Our Purpose

Shalom!

In this week's riveting Megillot class, we discussed the first eleven Pesukim of Kohelet. These Pesukim offer the prologue/premise to the Sefer.

In Pesukim 2-3, Shlomo establishes the intitial premise by saying הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים אָמַר קֹהֶלֶת הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים הַכֹּל הָבֶל- everything is worthless and the acquisition of materialism and power doesn't last--it is ephemeral and  מַה יִּתְרוֹן לָאָדָם בְּכָל עֲמָלוֹ שֶׁיַּעֲמֹל תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ- what is the purpose of man with all the work/toil that he does under the sun?

Proceeding further, Pesukim 4-8 explain that the cycles of nature, or the four elements (earth, fire, wind, and water) continuously repeat without making any progress. Shlomo adds man as the fifth element and proclaims that man is part of this cycle, and he too can't make any progress.

The last Pesukim (9-11) add that there is nothing new under the sun, in terms of ideas- there is no possibility of lasting progress. There is no memory of what came before, and no later events will etch a memory.

The philosophy that ensues? Nothing new is under the sun. After, reading these Pesukim, it appears that Shlomo is telling us that everything is worthless; there is no purpose to creativity, innovation, new ideas because everything is futile and ephemeral. So what is Shlomo true message to us?

I believe that Shlomo is either trying to tell us one of two things: 1) there is a purpose to creation of new ideas. However, we need to know what our goal is in generating these concepts. 2) there is no purpose to anything but serving G-d. This causes us to ask the question: if so what is the purpose of creation?

Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we will be able to discover what lesson Shlomo is conveying to man in Kohelet, and be able to discern what our purpose is in life.