Human Follies: For Sukkot

1626

About This Entry

The book of Ecclesiastes is traditionally read on Sukkot, but other than the reading of the book itself, it has not left an impact on the liturgy. Carmi’s poem, like all his poems in Kenaf renanim, is intended for use in an early-morning liturgical service of his own design. It is one of the only instances where Ecclesiastes has influenced the liturgy for Sukkot.

Human follies, silver and gold and possessions,

Last only shortly on earth, and like flies, they fly away.

Wealth flowers like abundant grain, or like a tree’s boughs,

It bears recognizable fruit, with the sound of wings and song.¹

When the moment comes, its beautiful glory will be shaken off,

[God] will violently destroy its booth,² like a [fragile] garden; it will be like soil at threshing time.

The king³ that had great fame in every [branch of] wisdom,

Overpowered and swept away all other princes, with great might.

In the end, he compared it [wealth] to total folly, with no value,

Just bad worthlessness, a net, a trap that captures.

Do not covet its beauty, or its sweetness to the palate,

For its trouble is within it, like a fruit that has been beaten.

For a moment it is tasty to the palate, but then it turns bitter,

And like a spider’s venom, it becomes wracked with breakage and pains.

If a person has great wealth, their heart will become high and haughty,

And they will lift up their mouth against their Rock, in haughtiness.

Did not Koraḥ have his glow and glory stunned

By his great wealth⁴—and he became a flaming lump.⁵

The wealthy will not ascend to heaven with their splendid clothes.

But a naked person will ascend if they understand the secret of their life.

Their⁶ honey will not ascend as an offering to the glorious rock,

But bitterness will ascend, coming from a poor, downtrodden person.⁷

Why should one build a building of smooth stones and ivory beds,⁸

An orchard and a spring, pastureland and arid grounds?

If one briefly makes one’s shelter in a cliff or a mountain,

One is digging [a grave] for one’s skin, which will teem with worms.

The world is like a ladder,⁹ not a house or a dining-room.

A person may be embodied in it, but will not dwell in it.

Just as one invests in building one’s house, not one’s ramp,

Thus should be one’s prayer, not riches or gems.¹⁰

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[Apparently: birds flock to it. Note also that the word zemir, here translated “song,” can also mean “pruning,” which might be the intended meaning here.—Trans.]

[See Lamentations 2:6; the word “booth” refers to the festival of Sukkot, when this is to be recited.—Trans.]

[Solomon, to whom the Book of Ecclesiastes is attributed.—Trans.]

[See b. Pesaḥim 119a, where Koraḥ is described as extremely wealthy.—Trans.]

[See b. Sanhedrin 106a.—Trans.]

[That is, of the wealthy people.—Trans.]

[That is, if the poor have bitter experiences in life, and they turn to God out of that bitterness, they will merit to ascend to heaven, unlike the sweet honey of the wealthy.—Trans.]

[This may be another allusion to Sukkot: on this holiday, one lives in a temporary, flimsy dwelling, so the poet speaks out against constructing fancy, stable buildings.—Trans.]

[A ladder or staircase to enter a building.—Trans.]

[Literally topaz of Ethiopia (Job 28:16).—Trans.]