Bible remix: Kohelet says “the hell with it”
September 26th, 2007Tonight begins the holiday of Sukkot, during which Jews read from the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet in Hebrew). If you’re ever feeling a bit down and questioning the meaning of life, if you need something to pick you up and remind you there’s a purpose and a reason, don’t read Ecclesiastes. The writer, hypothesized to be King Samuel, is in a deep depression, maybe after losing someone dear to him. What does it matter whether you’re wise or stupid, whether you’re a king or a poor pauper, we’re all headed to the same death, he tells us. Take pride in your work, in the present moment, enjoy yourself, because none of it will matter when you are gone.
This is the Bible? The famous verses that begin Chapter Three, “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven” has made it into the folk lore of the 50’s. But while Pete Seeger makes it sound reassuring, Ecclesiastes isn’t at all assured by the cyclical nature of life. It means that nothing we do makes a whit of difference, he seems to say. Kings and dynasties will rise and fall, human suffering holds no meaning beyond the horror that it is, and there is nothing more or less than this.
Maybe it is because I am dealing with the death of someone close to me for the first time, but reading Ecclesiastes felt like reading my own journal, or a transcript of one of the conversations I’ve had with my father lately about the meaning of life and what Anne’s life meant or means. Is there really no difference ultimately between one who does good and one who does evil? Does a person’s life cease to have meaning the moment it ceases to be? Or is Ecclesiastes so alone in his grief that he cannot see that it is the interpersonal that has the ability to lend a drop of eternity to life, whether or not you believe in a god?
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The terrible tragedy of life, is that it will end. We will lose the people we love, regardless of where they may go (or not go). Having experienced the loss of someone close to me and having experienced the grief that went with it, I can only say I realised we have a choice. We can shut ourselves away and attempt to protect ourselves from any potential pain, or we can be open and love as much as we can, knowing that we will eventually experience pain.
Life is tragically short and we cant truly know what will come after death, so all we really have for certain is this life. So yes I agree, take pride in your work, in the present moment, enjoy yourself, but not because it will mean nothing when you are gone, but because this present moment is all that is certain, it is all that we have.