Commentary: On Ecclesiastes (Hebrew)

Remember then your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say (Ecclesiastes 12:1), “It is better for me to die than to live (Jonah 4:3),” and when your retainers say, “Would I had died instead of you! (2 Samuel 19:1).”

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened (Ecclesiastes 12:2) and you cannot see because of great age (Zechariah 8:4), you will be unable to prepare provisions for the journey (Genesis 42:25), and in an instant, suddenly (Numbers 6:9) the clouds will return after the rain (Ecclesiastes 12:2). Just so, the body will return to the earth: His breath goes forth; he returns to the earth (Psalms 146:4).

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble (Ecclesiastes 12:3). These are the heart and the kidneys, the lungs and the liver, the spleen, the gallbladder, and the stomach. And the strong men shall bow themselves. All the rest of the limbs. And the grinders cease. The teeth. Those that look out shall be darkened in the windows. The eyes, in their sockets.

And the doors shall be shut in the street (Ecclesiastes 12:4). These are the rings in the gullet. In old age, when the sound of the grinding—the teeth—is low, and one shall start up at the sound of a bird, because the day of death is near, and one startles even at the sound of a bird fluttering off. And all the daughters of music shall be brought low. The gullet, the tongue, the mouth, the teeth, and the lips. Only when all these are whole is polished speech possible.

And one is afraid of heights (Ecclesiastes 12:5). When a person is getting along in years, he may be walking along the road and see a height in front of him and be too afraid either to go up or to go back down. The almond tree blossoms. The hair that turns white. The grasshopper drags itself along. One can no longer walk upright at one’s full height as one used to do in the days of one’s youth. And desire fails. For sex. Because all must go to their home in the other world and not return to this world. And those who mourn them will go about the streets. So it is good for mortals to think, this is all, and avoid the snares of death (Proverbs 14:27).

Before the silver cord is snapped (Ecclesiastes 12:6) and grows distant—the spinal cord. And the golden bowl is shattered. The brain, inside the head, and its membrane. But some say the golden bowl is the head itself, following I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl at the head of it (Zechariah 4:2); the lamps would then be the nose and the eyes. And the pitcher is broken at the fountain. The pitcher is the tongue, and the fountain is the heart, for the tongue pours forth whatever the heart thinks: The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters; a flowing brook, a fountain of wisdom (Proverbs 18:4). And the wheel falls shattered into the cistern. Rather, it “runs” to the cistern—the body runs to its grave. The body is called a wheel here because it goes around and around in this world like a millstone. The grave is called a cistern in You have put me in the depths of the cistern (Psalms 88:7); those who go down to the stones of the cistern, like a corpse trampled underfoot (Isaiah 14:19).

And the dust returns to the earth as it was (Ecclesiastes 12:7). For you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19). And the breath returns to God who gave it. As it, too, was at first, before it entered the body.

Vanity (Ecclesiastes 12:8). Since the dust returns to the earth, he says, “Vanity of vanities” and “there is nothing better for people” (Ecclesiastes 8:15) than to do good deeds.

Besides being wise (Ecclesiastes 12:9). Rather, he says that Kohelet had more wisdom (Ecclesiastes 1:16) than any other sage; besides that, he also taught the people of Israel knowledge. For he had students in many other kinds of knowledge besides this book. They paid heed to him and learned much other wisdom that we do not have in written form. He arranged the Song of Songs and the book of Proverbs, in which are many other matters that he explained orally, precious as sapphires.

Kohelet sought (Ecclesiastes 12:10) from the Omnipresent, that He would give him wise and pleasing words. As Solomon said, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge” (2 Chronicles 1:10)—meaning knowledge of the Torah. And he wrote words of truth plainly. So that his wisdom might endure in the world.

The words of the wise are like goads (Ecclesiastes 12:11). Just as goads keep the cattle straight when they are plowing, so the words of the wise keep people on the straight path, preventing them from following crooked ways. And like nails well fastened. The words of the wise and of the prophets hold those who pursue them and occupy themselves with them fast and protect them.

And furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12). This means books of outside wisdom, which are burdensome and a weariness of the flesh. Study of this kind is endless but unproductive.

The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). The Holy One requires nothing of humanity but the fear of heaven: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 10:12). For that is all there is to humanity. “That”—the fact that the dust returns to the earth as it was (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

For God will bring every deed into judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14). All the deeds of humanity, whether good or bad, covert or overt, known or unknown. For nothing is hidden from the king. Know that humanity cannot count on this world; its ways are fickle. Where are the kings and their kingdoms now, the princes and their counsel, the judges and their sessions, the mighty men and their battles? Has not death overtaken them all? They have gone far away and will not return. But the Holy One exists for all eternity: They will perish, but You will endure; all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like clothing, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and Your years will have no end (Psalms 102:27–28). Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and Amen (Psalms 89:53).