מדרש אויף קהלת 5:15

“What profit is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3).
“What profit is there for man?” Rabbi Binyamin said: The Sages sought to suppress the book of Kohelet because they found in it matters that tend toward heresy. They said: All of Solomon’s wisdom that he seeks to impart is: “What profit is there for man in all his toil,” but one might [think that he meant] even in the toil of Torah. They then said: He did not say “in all toil,” but rather in his toil; in his toil he does not [profit from his] toil, but he does [profit from his] toil in the toil of Torah.
Rabbi Shmuel ben Rabbi Yitzḥak said: The Sages sought to suppress the book of Kohelet because they found in it matters that tend toward heresy. They said: All of Solomon’s wisdom is this statement: “Rejoice, young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes” (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Moses said: “Do not stray after your heart and after your eyes” (Numbers 15:39), and Solomon said: “And walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes.” Restraint has been abolished; there is no [divine] justice and no [Divine] Judge. When he said: “But know that for all these, God will bring you to judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9), they said: Solomon spoke well.
Rabbi Huna and Rabbi Aḥa [said] in the name of Rabbi Ḥilfai: His toil is under the sun, but there is a treasure for him above the sun. Rabbi Yudan said: Under the sun he does not have [profit], but above the sun he does have [profit].¹⁰For physical toil there is no profit, but for spiritual toil there is profit. Rabbi Levi and the Rabbis, Rabbi Levi said: What benefit do people who amass mitzvot and good deeds have? It is sufficient for them that I shine light upon them.¹¹In the phrase “under [taḥat] the sun,” Rabbi Levi and the Rabbis interpret taḥat in the sense of “in exchange for.” The Rabbis say: What benefit do the righteous who amass mitzvot and good deeds have? It is sufficient for them that I am destined to renew their faces [and cause them to shine] like the sun, as it is written: “But those who love Him are like the sun emerging in its might” (Judges 5:31).
Rabbi Yannai said: The way of the world is that when a person takes a litra¹²480 grams. of meat, how much trouble must he undergo and how much effort must he expend until he has cooked it! But I blow the winds for you, elevate the clouds, cause the rains and the dew to fall, grow plants and ripen them, set a table before each and every one, give each and every person all his needs, and each and every body what it lacks, and all you bring Me is the omer. Rabbi Pinḥas said: The way of the world is that when a person launders his garment during the rainy season, how much trouble must he undergo and how much effort must he expend until he dries it! But I blow the winds for you, elevate the clouds, cause the rains and the dew to fall, grow plants, wash them, ripen them and dry them, and set a table before each and every one, give each and every person all his needs and each and every body what it lacks, and all you bring Me is the omer. Rabbi Berekhya said: I am your chef, and you do not allow Me to taste the dish that I cooked to know what it needs. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: I am your guard and you do not give me from what I guarded.
Rabbi Elazar said: It is written: “They do not say in their heart: Let us now fear the Lord [our God, who gives the early rain and the late rain in due season]” (Jeremiah 5:24). Oh, wicked ones, do you no longer need Me?¹³Once the rain has come. The verse states: “Who preserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest” (Jeremiah 5:24) – He protects us from heatwaves, He protects us from harmful dews. That is what David says: “A bounteous [nedava] rain You will bring, God” (Psalms 68:10). If it requires rain, it is “a gift [nedava],” if it requires dew, “You will bring, God.”¹⁴Dew is ubiquitous and is therefore not called a gift.
Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: It is written: “It shall be seven complete weeks” (Leviticus 23:15) -– when? It is when Yeshua and Shekhanya are not among them.¹⁵When the first day of Nisan falls on Shabbat, the first day of Passover is on Shabbat and Shavuot is on Sunday. Then, the period of the omer is seven complete weeks, and then, the priestly watches of Yeshua and Shekhanya, the ninth and tenth of the twenty-four watches, would not serve during the omer. If the first of Nisan and the first day of Passover are in the middle of the week, Shavuot is in the middle of the week. In that case, because some of the earlier watches would serve only half a week, as on the festivals all the priests would participate in the Temple service, the watches of Yeshua and Shekhanya would serve during the omer period.
Rabbi Abba said: Come and see how much trouble is experienced and how much effort must be expended until they bring the omer, as we learn: How would they perform it? Emissaries of the court would emerge on the eve of the festival [of Passover] and fashion sheaves while [the grain was still] attached to the ground, so that it would be convenient to harvest. All the adjacent towns would assemble there, so that it would be harvested with great fanfare (Menaḥot 65a). Rabbi Levi said: The Holy One blessed be He said to you: ‘Man, you have plowed, sowed, reaped, gathered, and made several piles; if I do not produce for you a little wind, could you winnow? Yet even the fee for that wind you do not give Me.’ That is, “what is the advantage for He who toils for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:15).
Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] made a wedding feast for his son. Rabbi invited all the Rabbis but forgot to invite bar Kappara. [Bar Kappara] went and wrote on the gate of [Rabbi’s] house: After all your rejoicing there is death; and what is the profit in your rejoicing? [Rabbi] said: ‘Who did this to us?’ They said: ‘It was bar Kappara whom, alone, you forgot to invite, and he is disgraced.’ He went and made another feast and he invited all the rabbis and he invited bar Kappara. For each and every dish that [the waiter] would place before them, [bar Kappara] would recite three hundred parables about the fox. [The parables] were very pleasant for them, and the dishes grew cold and they did not taste them. Rabbi would say to his servants: ‘Why are the dishes going in and going out and they are not tasting anything?’ They said to him: ‘Because one of the elders who is sitting there, when the dish is taken in, he says three hundred parables regarding the fox. That is why the dishes are growing cold and they are not eating anything.’ He came to [bar Kappara] and said: ‘Why are you doing this? Let the diners eat.’ [Bar Kappara] said to him: ‘It is so you do not think that I came here because of your feast, but rather, it is because you did not invite me here with my colleagues.’ Is this not what Solomon said: “What profit is there for man [in all his toil that he toils under the sun]” (Ecclesiastes 1:3), since “one generation passes and one generation comes” (Ecclesiastes 1:4).¹⁶As bar Kappara wrote on the gate: What is the profit in all your rejoicing? After they placated each other, they were reconciled. Abba bar Kappara said to Rabbi: ‘If, in this world, which is not yours, the Holy One blessed be He granted you serenity, in the World to Come, which is entirely yours, all the more so.’
Rabbi Bena’a said, the Holy One blessed be He said to Israel: ‘My children, know what is the difference between Me and you.’ What is written?¹⁷With regard to the manna that God provided for the children of Israel. “An omer for a person; according to the number of your people…” (Exodus 16:16). But all of you give one omer, and not an omer of wheat, but rather of barley. Nevertheless, be vigilant to bring it at its appointed time; therefore, Moses cautions the children of Israel and says to them: “You shall bring the omer…” (Leviticus 23:10).

