Ecclesiastes — Chapter 1

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1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Ecclesiastes — Chapter 1
✦ Talmud

• Shabbat 30b records that the Sages wanted to suppress Ecclesiastes because its words contradicted each other, until they found that its beginning and end were words of Torah — Kohelet's opening "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" was not suppressed because the Talmud understood it as strategic intelligence: the entire apparatus the Sitra Achra uses to entice the soul — wealth, pleasure, power, legacy — is denominated in vapor, and the Kohelet's declaration is a tactical intelligence briefing on the enemy's balance sheet.

• Megillah 7a debates whether Ecclesiastes "defiles the hands" (i.e., is canonical holy scripture) and concludes it does because "its beginning is Torah and its end is Torah" — Proverbs 1's opening is wisdom, but Ecclesiastes 1's opening is horror: "vanity of vanities" is the Tzaddik who has surveyed the Sitra Achra's entire world and submitted his field report — Solomon's greatness made him the one man who could audit the enemy's holdings and declare them illiquid.

• Berakhot 57b teaches that Ecclesiastes is among the five books a person should read if he dreams of a Torah scroll — Ecclesiastes 1:4 "one generation passes away, and another comes, but the earth abides forever" is the Talmudic time-perspective correction for the warrior who becomes demoralized by the short horizon of earthly campaigns: the Sitra Achra is a temporary force deployed within the permanent earth, not the other way around.

• Avot 4:17 ("Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than all the life of the World to Come; and better is one hour of spiritual bliss in the World to Come than all the life of this world") cross-illuminates Ecclesiastes 1's vanity declaration: the warrior who accepts Kohelet's verdict is freed from the Sitra Achra's leverage entirely — if all of this world is vapor, then the Sitra Achra's bargaining chips are worthless.

• Sanhedrin 91b uses Ecclesiastes in the debate on resurrection and afterlife — Ecclesiastes 1:18 "in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow" is the Talmudic cost-of-intelligence doctrine: the Tzaddik who fully understands the scope of the Sitra Achra's empire carries a grief-burden proportional to his wisdom, but this grief-as-wisdom is the specific quality that qualifies him for the deepest levels of the counter-operation.