Kommentar zu Kohelet 12:4
וְסֻגְּר֤וּ דְלָתַ֙יִם֙ בַּשּׁ֔וּק בִּשְׁפַ֖ל ק֣וֹל הַֽטַּחֲנָ֑ה וְיָקוּם֙ לְק֣וֹל הַצִּפּ֔וֹר וְיִשַּׁ֖חוּ כָּל־בְּנ֥וֹת הַשִּֽׁיר׃
Geschlossen werden die Türen nach dem Markte ob dem dumpfen Rauschen des Mahlens, und erstarret bei dem Tone des Vogels, und gedämpft sind [ihm] alle Töchter des Gesanges. [Ehe denn die Freude an den Lebensgenüssen schwindet.]
Rashi on Ecclesiastes
And the doors [to the street] will be shut. These refer to his orifices.
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Kohelet Rabbah
“The doors to the street will be shut, with the fading of the sound of the mill; and one will arise to the voice of a bird, and all the sources of music will be lowered” (Ecclesiastes 12:4).
“The doors to the street will be shut” – these are a person’s orifices; “with the fading of the sound of the mill” – because the stomach is not grinding; “and one will arise to the voice of a bird” – the elderly, when they hear the birds tweeting, they say: Robbers are coming to rob me; “and all the sources of music will be lowered” – these are the lips. Rabbi Ḥiyya ben Rabbi Neḥemya says: These are the kidneys that conceive, and the heart concludes.3The midrash presents thought as being initiated by the kidneys and concluded by the heart, before it is expressed by the lips.
“The doors to the street will be shut” – these are a person’s orifices; “with the fading of the sound of the mill” – because the stomach is not grinding; “and one will arise to the voice of a bird” – the elderly, when they hear the birds tweeting, they say: Robbers are coming to rob me; “and all the sources of music will be lowered” – these are the lips. Rabbi Ḥiyya ben Rabbi Neḥemya says: These are the kidneys that conceive, and the heart concludes.3The midrash presents thought as being initiated by the kidneys and concluded by the heart, before it is expressed by the lips.
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Rashi on Ecclesiastes
When the sound of the grinding is low. The sound of the mill grinding the food in his intestines, and that refers to the stomach.
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Rashi on Ecclesiastes
And when one will awaken at the sound of a bird. For even the voice of a bird awakens him from his sleep once he has become old.
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Rashi on Ecclesiastes
And muffled will be the daughters [sounds] of song. All the sounds of musical instruments seem to him like conversation. Its apparent meaning is its simple interpretation, ‘יִשַּׁחוּ’ is like יִשְׁפְּלוּ [=will be brought low]. All the singers and songstresses will be low in his eyes, and as Barzily of Gilad said to Dovid, “or can I still listen to the voice of singers and songstresses?”7II Shmuel 19:36.
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