Welcome back to another episode of NachDaily with the 6th perek

of Koheles.

Shlomo Hamelech opens the perek speaking about the “abhorrent widespread evil” he observed of people who have financial wealth, property, and honor, but don’t truly enjoy what they have.

Verse 3 states that “Even if a man begets one hundred children and lives many long years, if his soul is not content with the good and he is left unburied, I say that a stillborn is better than he!”

The Koheles Rabba 6:6 brings the following metaphor. Two people were sailing on a boat. At the port, one person got off and traveled around the town, while the other remained on the boat. When he returned, his friend asked what he had seen.

“I saw people eating good food,” he replied, “and looking as if they were living in tranquility.”

“Well, did you get to enjoy or eat anything you saw?” “No.”

“If that’s the case,” declared the friend “I’m better off than you!”

What is the point of having wealth or being around it, if you can’t enjoy it? It’s like the person who saw all these wonderful things but didn’t get to experience them.

Shlomo’s bottom line: If you don’t enjoy what you have, if you are not content, then what’s it all worth? We need to keep our eyes on ourselves, and not be jealous of others. There’s no need to “keep up with the Joneses.” Everything we have in life is exactly what we need to get through it.

This is also true on an emotional level. Accept all of your feelings as coming from God. Don’t feel the need to run away, escape, or change your emotional status. People search high and low to try to get rid of feelings they don’t like, but there’s value in all emotions!

We should be aware that they are all from Hashem, who created us to experience all feelings, not just the ones we’d prefer to have.

In verses 7 through 9, Shlomo states that “All man’s toil is for his mouth, yet his soul is never satisfied.” Most of the Meforshim explain that we work all day to make money so that we can buy food to eat while ignoring the needs of the neshama, the soul that is thirsting for Torah, mitzvos, penimyus haTorah and connection to God.

Therefore, Shlomo suggests, it’s better to pursue avenues that are good for the soul. In the very next passuk, however, he emphatically states that this too is hevel, futile, and is a cause of despair.

In passuk 10, which sets the theme until the end of the perek, Koheles says, “Mah shehayah k’var nikra sh’mo, v’noda asher hu adam v’lo yuchal ladin im shetakif mimenu – Whatever has occurred was predetermined and known, as for man, he cannot contend with the One Who is mightier than he.”

Rashi learns that this is referring to man’s mortality. No matter what he attains in life, even honor and status, he will ultimately become weak and frail. You cannot contend with God, because we all meet the same fate.

This isn’t meant to scare us, or make us nervous. There’s something humbling about knowing that our time here is limited. We need to stop, take a breath, slow down a little, and stop running and chasing pursuits that are in Shlomo’s words, “hevel.”

Ain Hakadosh baruch Hu ba levatrona al Habriyos. Hashem doesn’t come to taunt the creation. Hashem wants us to enjoy what we have in life. Take it moment by moment and enjoy the experience. Enjoy the fact that we are alive, filled with God’s energy! How often do we stop and think about the very fact that our hearts are beating? We need to bring the simple things in life to our consciousness.

Stay tuned to the next episode of NachDaily. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.