What does worthless mean?

            This week in class, we stressed on a very important idea. We stressed on the definition of the word Hevel. What I took from it is that Hevel means worthless. As Shlomo shares, "Everything is worthless." Shlomo basically explains that man is just a cycle. As people die out, the earth just keeps spinning around. He also explains, "There is nothing new under the sun." It seems like in Kohelet, it is all about negativity and depression. After learning about this, it brings up a good point. If we are all worthless, what is the point of our existence?

        I left class very sad after trying to think more in depth about or discussions. I started to think about all bad things in the world. I thought about deaths, poverty, depression, robberies, and more. If there's much suffering and we are all worthless and just specks of dust from the earth, then what is the point of us?

        Although this seems extremely depressing, there is a more positive way we can look at it. Instead of thinking overall that EVERYTHING is worthless, we can approach it in somewhat of a different way. We can look at it in the way that all the work does in this world is pointless, but may be important in the world to come. It could be saying that acquisition of materialism and power do not last, but that does not mean every single thing is worthless.

      Even after learning this, the concept of life is still something very hard to grasp. Even in this world, if such traumas and hardships happen, it is extremely hard to realize what is important and why we exist. Although I do not have a clear definition of life's meaning, reading Kohelet shows me that everything in life is temporary. Sukkot, we take a break from our normal lifestyle as we leave our home and basically 'live' in our Sukkahs. Just like in life, we have to realize that it is a temporary thing and nothing lasts forever. What we could and should do is no matter what circumstance we are in, we should try to be the best we can, because life really is short.