“Intellectual courage is the quality that
allows one to believe in one’s judgment in the face of disappointment
and widespread skepticism. Intellectual courage is even rarer than physical courage.” - John Charles Polanyi, Nobel Prize Laureate
in Chemistry 1986
Jews, the world over, are celebrating the Holy Day of Sukkot. This festivity is
a milestone in our Jewish year for more than one reason.
First and foremost, Sukkot is one of
the several links in the chain of events which commemorate the Exodus from
Egypt, from slavery into freedom, a momentous event, in our Jewish history. “Live
in sukkot [temporary shelters] for seven days: All native-born Yisralites are
to live in sukkot: so, your descendants will know that I had the Yisraelites
live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your G-d”
(Leviticus, 23: 42-43).
Sukkot also marks the completion of a 52-week-old
yearly cycle of reading the Torah portions and the commencement of a new one.
It concludes with Simchat Torah which is characterized by Jews dancing with
the Torah, our Tree of Life.
Another special custom that takes place on this Holy Day is one when on the Shabbat
that occurs during the intermediary days of Sukkot (Chol Hamo’ed), we read one
of the greatest books ever written, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes).
Kohelet belongs to the group of books
entitled “The Books of Wisdom” in our Tanach. According to tradition, the
book is attributed to King Solomon and was written by him at an old age. Its
name, Kohelet, stems from the same Hebrew root as the word “congregation,”
or “to congregate.” Scholars explain that Solomon was called "Kohelet" because Solomon
“congregated congregations in Yisrael” – gathered the People and taught them
Torah as is expected of a king.
The wisdom of Kohelet has
engaged many philosophers, thinkers, and writers such as Maimonides, Kierkegaard,
Tolstoy, professor Leibovitch, my most favourite Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks ZT”L
and many others over the years, and for a good reason.
It is not my intention to delve into
the complexities of the book and the intensity of the insights that Kohelet
embraces. I doubt I ever could grasp the degree the author’s intellectual
courage nor the tragic meaning of his sentiments. Neither could this space ever
accommodate all the book’s intricacies.
I would like, however, to dwell on a
few points.
Kohelet focuses on one important
issue: the meaning and purpose of life, a question that has preoccupied
humanity for a long time. It is not just another philosophical book with a methodical
doctrine. Its conclusions do not flow in a linear manner. Moreover, in most
cases, it does not bother to justify its claims. It merely states them and in a
rather pessimistic way which is summed up in the second verse of the book, “Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity.”
Kohelet, a man in his twilight days
stresses the pointlessness, the absurdity, and
the temporality of everything. He feels that now, at an old age, not only can
he say whatever is on his mind in an open and intellectually courageous way, it
is his duty in the pursuit of truth. In the words of Milan Kundera, old age awards
“a greater degree of freedom;…… only in old age can one ignore the opinion of
the herd, the opinion of the public, and the opinion of the future.”
Professors Ya’akov Klein and Michael Fox describe Kohelet as a hard book to penetrate. They portray its views as “often strange and even contradictory.” Its flow of reasoning is winds from subject to subject back and forth without a clear structure that could guide the reader in deciphering them.
The intensity with which Kohelet
expresses its view about human tragedy, its uncompromising pursuit of the truth
as its author sees it and his unusual poetic ability to express himself, even
in parts which the average reader is unable to comprehend them are, according
to these two, what makes this book one of the greatest pieces of world
literature.
Why then, do we read Kohelet on
Sukkot?
One angle of looking at this book of wisdom is through the inevitable perception
that everything in life is transitory. On Sukkot, we dwell in temporary,
fragile structures which mirror our existence. “Our lives,” states Rabbi Sacks
in his interpretation of Kohelet, “are a mere microsecond in the history of the
universe. The cosmos,” suggests Sacks, “lasts forever while we, living, breathing
mortals are a mere fleeting breath. Kohelet,” explains Sacks, “is obsessed by this
because it threatens to rob life of any certainty. We will never live to see
the long-term results of our endeavours.”
How, then, are we to find meaning in
life, the core of Kohelet’s concern?
According to Sacks, “Kohelet eventually finds it not in happiness but in joy – because joy lives not in thoughts of tomorrow, but in the grateful acceptance of today. We are here; we are alive; we are among others who share our sense of jubilation.”
That is, indeed, the ensuing message which ends every one of Kohelet's deliberations on the purpose of life. They culminate with an entreaty to rejoice. His conclusion is unequivocal and clear, "However many years anyone may live, let them rejoice in them." (Kohelet 11:8).
May we all enjoy a Healthy and Happy Sukkot, fellow Jews and a jubilant and rewarding life to all, this time of year and always.
Note:
Yours truly has also engaged in studying “Kohelet.” When completing my undergraduate degree at the University of California San Diego, I wrote a paper comparing its perspective with that of Buddhism. My paper was entitled “Ecclesiastes and Buddhism, Two Facets of Human Epistemology.”
