Tafsiran Pengkhotbah 5:11: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Kohelet Rabbah

“Sweet” [5:11]. The sleep of those who work the land and sow the fields with more or less wheat is very sweet. He is used to work and sleeps very sweetly. However, the wealthy person who has much merchandise cannot sleep. He worries day and night about his merchandise. Another explanation, the sleep of the person who serves God, more or less, is sweet. The one who served little receives a reward like the one who serves much. We find that Moses our Teacher led Israel for forty years. Samuel the Prophet led Israel for ten years and Scripture compares the two. Samuel was as good as Moses our Teacher. He had many disciples who learned Torah from him. He cannot sleep in his grave. His lips move in the grave because his disciples in this world quote his teachings.⁶⁸Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 5:11.

Sweet is the sleep of the laborer. One who tills the soil sleeps, and he enjoys his sleep, whether he eats little or a lot, for he is already used to it.¹⁵The Midrash relates that when Rabbi Boon died, Rabbi Zeira incorporated this verse, “sweet is the sleep of the laborer,” in his eulogy for Rabbi Boon who was only twenty-eight years old at his death. He said that Rabbi Boon accomplished in his life what would normally take one hundred years.

“Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats a little or a lot; but the satiety of the wealthy does not allow him to sleep” (Ecclesiastes 5:11).
“Sweet is the sleep of the laborer” – Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] emerged from the bathhouse, wrapped himself in his garments, and sat and attended to the needs of the people. His servant mixed him a cup.⁶⁷It was a mixture of wine and water. Because he was attending to the needs of the people, he was not free to receive it from him. The servant dozed and fell asleep. Rabbi turned around and looked at him and said: ‘Solomon spoke correctly: “Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats a little or a lot; but the satiety of the wealthy does not allow him to sleep”; [this is referring to people] like me, as we are attending to the needs of the people, and we are not free even to sleep.’
Rabbi Berekhya said: To what is this matter analogous? It is to a king who had an orchard and he transferred it to his son. As long as his son did his bidding, the king would see what a beautiful tree there is in the world and would plant it in his son’s orchard. But whenever his son did not do his bidding, he would see what a beautiful, outstanding tree there was in the orchard, and he would uproot it. So, the king is the Holy One blessed be He, the orchard is the world, and some say it is the Israelites. As long as they do the bidding of the Holy One blessed be He, when He sees a righteous person in the nations of the world, like Yitro, Raḥav, and Ruth, and like Antoninus, He brings him and has him cleave to Israel. Whenever they do not do His bidding, He sees what righteous person there is in Israel and He takes him from them.

But the satiety of the rich will not permit him to sleep. But the satiety of possessions of the rich man, who owns much merchandise, does not allow him to sleep because he thinks about it all night.¹⁶The same idea is expressed in Mishnayos Avos 2:7, “the more possessions, the more worry.” Another explanation: The year שָׁנָה שֶׁל=[שְׁנַת of the one who serves God is sweet; whether he has a short life or a long life, he will partake of his reward, the one [who lives few years] like the one who [lives] many [years]. [E.g.,] Moshe led Yisroel forty years, and Shmuel the prophet led them ten years, and Scripture equates them one to another, as it is stated, “Moshe and Aharon among His kohanim, and Shmuel among those who invoke His name, etc.”¹⁷Tehillim 99:6. So is it expounded upon in Tanchuma.

But the satiety of the rich. The one with many traditions.

Will not permit him to sleep. In the grave, as it is stated, “causing the lips of the sleeping to murmur.”¹⁸Shir Hashirim 7:10. Every Torah scholar, in whose name a traditional law is recited, his lips murmur in the grave.¹⁹See Maseches Yevamos 97a.