전도서 1:19의 Musar

In the first chapter we shall speak about the quality of pride. How good it is that it occurs at the very beginning of all the chapters because of the obligation of man to separate himself from it! For pride is the doorway to many evils and we have seen nothing as evil as arrogance in all of the qualities. Therefore, a man must be wise and lead pride along paths that are worthy, and thrust it away from the place where it is not proper for it to be.

Moreover, as it is written: "The Lord made everything for His own purpose" (Prov. 16:4) (Sabbath 50b).

And King Solomon, peace be upon him, essentially composed the book of Ecclesiastes in order that man put to his heart that the world is a vanity of vanities and [that] he only use it for the service of the Creator, may He be elevated. And he made his intention known in his introduction and his conclusion: For he opened and said, (Ecclesiastes 1:2), "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet, vanity of vanities - everything is vanity." And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Kohelet Rabbah 3:13), "If another man had said this, we would have said, 'Maybe he has not gathered two small coins in his entire days; therefore the world is considered like vanity in his eyes.' However it is appropriate for King Solomon - about whom it is written (I Kings 1:27), 'The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones' -to say that the world is vanity of vanities." And he concluded his book and said (Ecclesiastes 12:13), "The sum of the matter, when all is said and done; revere God and observe His commandments, for this is all of man."

And likewise did King Solomon, peace be upon him, say (Kohelet 9:4) "For he who is connected with the living has hope - even a live dog is better than a dead lion." Its explanation is that he praised life in this world with regards to repentance, performance of commandment[s] and attainment of spiritual virtues. And this is the hope that is found for those connected with the living. And the explanation of "even a live dog" is that even a lowly man that is alive can add to his spiritual virtues - which is not the case for a righteous sage that is dead. But in another place, he disgraced and condemned this world, regarding the attainment of pleasures and honor, and said (Kohelet 1:3) "What advantage is there for a man in all of his toil that he does beneath the sun?" And he also said (Kohelet 4:2), "Then I accounted those who died long since more fortunate than those who are still living."

The reason for Scripture's singling out just these things seems to be this: It is known that every man has 248 physical organs and 365 physical sinews, as it is written (Iyyov 10:11): "With skin and flesh did You clothe me and with bones and sinews did You cover me." Now Scripture mentions skin and flesh and sinews and bones, and calls them only "clothing" and "covering" — "You clothed me"; "You covered me." Whom did He clothe if not the soul that is in his midst — "the essential man." And every organ of the soul is clothed from above with a bodily organ which corresponds to that organ as a garment to the body. And corresponding to this, the Holy One Blessed be He gave us 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments. And they are also distributed among the organs. For there is a mitzvah depending on the hand and a mitzvah depending on the foot. And so with all the other organs, as stated in the book of Charedim. And when a man fulfills a mitzvah in this world with a certain organ, in the world to come the light of the L-rd reposes on that organ, and it is that light which vivifies that organ. And so, with each and every mitzvah. It emerges, then, that when a man fulfills the 248 positive commandments, then he is the "complete man," who is sanctified to the L-rd with all of his organs. And this is the intent of what is stated in the section of tzitzith [fringes] (Bamidbar 15:40): "And you will do all My mitzvoth and you will be holy to your G-d." But if, G-d forbid, he be lacking one of the 248 positive commandments, which he has "cast behind his back," and which he did not repent of, there will be a defect in his soul in the world to come in the organ corresponding to that mitzvah. And this is the intent of Berachoth 26a: "(Koheleth 1:15): 'The crooked cannot be made straight' — This refers to one who omitted the Shema of the evening prayer or the Shema of the morning prayer, or the Amidah of the evening prayer or the Amidah of the morning prayer.'" And when a man is careful not to transgress the negative commandments of the Torah, he draws down the light of sanctity upon the sinews of his soul. And if he is not careful, they will be — G-d forbid — defective, as is explained at length in the book, Sha'arei Kedushah, Chapter I.

