Monday, October 28, 2013

Good Wisdom v. Bad Wisdom

At the end of פרק ז,  the יראי אלוקים talks about an ensnaring woman. During class, we were all thinking 'what on earth is going on here!' After further explanation, we found an analogy in משלי that shed light on what this whole 'ensnaring woman' business was about. In משלי (also written by Shlomo) it discusses wisdom. It compares good and bad wisdom. משלי uses the analogy of the good and bad woman to represent good and bad wisdom. Good wisdom, wisdom that stems from G-d's sense of morals and ethics (the Divine), is represented by the good woman who allows man to succeed; bad wisdom, wisdom that stems from man's own sense of morals and ethics, is represented by the bad woman who ensnares man and causes him to sin.

When applying this back to קהלת, we see that the יראי אלוקים was telling the חכם that his version of חכמה was the bad wisdom -- and is like the foolish woman from משלי that leads us to sin. The יראי אלוקים's version of חכמה, the good wisdom, is like the woman who leads man to success. Since the חכם relies on his own powers and not G-d's, he's using bad wisdom; and since the יראי אלוקים relies on G-d, he's using good wisdom.

I knew I had seen analogies of good and evil before - in movies, books, perhaps even in the Torah, but none of them could come to my mind. What else would I do when I couldn't dig up the thoughts in my head? GOOGLE! I stumbled upon a pretty cool website: http://pennyofheaven.hubpages.com/hub/The-tree-of-knowledge-of-good-and-evil-A-metaphor-view. The site discusses the עץ הדעת from בראשית and compares it to the man.

For those of you that won't click on the link, I'll summarize what they said here: the tree of knowledge is a metaphor for the mind. The mind houses the ego (the serpent), and the mind has the ability to act based on your free will. The fruits that the tree brings forth are thoughts, ideas, and actions. We can bear good fruits or evil fruits -- that decision lies with the bearer of these fruits. Adam and Chava's original state of being was just dwelling in G-d's presence. They chose to listen to Chava's ego (the serpent) and partake in the fruits of the mind. The result was them losing their awareness of G-d. The spiritual death is caused by the mind/passions of the ego that aren't fulfilled -- we should rid ourselves of these kind of passions!



Aside from both of these points having analogies, I thought this even related back to קהלת by saying that when we just chase after our passions we end of losing our awareness of G-d -- and that is הבל! This is similar to the viewpoint of the נהנה -- he just wanted to go after his wants and enjoy life -- he did believe in G-d, but like the יראי אלוקים critiqued - man does have a purpose as well! but it's definitely not just to chase after all of our wants. This also invalidates the עמל's perspective: G-d is involved --- that is man's original purpose: dwelling in G-d's presence.

What do y'all think about this comparison of Breishit (as interpreted by that website) & קהלת?

3 comments:

  1. So y'all are clearly a little bit ahead of us in class. Ensnaring woman??? HAHAHHA what does this mean? Sounds violent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have never thought of it like that. The whole story of Gan Eden could actually just be a whole internal conflict. Where your conscious being the snake and adam and chava being your evil and good sides.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't really understand how the Bereishis story relates to the good wisdom and the bad wisdom. Is the ego the bad wisdom and the free will (thoughts/ideas/actions) the good wisdom?
    I think I saw the two kinds of wisdom as being two separate entities, while still both being wisdom, if that makes any sense. Rather than having 2 aspects of character inherently all crammed into one head together, constantly fighting it out between them, it seemed to me to be more like two boxes. One had the good wisdom and the other the bad, and though there would be temptation to choose the bad, one could make the choice to open the box with the good wisdom and not have to fight with the bad wisdom quite as much.
    I may have misinterpreted the whole thing, but it seemed to me less of one big jumble and constant struggle and more of a choice or series of choices that would seal the deal- more clear cut.

    ReplyDelete