Rabbi Pinḥas said: The way of the world is that when a person launders his garment during the rainy season, how much exertion must he expend until he dries it! But people sleep in their beds and the Holy One blessed be He releases a little wind and dries the land.
Rabbi Avin said: Come and see how much Israel exerted themselves for the mitzva of the omer, as we learned there: They harvested [the barley] and placed it in the baskets, and they brought it to the Temple courtyard. And they would singe it in the fire in order to fulfill the mitzva of parched grain. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir. The Rabbis say: They would beat it with reeds and with cabbage stalks so that it would not be crushed.²This beating was done in order to separate the grain kernels from the stalks, but it was not done in the normal manner of threshing, so as not to crush the kernels. They placed it into a hollow vessel, and this vessel was perforated so that the fire would take hold of it in its entirety. They would spread it in the Temple courtyard, and the wind would blow upon it. They would bring it a mill for grits. Why all this? In order to produce from it one-tenth of an ephah [of barley flour] that was sifted through thirteen sifters.³Mishna Menaḥot 10:4. Rabbi Levi said: You plowed, sowed, hoed, trimmed, reaped, sheaved, threshed, and placed the grain in piles, but if the Holy One blessed be He would not release a little wind to winnow, from where would you derive sustenance? That is, you give Me only the wage for the wind. That is, “What is the advantage for he who toils for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:15).⁴The verse is interpreted to mean: What is the advantage, or reward, for one who goes through all this toil in order to bring the omer offering? The wind that God brings is sufficient reward.
Rabbi Shimon ben Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] married a woman. Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] invited all the rabbis, but he did not invite bar Kappara. [Bar Kappara] wrote on the gate of [Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s] house: ‘After your rejoicing you die. What profit is there for your rejoicing?’ Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] went out and looked at it. He said: ‘Who is it that we did not invite who wrote these words?’ They said to him: ‘Bar Kappara.’ He said: ‘Tomorrow, I will make a feast for him.’ He made a feast and invited him. When the guests entered they sat down to eat. When the food would be brought in, [bar Kappara] would say three hundred parables about the fox, and [the food] would grow cold and the guests would not eat anything. Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] said to his attendants: ‘Why is the food going out but [the guests] are not eating?’ They said to him: ‘There is a certain elder there, and when food is brought in, he says three hundred parables about the fox and it grows cold.’ Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] went up to him and said to him: ‘Why are you not allowing the guests to eat?’ He said: ‘So you would not say that I came to eat. Rather, it is because you did not invite me with my colleagues.’⁵The reason I was insulted is not because I missed the first feast but because I was excluded from my colleagues. In Kohelet Rabba (1:3) bar Kappara concludes his statement with the verse: “What profit is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3), which was the basis of his writing ‘what profit is there for your rejoicing?’. Following this incident, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and bar Kappara reconciled.

“It was in the days of Amrafel” – Rabbi Shmuel bar Shilat began: “This too is a grave evil; just as one came, so will he go” (Ecclesiastes 5:15). Rabbi Shmuel bar Shilat said: Just as one comes with seizing, so he goes with seizing.⁶If someone seizes property unjustly, it will ultimately be seized from him. Rabbi Avon said: Just as he started off with four kingdoms,⁷Abraham’s travails began with these four kingdoms. so will he conclude with four kingdoms.⁸The travails of Abraham’s descendants throughout history will end with four kingdoms. [He started off with four kingdoms] – “with Kedorlaomer king of Eilam, Tidal king of Goyim, and Amrafel king of Shinar, and Aryokh king of Elasar” (Genesis 14:9). So will he conclude with four kingdoms: The kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Media, the kingdom of Greece, and the kingdom of Edom.⁹These are the four kingdoms that would subjugate Israel up to Messianic times, as foretold in Daniel chapter 2.
Rabbi Pinḥas in the name of Rabbi Aivu began: “They do not know the thoughts of the Lord, and they do not understand His counsel, that He has gathered them together like sheaves brought to the threshing floor” (Micah 4:12).¹⁰The enemies of Israel who band together to attack Israel do not realize that God has brought them together only to destroy them. Why? “All these joined forces at the valley of Sidim” (Genesis 14:3) – so that they should come and fall into the hand of Abraham. That is what is written: “It was in the days of Amrafel…”