Job and Socrates

I read Job (or Iyov in Hebrew) this weekend. What a story! I had real issues with a lot of it. I don't understand why Hashem allowed the Satan to do all those horrible things to Job. Maybe it was a test for Job, maybe Hashem wanted to prove to the Satan that whatever happens, a person could have faith. But why? Why did Hashem have to prove anything to the Satan? Why did the Satan have any power over Job to begin with? At the end, when Hashem gave Job everything back, did that really make things okay again? Job lost all his original children, are having replacement children the same as never having lost the original ones? I can't imagine that it is. I can't imagine that Job could just forget everything that he had gone through. I think I need to learn Job with some commentary. I think a trip to the bookstore might be in the works for this week. If anyone has any good suggestions, let me know. I also finished reading Plato's Phaedo this past weekend (I have been doing way too much non-homework reading lately). It is so interesting, when you consider when Socrates and Plato lived and the culture around them. The Phaedo is the description of Socrates' last day, the day when he drinks the poison. As is true to his character, he goes out philosophizing. Socrates goes on about the soul and the body, and how you cannot reach true wisdom until you are separated from your body. He then talks about what happens after death, and about the whole universe. He speaks of a "God", not many gods when talking about what happens after life. He says, "All men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the immortal in general, will never perish." Now I don't know Greek, but I was told that the original word is Deos, which means one God. Maybe as much as the Greeks wanted to believe that there were many gods, therefore giving each of them less power, they really knew that there could only be one Being in charge of everything. Interesting to think about, anyway.