פּירוש אויף קהלת 2:24

“It is not good” [2:24]. It is not good for the person to eat and drink. He should accustom his body to do justice and charity with his eating and drinking.²⁸Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 2:24.

Is it not beneficial for man. This is a question, “that he eat and drink and shows himself content?” i.e., “he guides his heart to perform justice and righteousness with the food and drink, and so it was stated to Yehoyakim, “Did not your father eat and drink and practice justice and righteousness and then it was well with him?”²⁷Yirmiyahu 22:15.

“There is nothing better for a man than for him to eat and drink, and indulge his soul through his toil. This too, I saw, that it is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
“There is nothing better for a man than for him to eat and drink.” Rabbi Tanḥuma said [that] Rabbi Naḥman son of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman and Rabbi Menaḥama [said], and some say: Rabbi Yirmeya and Rabbi Meyasha [said] in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzḥak: Every instance in which eating and drinking is stated in this scroll, the verse is referring to Torah and good deeds. Rabbi Yona said: The paradigm for all of them is as it is stated: “[There is nothing better…than to eat, drink, and rejoice]. That will accompany him in his toil [baamalo]” (Ecclesiastes 8:15) – in his world [beolamo], in this world. “During the days of his life” (Ecclesiastes 8:15) – to the grave. Is there food and drink in the grave that it accompanies a person to his grave? Rather, these are Torah and good deeds.