전도서 2:14 해설: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Kohelet Rabbah

“The wise man” [2:14]. The wise man thinks ahead to what will be the conclusion of a matter. However, the evil person goes like someone in the dark and does not think about the conclusion and what it will be. Even though I praise the wise man more than the evil one, I know well that both of them will die.²⁵Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 2:14.

The wise man, his eyes are in his head. In the beginning [=בְּרֹאשׁוֹ of the matter, he contemplates the end results.¹⁹Note the similarity to “Who is wise? He who visualizes what the future holds,” in Maseches Tamid 32a.

“The wise man, his eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness. I also know that one event will happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 2:14).
“The wise man, his eyes are in his head…” – the wise man, his eyes are in his head, but the fool, his eyes are in his legs? Rather, when the wise man is still at the beginning of a matter, he knows what will be at its end. Rabbi Meir would call the end of a matter its beginning.⁴³Because one should begin something with the end in mind. Alternatively: “The wise man, his eyes are in his head” – this is Abraham our patriarch; “but the fool walks in darkness” – this is Nimrod; “I also know that one event will happen to them all.”⁴⁴Both the wise man and the fool eventually die.

But I also understood. Also, I [know], who praise the wise man over the fool, I know that they both will die.