies who wanted to destroy the Yishuv and extinguish the spark of the last hope of ‎God’s ‎people. What did you do in the hour when the returnees from the Diaspora cried out from ‎the ‎depths of suffering and despair: “The strength of the bearers of the burdens has faltered ‎and ‎there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall”(Nehemiah 4:4)? You sat ‎with ‎folded arms! You did not participate in the travail of those who fought for Judaism, for Israel, ‎and ‎the redemption. Never did you bring even one sacrifice on their behalf. All these years ‎you ‎worried only about your own welfare and only for your own benefit did you pray and ‎offer ‎sacrifices:‎

And so it was when the days of their feasting were over, that Job sent word to his children ‎to ‎sanctify themselves and he [Job] rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings for ‎each ‎of them all, for Job said: “It may be that my sons have sinned, and blasphemed God in ‎their ‎hearts.” —Job 1:5.‎

Did you once, Job, participate in a stranger’s grief to the extent of making a plea on his behalf? ‎No, ‎you did not! Do you know, Job, that prayer is the province of the community, and that an ‎individual ‎does not come before the Lord to plead before Him and request the fulfillment of his ‎needs until ‎he redeems himself from isolation and self-containment and joins the community? Did ‎you forget ‎that Jewish prayer speaks in the plural (“One should Job always join together with the ‎community ‎in prayer” [TB Berakhot 3a]), and that Jewish prayer is the linking of one soul to ‎another and the ‎fusing of tempestuous hearts. You did not know how to use the formula for ‎prayer fixed by the ‎nation, which is to include yourself within the community and to help bear the ‎burden of one’s ‎fellow man. If your soul wants to comprehend the doctrine of the amelioration of ‎suffering, you ‎must grasp the secret of prayer that brings the “I” close to the other. The original ‎formula that joins ‎the individual with the experience of the community must become for you ‎second nature; and you ‎must understand the idea of loving kindness, which is realized by the one ‎who prays and who is ‎elevated from a personal self-concern to becoming one with the community. ‎You will not fulfill ‎your obligation by generously dispensing the miserable pennies with which you ‎were blessed. You ‎will only save through prayer resulting from the experience of communal travail. ‎You did not ‎understand the teaching of hesed, and you squandered My blessings. Try now to ‎comprehend the ‎lesson of suffering. Perhaps, out of pain and grief, you can undo the errors you ‎committed out of ‎illusory comfort and happiness.‎

The Holy One said to the friends of Job, “Now, therefore, take unto you seven bullocks and ‎seven ‎rams, and go to My servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and My servant ‎Job ‎shall pray for you” (Job 42:8). Behold, I will test Job yet another time. Let him be tested ‎publicly. ‎Does he now know how to pray for others and participate in their travail? Did he learn ‎anything in ‎the hour of retribution and divine anger? Did he adopt for himself a new style of ‎collective prayer ‎that encompasses the community? If he pleads for you, he will bring his salvation ‎and yours; “For ‎to him I will show favor” (Job 42:8). Then you shall know that Job was redeemed ‎from the narrow ‎straits of egotism and entered into the vistas of communal empathy; and that ‎social isolation has ‎ended and communal affiliation has appeared in its stead. A wonderful thing ‎happened. Job ‎suddenly understood the nature of Jewish prayer. He discovered in one moment ‎its plural voice ‎and the attribute of loving-kindness that sweeps man from the private to the public ‎domain. He ‎began to live a communal life, to feel the community’s hurts, to mourn its disasters and ‎rejoice in ‎its moments of celebration. Job’s sufferings found their true repair in his escape from the ‎prison in ‎which he had found himself, and God’s wrath was assuaged. As it is written: “And the ‎Lord ‎changed the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10).‎