Megillot III - Kohelet & Jonah: Limits to Understanding Class 1 Intro to Kohelet - Wisdom & Vanity

Opening question

How do we gain wisdom?

Plan for this class:

1. Lesson Plan for this course
2. Introduction to Kohelet/Ecclesiastes
   • a. Kohelet and the Five Scrolls
   • b. The Name(s) of the Book
   • c. Kohelet and Solomon
   • d. Wisdom Literature and Kohelet
     • Genres of Wisdom Literature
     • Proverbs, Job, Kohelet
   • e. What did the Rabbis make of Kohelet?
   • f. Social Reality described in Kohelet
   • g. Language of Kohelet
3. Our Text: Kohelet 1:1-11
4. Commentaries
5. Summary - Next Class

1. Lesson Plan for "Kohelet & Jonah"

Note: We will use Kohelet and Ecclesiastes interchangeably

• 1 - Kohelet [=Ecclesiastes] i
  • Introduction: Wisdom
  • 1:1-11 Vanity
• 2 - Kohelet ii
  • 1:12-2:26 Experience of the King
• 3 - Kohelet iii
  • 3:1-15 A Time for Everything
  • 3:16-4:3 The Experience of the Oppressed
• 4 - Kohelet iv
  • 5:9-19 Frustrations of Wealth
  • 7:1-14 A Collection of Proverbs
• 5 - Kohelet v
  • 9:13-18 Wasted Wisdom
  • 10:1-20 Proverbs on Wisdom and Folly
• 6 - Kohelet vi
  • 11:7-12:7 Youth and Old age
  • 12:8-14 Epilogues
  • Review of Kohelet
• 7 - Jonah i
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 Fleeing the Word of God
• 8 - Jonah ii
  • Chapter 2 A Psalm from the Belly of the Fish
• 9 - Jonah iii
  • Chapter 3 Jonah Prophesies to Nineveh
• 10 - Jonah iv
  • Chapter 4 Jonah’s Conversation with God
  • Review of Jonah

2. Introduction to Kohelet/Ecclesiastes:

2a. Kohelet as one of the Five Scrolls

• What are they about?
  • Song of Songs/Shir haShirim: a collection of poems about love
  • Ruth: the story of how Ruth the Moabite came to Judah and married Boaz
  • Lamentations/Eicha: a collection of lamentations over the destruction of the First Temple
  • Ecclesiastes/Kohelet: meditations on the effort to understand the purpose of life
  • Esther: the story of how Esther becomes queen of Persia and how she and her cousin Mordecai overcome a plot to annihilate the Jews
• What is the time period described in the books?
  • Ruth - in the period of the judges (before the Monarchy)
  • Song of Songs - traditionally, the youth of King Solomon (reigned circa 968-928 BCE)
  • Ecclesiastes/Kohelet - the old age of a king (traditionally, Solomon)?
  • Lamentations - 586 BCE (the destruction of the First Temple)
  • Esther - sometime during the reign of Xerxes (486-465 BCE) of Persia
• The genres of the Five Scrolls
  • Poetry: Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes
  • Prose: Ruth, Esther
• When are they read in the Jewish calendar?
  • Song of Songs: In many Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations: during Passover
  • Ruth: In many Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations: during Shavuot
  • Lamentations: Very widely - on the night of Tish'a beAv (The Fast of Av)
  • Ecclesiastes: In many Ashkenazi (not Sephardi) congregations - during Sukkot
  • Esther: Universally during Purim (traditionally both at night and during the day)
• Musical chant for the Five Scrolls
  • "Five Scrolls" trope ('trop') - Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes
  • Esther - a special, bright chant.
  • Lamentations - a special, especially sad chant

2b. The Name(s) of the Book

"Ecclesiastes" (Greek) and קהלת / Kohelet, Koheleth, Qohelet

Peter Machinist, Jewish Study Bible, comment to 1:1

As to the meaning of Koheleth, opinion has ranged around 'assemble,' which is the basic sense of the root of the word ('k-h-l' [ק.ה.ל.]) and which the Greek translators fastened onto in their rendering, 'Ecclesiastes,' 'the one of the assembly.'

NJPS Translation, note 'a' to 1:1

Koheleth - Probably the 'Assembler,' i.e., of hearers or sayings...

Compare קהל / Kahal (Congregation), קהילה / Kehilah (Congregation)

2c. Kohelet and Solomon

2d. Wisdom Literature and Kohelet

John H. Hayes, "Israelite Wisdom Literature," An Introduction to Old Testament Study, 1979, p. 323

Hayes points to several features of 'wisdom and learning in maturing Judaism''

1) Wisdom or knowledge is understood as an entity in itself which pervades the whole of creation. 2) Wisdom exists as a special creation of God. 3) Wisdom encompasses not only scientific knowledge of the world and human existence but also the Mosaic legislation... 4) ...Israel has been granted a unique relationship to wisdom...5) Although wisdom is something to be acquired, it is also the gift of God... 6) Wisdom's enticing invitation promises a life without shame, existence without sin, and knowledge without end.

Hayes considers evidence for how wisdom was taught in Israel: by parents, in the community and city, by teachers and in schools.

