Religious Living / Observance
Kohelet
Kohelet
This article was written by Stephen Butterfass for Religious Living on the Web.
Kohelet (translated as Ecclesiastes in Latin and English Bibles, approximating the Hebrew title, which is believed to mean "one who assembles") is a strange and radical book; its presence among our sacred writings seems out of place. Its mood of disillusionment and philosophy of resignation challenge and deny the central assumptions of the other writings: that God and the Divine Will are made known to humanity through revelation and through the covenant with the chosen people Israel, that good is rewarded and evil punished.
For Kohelet, God exists but is unknowable: an omnipotent, arbitrary force who regulates fate and life, in a universe that we cannot control or change, where all our attempts at achievement are rendered futile by the inevitability of death and oblivion.
This is wisdom literature at its most skeptical, rational, and fatalistic. Kohelet is a philosophical work, looking to understand human existence through reason and empirical observation rather than faith, rejecting any confidence in the ultimate promise of divine reward for strength of character and devotion to righteousness. God, says Kohelet, does not intervene in nature or human affairs, since "nothing new happens under the sun". (Though the rabbis ascribed these writings to King Solomon, it is a much later work, by an author possibly with knowledge of Greek and Persian thought.)
Kohelet's thesis, which he is unable to disprove, is that everything in life is hollow, futile, fleeting, and amounting to nothing. This idea is frequently expressed in the writings by the Hebrew expression havel havelim, popularly translated as "vanity of vanities" and by the phrase "a feeding on wind". The word "havel" literally means a "breath" or "vapor", signifying that everything in life is insubstantial, the merest vapor.
The author of Kohelet proceeds to examine the varieties of human experience, including the search for wisdom, the pursuit of riches, and pleasurable self-indulgence. Every time, he is disappointed. Everything that happens is predetermined and comes to all at the appropriate time. Wisdom and the fruits of one's efforts are cancelled by the inescapable fact that we all die. Death, to Kohelet, is a negation of all values, all strivings.
Despite the pious admonitions ("...fear God, keep God's commandments") that have been edited into the book's final passages, Kohelet leaves us with the blunt truth as he sees it: if the conditions of human experience are indeed preordained, and we are all subject to the same quirks of fate and the same death, then we must accept and learn to live with the limitations of our lives. Surprisingly, the message becomes an affirmation of life: accept what happiness you can obtain in the present, savor it, for life can be good and, if it is, it is the gift of God.
Why study Kohelet? Why is it included among the sacred writings? Truthfully, it forces us to look at an abyss, rather than to Sinai. To many, that in itself mocks the vision of faith in God. Ultimately, Kohelet speaks to our pain, doubt, and anxiety, and recognizes our common human condition.
THE WORDS OF KOHELET
The words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity, vanities! all is vanity.
What gain can we show for all our effort and toil under the sun?
One generation goes and another generation comes;
Yet the earth remains unchanged.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
returning to its place to rise once more.
Ch.1:1-5
Going to the south and turning north,
Turning about, turning about, goes the wind.
All the rivers run to the sea,
Yet the sea is never full;
To the place where the rivers flow from,
there they return again.
Ch. 1:6-7
Whatever has been is that which will be,
What has been done is that which will be
done again;
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Ch. 1:9
The wise have eyes in their heads;
The fool walks in darkness.
Yet I realized that the same fate
happens to them all.
And I said to myself: "As it happens
to the fool, so it will happen to me;
how then was I wiser?"
Then I said to myself: "This is also vanity."
Ch. 2:14-15
For there is no lasting memory of the
wise or the fool;
In the days to come everything will
have been forgotten.
And how in dying will the
wise be like the fool.
Therefore, I hated life, for everything
done under the sun distressed me;
For everything is a vapor and a feeding
on wind.
Ch. 2:16-17
So I hated all the fruits of my labor, for which I had
toiled under the sun, because I would leave it to the one
who shall come after me.
Who knows whether that one will be wise or a fool?
Yet he will rule over all my efforts for which I have toiled,
and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun.
This also is vanity (vapor).
For what does one have for all one's labor, and the heart's
ambition, toiling for under the sun?
For all one's days are pain, one's concerns vexation,
even at night the mind gets no rest. This also is vanity.
Ch. 2:18-20,22-23
There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink,
and to enjoy life through work.
This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God.
Ch. 2:24
For there is one fate for human and beast;
As one dies, so does the other.
They all have the breath of life, and humanity
has no pre-eminence over the beast; for all is like a vapor.
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all return
to dust.
Ch. 3:19-20
To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to
pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a
time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, and a time to
refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silent, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ch. 3:1-8
I see the thing which God has given to humanity, to afflict them;
[That] God has made everything appropriate for its time;
Also, that God has put something hidden into their minds,
so they cannot discover what God has been doing
from the beginning to the end.
Ch. 3:10-11
I know that whatever God does shall be forever;
Nothing can be added to it, Nor anything
taken from it.
God has acted so that humanity stands in awe
of the Eternal.
Whatever is, has been;
What is to be, has already been;
God seeks to repeat what has past.
Ch. 3:14-15
Take heed of what I have seen;
It is a good and worthy thing to eat and drink,
and enjoy oneself in all one's toil under the sun,
all the days of the life God has granted,
for it is one's portion.
Remember that the days of one's life are not many,
and that God fills our time with joy.
Ch. 5:17,19
All one's toil is for the mouth, yet the soul is not filled.
What advantage do the wise have over the fool?
Or the poor person with life experience,
over the others living?
Better is what your eyes can see, than what you desire;
This is also vanity, and a feeding on wind.
Ch. 6:7-9
Observe God's work: for who can straighten
what God has formed crooked?
In times of prosperity be joyful,
but in the days of adversity consider:
God has arranged that one should correspond to the other,
so that a person may never know what lies ahead.
Ch. 7:13-14
There is an anomaly perpetrated in the earth;
There are righteous to whom what happens
should happen to the wicked;
And there are evil doers to whom what happens
should happen to the just.
I said: this also is vapor.
Ch. 8:14
So I praise joy, for humanity, there is nothing
better in life than to eat and drink and rejoice:
For it shall accompany them in their toil
during the days of their lives
granted them by God beneath the sun.
Everything your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might;
for there are no deeds or reckoning,
nor knowledge or wisdom
in the grave, where you are bound.
Chs. 8:15, 9:10
Then I beheld all God's work, that one cannot
discover all that is going on in this world.
However hard one may seek, she will not find out.
Though the wise may pretend to know,
they are not able to find it.
Ch. 8:17
So I considered this all in my mind,
to clarify it; that the righteous and the wise and
their works are subject to the Divine Will;
Whether it is to be [God's] love or hatred,
humanity is not informed,either may happen to them.
Anything may happen to anyone;
The same chance to the righteous and the wicked...
Ch. 9:1-2
I returned and saw beneath the sun,
that the race is not to the swift,
neither is the battle to the mighty warrior,
nor bread to the wise, nor even
riches to the clever or favor to the learned;
But time and chance happen to them all.
One does not know when the time [of misfortune]
will come...
Ch. 9:11-12
As you do not know the way of the wind,
Nor how bones are formed in the womb,
So you cannot know the work of God,
Who does all things.
In the morning sow your seed,
And until evening give your hand no rest;
For you do not know whether this or that
will be successful, or whether both
may turn out well.
Ch. 11:5-6
Rejoice in your youth, you who are young,
Let your heart be merry in the days of your youth.
Go the ways of your heart, what your eyes envision;
Yet know: for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
Remove sorrow from your heart,
Put away evil from your flesh;
For childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
Ch. 11:9-10
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