Why Do We Read Koheles on Sukkot

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King Solomon's exhilarating respond to: "What on world are we doing hither?"

Each of the Jewish holidays is characterized by a special biblical book (megillah). On Passover, we read Song Of Songs. On Shavuot, we read Ruth. On Sukkot, we read Ecclesiastes, known in Hebrew equally "Kohelet," the proper noun by which Solomon calls himself in the book.

Ecclesiastes begins, "Vanity of vanity, says Kohelet, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." It and then catalogs the many life philosophies and lifestyles its author, the King of Jerusalem, experimented with and ultimately concluded were vain and empty. For this reason, people often view Kohelet as pessimistic and downbeat.

Nil is farther from the truth. And that is illustrated by the fact that the sages instructed u.s.a. to read it on Sukkot, the festival of our greatest simcha, joy. Far from beingness a depressing volume, Kohelet is in that location to add to the simcha. It's infused with a spirit of joy and optimism, and gives Sukkot a special season.

In club to penetrate and breakthrough to the beautiful, exhilarating bulletin beneath the surface of Kohelet's oftentimes circuitous imagery and linguistic communication, nosotros must analyze iii key words -- the Hebrew equivalents of "human," "vanity" and "sun" - which are repeated throughout the unabridged work. Agreement these words in depth will provide united states with the skeleton key to reveal the truthful message of this oftentimes misunderstood book.ⁱ

Adam

The start word is adam, "man," i.e. man being. In the Torah we are told that Adam was given his proper name because he was made from the adama, the "earth." However, that doesn't seem to explain the human being very well, considering animals and myriads of other things were created from the adama. For instance, the verse says: "Allow the world give forth living things." If God wanted to give human beings a name that points to their ness, ane could argue that adam isn't a very good proper name.

Adam is aught as he is; he is everything in what he can become.

Even so, the Maharal explains that adama, "earth," has two very seemingly unlike characteristics that in reality harmonize with one another. One on hand, in that location is piddling value in a simple clod of earth. On the other mitt, all life ultimately comes from the world. We stand on the earth; information technology gives the states our food and minerals. It carries inside it the entire and total potential of human life.

Adama, so, is that material which in and of itself is valueless simply which still carries within itself a vast potential. Adam is called his name because he has the potential of adama. He is nothing as he is; he is everything in what he can become.

"Adam fifty'omal yulad -- The human was created for labor." If a person is going to make anything of himself, he is going to have to work very hard. If he is going to become something he has to take all those wonderful gifts that God gave him and to forge from them a personality, a being, who is Godly and expert.

"Adam," then, conveys the meaning of a being whose potential is limitless, but who needs a nifty deal of piece of work in order to attain it.

Hevel

The most mutual word in Kohelet is hevel, which is frequently translated "vanity."

"Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."

Withal, "vanity" isn't a particularly good translation. Hevel literally means "breath." When yous let out a breath of air in the cold of winter you lot see its mist briefly, and then, just every bit quickly, see it dissipate. That'due south hevel: it's there i minute, seemingly possessing substance, then gone the next.

Hevel is Kohelet'due south way of describing cloth being. Material existence is "Similar a shadow that passes… a mist that dissipates… a dream that vanishes…." A hevel being is a vain, empty experience -- no thing how well off one is in a material sense.

Shemesh

The tertiary term that'south fundamental to understanding Kohelet is the Hebrew word shemesh, "lord's day." Shemesh throughout the Written and Oral Torah is used as a metaphor for physical life. The sunday controls our life. It gives lite and oestrus. It makes things abound. It makes life possible. "Sun" therefore is a metaphor for physical existence.

To summarize the three key terms: Adam, from soil, represents something that is worthless as it is but limitless in what information technology can get. Hevel, like hot air, represents material existence, something that in the final assay is insubstantial. Shemesh, "dominicus," represents divisional, physical life.

Let's now plug these understandings into the key verses.

Hevel Havalim

The 2nd poetry of Ecclesiastes reads: "Hevel havalim, says Kohelet, hevel havalim, everything is hevel."2 The poesy tin exist understood as a rhetorical question: Is that all at that place is -- hevel? The purpose of Kohelet is to ponder this question: What on earth are nosotros doing here? What is our purpose here? Is there zilch more than a hevel beingness? This is Kohelet's question.

The next verse answers the question. "What do good does a human being beingness (adam) have from all his labor he labors under the sun?" At showtime glance, all this teaches is that if a person labors and invests energies he gains naught, he has no benefit. Yet, past adding the qualifying term, "nether the dominicus," the verse opens itself to an implication and supplies the respond to the opening question.

What benefit does a person have, what benefit can he await, if he invests that labor for which he was created in an action "below the dominicus," in an existence controlled and defined past the sun, past physical existence?

None.

Labor beneath the sun has no ultimate benefit; labor above the sun has infinite potential for growth.

However, while labor beneath the sun has no ultimate benefit, labor in a higher place the lord's day does. Labor higher up the sun has infinite potential and opportunity for growth. The human being can become Godly.

A hevel being, an existence entirely "beneath the sun," is an empty, vain existence. If, on the other hand, one can observe the spiritual dimension and inject some sanctity into his otherwise hevel life -- if he tin can grow spiritually and become Godly -- then his existence is anything but hevel.

The Sukkot Connection

Kohelet is the perfect biblical book for Sukkot.

During the year nosotros sit down in a firm with a roof over our heads. Symbolically, the roof separates us from heaven. On Sukkot, we sit in a temporary structure that has no true ceiling to carve up us from the Divine. In the sukkah we eat, drink and slumber, and basically live an ordinary concrete life. Even so, in the sukkah the Shechinah, the Divine presence, is shining through the schach (the sparse, thatch-like roof), enveloping our unabridged beingness in holiness -- adding pregnant and a dynamic to ordinary life. Our entire physical beingness becomes a mitzvah, a holy human action.

God has given the states a wonderful earth to live in. It's full of beauty and song. Yet at that place's a grab. We are challenged. We have to let the Divine to smoothen into our lives. If so, it is a life of substance, not hevel. It's a life of genuine optimism and holiness.

If, on the other hand, we live separated from the spiritual dimension -- under a closed roof with a barrier above, living entirely "under the sun" -- even if that roof is the ceiling of the about ornate mansion -- our life will be a life of futility, vanity, hevel.

Nosotros are creatures rooted in the earth but capable of forging ourselves into something reaching into the heavens. To the extent one nurtures the inner spark and makes it the main focus of his labor hither is the extent one'due south life volition have substance, meaning, hope and happiness.

A little clod of globe can create and embody Godliness. That is an exhilarating challenge. And that is the message of Kohelet.

1. This is the approach of Rabbi Moshe Eisenmann, heard from a recorded lecture.

2. The sages indicate out that there are 7 instances of hevel in this verse, because the word havalim, the plural form of hevel, implies two. Hence we have three instances of hevel in the singular, plus two instances of the give-and-take in the plural, which altogether add up to seven. In other words, in that location are instances of hevel in the second verse. The sages teach this refers to the 7 days of the week, implying that every mean solar day of the calendar week -- even Shabbat! -- can be part of a hevel existence, of a express, not-growing existence.

This article is defended to the loving memory of my father, R' Chaim Benyamin ben Yaakov Reuven, o"h.

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Source: https://aish.com/48961266/

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