It is well-known that this world is all emptiness, that every amusement is worthless, and woe is anyone who pursues vanity, which is worthless. And don't envy the rich, for "riches are hoarded by their owner to his misfortune" (Koheles 5:12); "As he had come from his mother's womb, naked will he return...exactly as he came he must depart, and what did he gain by toiling for the wind?" (ibid. 14, 15); "Even if he should live a thousand years twice over, but find no contentment - do not all go to the same place?" (Ib. 6:6); "Even if man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is futility" (ib. 11:8); "And of joy, what does it accomplish?" (ibid. 2:2). Tomorrow you will cry for having laughed today. Do not lust after imaginary honor, for it is worthless and time is a traitor: it is like scales, which lift the light and lower the weighty. The world is like one who drinks salty water: he thinks it quenches his thirst, but it only makes him thirstier. No one leaves the world with even half his cravings fulfilled (Koheles Rabbah 1). "What profit does one have from all his toils under the sun" (Koheles 1:3)? Remember our predecessors, all of whose love, desire and joy have ceased to exist (see Koheles 9:6), but who are being judged severely for them. And of what benefit is gratification to man - whose end is dust, maggots and worms, as he is bound to die - when all his enjoyments turn to bitterness in the grave? And what is this world, whose days are full of anguish and pain which prevent one from sleeping? Neither is death a mikveh. Man will be judged for everything he says; even the slightest expression is not overlooked.

We find hints of such a future in the statement of Rabbi Yochanan in Tractate Pesachim 88a: "The day when the exiled will be gathered in is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created, as described in Hosea 2,2: 'The people of Yehudah and the people of Israel will assemble together and appoint a single head [leader] for themselves; they shall rise from the ground, for marvelous shall be the day of Jezreel.'" It is also written: "It was evening it was morning, one day" (Genesis 1,5) [the day of Jezreel is a reference to the first day in Genesis]. When the true ingathering of the exiles takes place, at the time our righteous Messiah appears, Creation itself will renew itself; a new "light" will emerge. At that time body and soul will be able to fuse. Also the earth itself, though purely matter, will be full of knowledge; thus together with the perfection existing "down here," the full extent of G–d's blessings from "above" will be experienced, so that body and soul may live forever. At the time of creation man was described as אדם ביקר בל ילין, "unable to last the night despite his precious qualities." (Psalms 49,13). Man had corrupted his potential so that mortality was decreed upon him. G–d however, has given us the Torah by means of which we can acquire the merit we need to assure us of an everlasting future. He has given us commandments which teach us that this is indeed the case, for they provide the clue to the eventual immortality of the body, in addition to that of the soul. At the present time, the "eternity" of man's body is restricted to man as a species. דור הול ודור בא, "one generation goes and another comes in its place" (Kohelet 1,4). Man's soul, however, enjoys eternal life even in these times, for every individual soul survives the death of its body. Whereas nowadays the body's "life" is considered as incidental, its death is permanent; the soul's life is however, eternal, its "death" being merely incidental [apparent, seeing it can no longer function within the body. Ed.].

In order to explain the nature of this התבודדות, isolation, let me first quote a passage from the Tikkunei Ha-Zohar concerning הבל which is rampant on earth: "It happened on a Sabbath eve that someone who could only walk on crutches encountered two scholars whom he addressed as "masters of the generations" [foremost scholars of their time] and "masters of wisdom." He greeted them cordially, inquiring where they were headed. When told the place the scholars were travelling to (on horseback), the man on crutches mentioned that he was headed for the same place and could arrange board and lodging there for the scholars in the event the latter were in need of same. Upon hearing this, the scholars asked how it was possible that they would not arrive ahead of the man on crutches seeing that they were on horseback whereas he did not even have his own legs. While saying this they turned their heads and observed that the cripple suddenly ran like a rod of lightning. He arranged for the two scholars to experience a contraction of the distance to be covered so that they too arrived simultaneously with the cripple at the entrance of a cave. The cripple asked the scholars to enter the cave. The Rabbis followed him and climbed inside the cave until they arrived at an orchard where they found the cripple divesting himself of his former body and assuming an entirely new body. The former cripple's face shone like the sun and he was seated on a Royal throne surrounded by three hundred disciples at his feet. The disciples were engaged in reciting the first verse of Kohelet: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The disciples kept on repeating this verse innumerable times. The "leaders of the generation" turned to the disciples inquiring if there was no other verse in the Book of Kohelet that they kept repeating the same verse all the time. Upon hearing this, the man on the throne [who had first appeared to the scholars as a cripple] immediately arose and took hold of the hands of the two scholars and transported them to seven palaces. Each of these palaces was inscribed with the first verse of Kohelet, i.e.: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." When they came to the seventh palace the entrance was decorated with the likeness of an eagle and a crown. On the crown there was the image of a dove. On the crown was inscribed the following: "Anyone who is not conversant with the meaning of the seven vanities in the first verse of Kohelet is the subject of the verse in Numbers 1,51: והזר הקרב יומת, 'And any stranger (non priest) who enters will be executed.'" Thereupon the two scholars turned to leave.

