Kohelet: The Search for Meaning

Peradventure you will consider this Good lightly, and imagine that no reward for observing the precepts and for man to be following wholly the paths of truth is of any worth save if he be eating and drinking good food, enjoying beautiful faces, dressing in garments of embroidered linen, lounging in tents of ivory, being served in dishes of gold or silver, and similar things, as these stupid, silly, licentious Arabs imagine. But scholars and sensible people should know that all such things are idle and vain, wherein there is nothing consequential, and if they are considered of the greatest good by us in this world, it is because we are owners of bodies and concrete forms, and all such things are bodily necessities, and the soul neither craves nor desires for them save because of bodily necessity, so that it may satisfy its desire and remain normal. But when there is no body, all these things are found to be completely nullified. But as to the great Good in which the soul will be in the World to Come, there is no way in this world to attain or know it, for in this world we know of no other good, save that of the body, for which we crave; but that Good is exceedingly exalted and has no estimate alongside the good of this world save as a figure of speech; but by the way of truth to draw a comparison between the Good in store for the soul in the World to Come and the good of the body by eating and drinking in this world is impossible. Forsooth, that Good is so great that by no search can it be attained, and by no form of estimate and comparison can it be comprehended, even as David said: "Oh how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast treasured up for those that fear Thee" (Ps. 31.19).

(9) Enjoy happiness with a woman you love all the Hevel days of life that have been granted to you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For that alone is what you can get out of life and out of the means you acquire under the sun.

(10) And then I saw scoundrels coming from the Holy Site and being brought to burial, while such as had acted righteously were forgotten in the city. And this is also Hevel:

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD.” She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil; and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The LORD paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell. And the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you distressed, And why is your face fallen? Surely, if you do right, There is uplift. But if you do not do right Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, Yet you can be its master.” Cain said to his brother Abel … and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him.

When one is afraid of heights And there is terror on the road.— For the almond tree may blossom, The grasshopper be burdened, And the caper bush may bud again; But man sets out for his eternal abode, With mourners all around in the street.— Before the silver cord snaps And the golden bowl crashes, The jar is shattered at the spring, And the jug is smashed at the cistern. And the dust returns to the ground As it was, And the lifebreath returns to God Who bestowed it. Utter futility—said Koheleth— All is futile fleeting!

(17) And so I loathed life. For I was distressed by all that goes on under the sun, because everything is fleeting and pursuit of wind. (18) So, too, I loathed all the wealth that I was gaining under the sun. For I shall leave it to the man who will succeed me— (19) and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish?—and he will control all the wealth that I gained by toil and wisdom under the sun. That too is futile. (20) And so I came to view with despair all the gains I had made under the sun. (21) For sometimes a person whose fortune was made with wisdom, knowledge, and skill must hand it on to be the portion of somebody who did not toil for it. That too is futile, and a grave evil. (22) For what does a man get for all the toiling and worrying he does under the sun? (23) All his days his thoughts are grief and heartache, and even at night his mind has no respite. That too is fleeting!

(3) Even if a man should beget a hundred children and live many years—no matter how many the days of his years may come to, if his gullet is not sated through his wealth, I say: The stillbirth, though it was not even accorded a burial, is more fortunate than he. (4) Though it comes into futility and departs into darkness, and its very name is covered with darkness, (5) though it has never seen or experienced the sun, it is better off than he— (6) yes, even if the other lived a thousand years twice over but never had his fill of enjoyment! For are not both of them bound for the same place?

..“‘If a man fathers a hundred children’: This refers to Cain, who had a hundred sons but gained no satisfaction from his wealth or the goodness of the world. . . . ‘A stillborn is better’—this refers to his brother Abel.”⁴² For the stillborn is born in hevel. In Kohelet’s view, man is disparaged not because fleeting life is itself unworthy, but because he has made it so by virtue of his actions. It is better, then, to have the most transient existence of Abel, whose life was short but exemplary, than the misery of Cain, whose long life became a curse....