전도서 7:30의 참고문헌

Another time Elisha is said to have asked Rabbi Meir for his interpretation of the verse, “One against another God made them”. (Eccles. 7:14) Rabbi Meir said that whatever God created, He also created its opposite; He created high mountains and low hills; He created the seas and the rivers. Elisha then remarked, “Rabbi Akiba explained this verse otherwise. He said that God created just men and wicked men; He created a Paradise and a Gehenna. Every Jew may therefore choose between two shares, one in Paradise and one in Gehenna. If he is a just man he takes his own and his neighbor’s share in Paradise; if he is a wicked man he takes his own and his neighbor’s share in Gehenna.

The passage “A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one’s birth” (Ecclesiastes, 7:1), Rabbi Levi explained with a parable. Two ships were once on the great sea. One of them was leaving the shore and the other was approaching it. It was then seen that the people on the ship leaving the shore were happy while some of those on the ship nearing the shore were sad. A wise man remarked: “We see here a strange sight. People who leave the shore should not be happy, for they know not how long they will be at sea and what winds they will encounter, but people who near the shore should be happy in the realization that they have safely reached dry land. It is likewise with the life of man. One should not reckon the years he had lived but rather should he reckon the time which still separates him from death.”¹³⁾בראשית רבה פּרשה מ״ח פּיסקא א׳.