Having Some Fun with הנהנה

הנהנה is a guy who knows the value of a good party, so I decided it was only right for a blog dedicated to הנהנה to be fun. But first, a little capsule review: who is this guy? הנהנה is the pleasure seeker. He starts off by talking about how everything is from God: a good person is rewarded and a sinner is punished. Because everything is from God, man should enjoy God's creations (hence: pleasure seeker).  Then הנהנה goes into the over-quoted part where he basically says that there's a time for everything; all of this was predestined. In the middle he is about doing good and being happy, but he's not yet hedonistic because he is doing everything under the notion that everything is coming from God. Sit down, relax have a good time... At the end הנהנה comes to a conclusion that this lifestyles is (surprise) hevel. If man has no responsibilities for his actions, he is no different than animal; they both die and they're no different. That's hevel. And so, הנהנה becomes a hedonist. 

Playlist of  הנהנה 

This song reflects a little bit of what he says in the middle part about how there's a time for everything. 

I'm not really a DMB person, but this song literally has the lyrics "Eat, drink, and be merry/For tomorrow we die", which is essentially the message of the pleasure-seeker by the end of it. He becomes a hedonist. This is the motto of the hedonists. 

I feel like this song accurately captures the experience of literally just not caring about anything that is real anymore. Just being completely out of it. Which is what the pleasure-seeker was all about. Do what makes you happy. Everything is predestined anyways, so whatever. 

You don't know when you're going to die, so you might as well "make the most of this night". Once again, this has the pleasure-seeker written all over it. 

There are other songs I wold suggest adding to his playlist such as: "Young Wild and Free" by Wiz Khalifa, Drake- "The Motto", "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO, and Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop". Unfortunately, it's not hard to find songs these days that encapsulate the viewpoint of this guy. Sidenote: what does this say about our culture? Are we becoming increasingly hedonistic? It would be interesting to blog about hedonism in Roman society and the different philosophies varying around the schools of thought surrounding this idea. 

What would this post really be, though, without some good ol' Calvin and Hobbes comics? I really think that if the right strips were found, the whole book of Kohelet could be written just in Calvin and Hobbes. The following strips are just two of many Calvin and Hobbes' that grapple with some of the ideas we've been discussing: 

In this strip, Calvin asks the question we've been asking ourselves throughout this Sefer: "What if nothing means anything? What if nothing really matters?" 

This one is about predestination, something that the pleasure-seeker is very interested in; it is also what ultimately turns him away from God and turns him towards hedonism because he realizes that if man has no control over his own fate, he is no different than animal.