If the Holy One Blessed is He says, “Leave him be,” that is fine. But if not, they will treat him as they did the first one. Along will come one who mastered Toras Kohanim and they will ask him, “Why did you not master all five books of the Torah?” For they contain the Shema and many other commandments, such as tefillin, mezuzah, etc. Along will come one who mastered all these and they will ask him, “Why did you not study and master the Aggadah? For when a Torah scholar sits and interprets (these texts), Hashem grants atonement for Israel’s sins. Moreover, when the listeners respond, Amein, yehei shemei rabba (at the end of the lesson in Aggadah), even if a decree has been written and sealed against them Hashem will forgive them and grant atonement for their sins.” Along will come one who mastered the Aggadah and the Holy One Blessed is He will ask him, “Why did you not master the Gemara, which is called the “Sea of the Talmud”? Concerning this was it written, “All streams flow to the sea but the sea is not full” (Koheles 1:7) — this alludes to Gemara.

When the Psalmist goes on to say פקודי ה' ישרים, משמחי לב, this is in the same spirit as ולבי ראה הרבה חכמה, "and my heart has seen much wisdom," in Kohelet 1,16. The great spiritual visions of a prophetic nature are usually the result of feelings of joy. The expression "פקודי" used by the Psalmist alludes to a מפקד, supervisor, suggesting that G–d has appointed a פקיד, clerk, to make direct access to Torah difficult.

All this is alluded to in Psalms 39,3: נאלמתי דומיה, החשתי מטוב וכאבי נעכר. "I was dumb, silent; I was very still while my pain was intense." The word דום-י-ה must be broken up so that we see that G–d decreed dumbness on the speaker in the verse. Being "silent from טוב," is an allusion to not having Torah inspiration; the only true טוב is Torah. The end of the verse describes Moses' reaction to this diminution of his intellectual/spiritual powers. According to סדר הדורות, at the beginning of his career Moses' name was שממה; it subsequently became משה. This is what is meant by Isaiah 52,13: "Indeed My servant shall prosper," meaning that Moses will be the משיח, the numerical value of the letters משה=345 being equal to the numerical value of the letters in the name שילה (a reference to Genesis 49, 10 where the word is understood to refer to the Messiah). Our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 11,3 comment on the above that the first Redeemer will have the same name as the Ultimate Redeemer. The Ultimate Redeemer will be revealed to them only to be subsequently hidden from them, just as was the case with the first Redeemer. This is supposedly also alluded to in Kohelet 1,4: "A generation goes and a generation comes."

This is the mystical dimension of the first words of Kohelet where Solomon cries out: הבל הבלים הכל הבל, that in this world everything is no better than הבל! He bemoans the fact that in this world Divine guidance must be based on the attribute of חסד! a testimony to man's inadequacy. Solomon clearly implies that the way G–d deals with the present world is הבל, totally inferior to the way G–d will be dealing with the world of the future when He will be able to employ the yardstick of גבורה. This is what our sages meant when they said in in Midrash Kohelet 11,12 "the Torah (insights) which man studies in this world is הבל when compared to the Torah of the Messiah." What our sages had in mind is that the Torah which we learn in this world is based on the intelligence of the emanation associated with הבל, whereas the Torah of the Messiah will be based on the wisdom garnered from the emanation of גבורה, i.e. the domain from which Cain originated. Our own eyes behold regularly that a person whose origin is in the domain of גבורה is apt to be strong and valorous whereas people whose origin is in the domain of חסד are apt to be sensitive and weak. The relationship between חסד and גבורה is not unlike the relationship between silver and gold. Even among the קליפות, the spiritually negative forces, we find that the force גבורה equals אריה=216, whereas the force חסד is equivalent to חמור (donkey, symbolic of all that is earthly). This is the mystical dimension of Genesis 22,3: ויחבוש את חמרו, where Abraham is described as saddling his donkey on the way to the binding of Isaac. The word חמרו is spelled defective (without the letter ו) to indicate that by the act of saddling the donkey, symbol of everything material, Abraham assumed dominance over it. The numerical value of the letters in the name of אברהם is the same as the numerical value in the letters of the word חמר, =248. Abraham had to establish his authority over this קליפה so that it should not hinder him in executing G–d's command to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He arose early in the morning (Genesis 22,3) in order to "awaken" i.e. to anticipate the emanation חסד and to subdue the קליפה aspect associated with it. Rabbi Akiva represented the type of personality based on גבורה, the domain Cain came from after the emanation גבורה i.e. had already been "sweetened." This is why Moses had suggested to G–d that, since He already knew there was going to be a man of such caliber, it would be appropriate to give the Torah to the Jewish people by means of a man such as Rabbi Akiva. Thus far the Arizal. Since Cain represented darkness it is no more than appropriate that light when it comes should originate in darkness.