Choon-Leong Seow, Ecclesiastes (Anchor Bible Series), 1997, Introduction, p. 66

Themes in Wisdom Literature (such as Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes)

...the main themes that one finds elsewhere in the canon are absent in the wisdom books. In this biblical corpus one finds no reference to the promise to the ancestors, the exodus, the election of a particular people, the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, or the guidance of God in the wilderness. Neither salvation history nor covenant--two themes that modern scholars have identified as critical to the understanding of Old Testament theology--figures prominently. It seems that the [wisdom] tradition is much more concerned with universal human experience, with life that 'everyone' faces, rather than it is with the particularistic theology of a nation. This is perhaps why God is always

'e-lohim in Ecclesiastes, never Y-H-W-H, the distinctive name of Israel's God.

Genres of Wisdom Literature in Israel

Hayes (op. cit., pp. 337-346) identifies:

1. Proverbs or sayings - as in the book of Proverbs
2. Numerical sayings (numbered lists of phenomena with similar characteristics) - as in Proverbs
3. Riddles
4. Fable or allegory - as in Kohelet 12:1-6 (our class 6)
5. Autobiography - as in Kohelet 1:12-2:26 (our class 2)
6. Dialogue - as in Job
7. List or onomasticon - Job 38-39
8. Literary poems - Kohelet 3:1-8 (our class 3)

A Variety of Expressions of Wisdom in Tanach:

Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes/Kohelet

Proverbs

[Proverbs] shows 'a confident and trusting attitude toward man's ability satisfactorily to understand and master life and...the ways and will of God in the world' (Hayes, p. 351)

Job

The central issues are the questions of divine justice, of whether the fortune one encounters in life is the consequence of his doing, and of how the righteous sufferer can understand his status before God. (Hayes, p. 355)

Ecclesiastes

[Ecclesiastes] is even more skeptical about life and religion and what they offer than the book of Job. ... the author of Ecclesiastes challenged the fundamental presuppositions underlying any approach to life which would affirm its ultimate value and offer a rational understanding in either transcendental or humanistic perspectives. (Hayes, p 355)

Qohelet seems to be reflecting on the human condition in a world where God is undeniably in control, although the cosmos and God are both still a mystery. True to the tendency of the wisdom tradition, the sage’s starting point in his reflection is not God, but the cosmos, society, and humanity. (C. L. Seow, Ecclesiastes, Introduction, p. 54)

In spite of his pessimism, the author did not counsel suicide. Instead he recommends that one find as much enjoyment in life as possible by seeking tranquility and living quietly, especially while one still enjoys youth before the pains and rigors of old age. (Hayes, p. 356)

2e. What did the Rabbis of the Talmud make of Kohelet?

2f. Social Reality Described in Kohelet - Historical Setting

Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, revised by Kent Harold Richards, Introduction to Ecclesiastes, Harper Collins Study Bible, p. 890

The social, economic, and political evidence of the book points to a time of change and upheaval, of risk and possibility. As many commentators note, the fifth century BCE was a period of commercialization and the standardization of currency, a time when not everyone benefited equally. Certainly Qoheleth speaks out of such a context.

C.L.Seow, Ecclesiastes, Introduction, p. 38

The author of Ecclesiastes was an unknown sage who took the pen name Qohelet, a name that may have meant “Gatherer.” He probably composed his work in Palestine some time between the second half of the of the fifth and the first half of the fourth centuries B.C.E [i.e., between 450 and 350 BCE].

2g. Language of Kohelet

Robert Alter, Introduction to his translation of Qohelet, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. III, pp. 674-5

...he is a writer who works out philosophic thought through poetic prose. He has a finely developed sense of expressive rhythm; he makes central use of refrains and other devices of repetition, the stylistic repetition serving as a correlative for the cycle of repetition that in his view characterizes the underlying structure of reality. He often seems to think in metaphors...

James L. Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes, 1987, Introduction, p. 49

…the book employs an Aramaizing Hebrew, a language with strong Mishnaic characteristics. The high percentage of Aramaisms places Ecclesiastes alongside other late canonical books (Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Song of Songs). Occasional Persian loanwords also appear, for examples pardēs (park) and medïnāh (province).

3. Our Text: Kohelet 1:1-11

4. Commentaries to Kohelet 1:1-11

1:1 Son of David "The words of Koheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem"

David Hankins and Brennan W. Breed, Ecclesiastes, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 947

"Son of David" could refer to any descendant of David, but traditionally indicates Solomon, who succeeded David on the throne. Solomon is closely associated with wisdom (see 1 Kings 3-4) and other poetical and wisdom books including Proverbs and the Song of Songs. The association with Solomon is relevant for the royal autobiography in 1:12-2:26, but subsequently fades as Qohelet speaks as a sage (see 12:9-10) rather than as a king.

1:2 The theme: "Vanity of vanities"

Peter Machinist, "Ecclesiastes," The Jewish Study Bible, p. 1602

Futility here translates Hebrew 'hevel,' the most frequent technical term in Koheleth (38 occurrences). From its literal meaning, 'air, breath,' the word has acquired the sense of something fleeting, without substance (compare its occurence as the name 'Abel,' in Genesis ch. 4) or even unreliable. ...

1:3 "What real value...beneath the sun"

5. Summary and Next Class

• 2 - Kohelet ii
  • 1:12-2:26 Experience of the King