The principal components of our food are bread, meat, and wine. The Torah's legislation concerning these foods is comprehensive, and when one has observed all the various observances necessary to ensure that one consumes only what has been approved by the Torah, one may consider the act of eating as similar to the altar consuming a sacrifice. One's body will acquire varying degrees of sanctity in accordance with the care taken in selecting what one eats. When the Psalmist (Psalms 84,3) speaks about: לבי ובשרי ירננו אל-אל חי, "My body and soul shout for joy to the living G–d," the לב, heart, is perceived as the home, משכן, of the soul, as I have already explained. The soul has seen much חכמה. The body, בשרי is described as being on a par with the soul in this Psalm by the sons of Korach.

Considering the above, we see that both statements in the Talmud are quite true. The level of those people who have access to the תורה הקדומה is superior to the level of the Torah that has been revealed, since they are the people whom G–d had in mind way before He created the universe. Kohelet 1,4 alludes to this when he says והארץ לעולם עומדת. The Midrash on that verse says that Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai quoted Isaiah 65,22: כי כימי העץ ימי עמי, "For the days of My people shall be as long as the days of the tree." We know that "the tree " refers to Torah from עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בו, "For she is a tree of life to all who grasp her" (Proverbs 3,18) [The subject matter in that chapter is wisdom=Torah Ed.]. Who was created for whose sake? Was the Torah created for the sake of Israel, or was Israel created for the sake of the Torah? Torah was created for the sake of Israel. If Torah, which was created for Israel's sake endures forever, how much more so must Israel live forever?" We find a similar statement in Bereshit Rabbah 1,4 where Rabbi Abba bar Kahane is quoted as saying that Torah preceded the throne of G–d. He supports this statement with the scriptural quotation ה' קנני ראשית דרכו, "G–d has acquired me at the beginning of His way" (Proverbs 8,22). Also, Rabbis Hunna and Yirmiyahu say in the name of Rabbi Shmueli bar Yitzchak that Israel was the original concept that G–d entertained in His mind. They explain this by a parable: A king was married to an aristocratic lady who bore him no children. When the king once strolled in the market-place, he instructed his servants to purchase reeds and ink for his son. People who saw this were heard to comment that this was strange seeing the king did not have a son. Upon reflection they concluded that the king must be a great astrologer seeing that the purchase reflected his certainty that he would have a son from his present wife otherwise he would not have given such instructions. The same is true of G–d. He was aware that after twenty-six generations Israel would accept the Torah at Mount Sinai, otherwise how could G–d have written in the Torah such lines as: "Speak to the Israelites," "command the Israelites, etc?" This concludes our second premise that Torah is the soul of Israel.

ומותר האדם מן הבהמה – When the author of our prayer refers to the advantage man enjoys over the beasts as אין, the equivalent of Hiyuli in the Celestial Regions, he is telling us that in those Regions there is no-one who can help us (except G–d, as indicated by Isaiah 63,16). Hence all the salvations that we experience in this world are ultimately futile. This is what Solomon, in Kohelet 1,2, referred to when he exclaimed: הבל הבלים, הכל הבל, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." A different approach to this line in the prayer understands it as a reference to Adam's two sons Cain and Abel. Cain has long ago ceased to exist and only Abel, or his גלגול, is still around, only because G–d accepted Abel's sacrifice. We have stated that Moses (after שת) was the re-incarnation of Abel. Since no one ever arose who could compare to Moses, the author of our prayer refers to this as the מותר האדם, the surviving remnant of original אדם.

Midrash Kohelet, quoting Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon, is of the opinion that the seven days of impurity a woman experiences in connection with menstruation correspond to the seven times Solomon referred to הבלים, futilities, in Kohelet 1,2. [When the word הבל appears in the singular it refers to a single "futility," whereas when it appears in the plural it refers to two "futilities." Ed.] This means that in view of the sin committed by Adam and Eve everything which was created during the seven days of Creation is futile. Creation experienced another damaging blow when Cain murdered his brother הבל. Man indulged in the pursuit of futile objectives, וילכו אחרי ההבל ויהבלו, "They went after delusion and were deluded" (Jeremiah 2,5).

We are now able to understand an allusion to the future contained in 30,39 in which a procedure used by Jacob to encourage the sheep to give birth to certain skin patterns is described. Rabbi Oshiyah says in Bereshit Rabbah 73,10 that the water the sheep drank was turned into sperm inside of them. How can we understand the remarks of Rabbi Oshiyah which suggest that G–d created a new instrument of impregnating animals, something that had not been created during the six days of creation!? Did not Solomon in Kohelet 1,9 say that there is nothing new added on this planet?