Shlomo the Perfectionist: Ain't Nobody Got Time For That!

This week, we learned all about the world views of the pleasure-seeker and the builder. The pleasure-seeker, as Alyssa already outlined, is basically a hippie. He believes that everything in life is already predestined, so man should just go and enjoy his time on Earth. On the other hand, since everything is already predestined, man can take no responsibility for his actions. In other words, man can massacre one hundred people and claim that G-d predestined it to happen, so he is not at fault. The builder, on the other hand, is having trouble coming to terms with the imperfection of the world. According to him, the world is evil, so the pleasure seeker is a fool to think that G-d is taking care of it. As for the things that the builder builds, they will all crumble after his death or pass into the hands of undeserving men. For both of these aspects of Shlomo, "Hakol Hevel." How lovely!

I have been thinking a lot about Shlomo's perfectionist nature. As Alyssa and Sophie already said, Shlomo is immature in his expectation of what life should be and insanely pessimistic. If you put those two things together with perfectionism, the end result of a personality and mindset are honestly not pretty. As Shlomo has already established, the only thing he doesn't have is immortality. His finite life span makes everything else in life Hevel. Instead of trying to make the most of his numbered days, Shlomo resorts to writing Kohelet. I am sure that I will understand Shlomo better by the time we're done learning Kohelet, but right now, I see him as incredibly foolish. He probably spent a considerable amount of time writing a book in which he describes various world views and how life lacks meaning INSTEAD of trying to find meaning through other actions and aspects of life. (I don't know what Shlomo says at the end, but I certainly hope that writing Kohelet helped him find meaning.) He writes about how life is horrible for the pleasure-seeker and builder instead of doing something about his own discontent.

This past summer, I went on NCSY GIVE, a program based on action. Not only did we tour Israel and see wonderful things, but we took the time to help the Jewish people in the land of Israel. In my mind, Shlomo was in the same sort of situation. As king, he had the power to provide for the people. He did provide Am Yisrael with the first Beit Hamikdash and immense geopolitical success. However, as I see it, he neglected the part of life that provides the most meaning: G-d. On GIVE, I went into the program thinking that I would have a nice time helping people. I never imagined that I would come out of the program with a much greater understanding of G-d's desired role for me in life or even the meaning of life. After spending five weeks on GIVE, I can honestly say that I found both of these things, or at least have started down the road of understanding. Shlomo said that מעשים are Hevel. Maybe he was trying to find meaning in the wrong kind of מעשים. If he tried to help others and stepped out of the mindset of his own selfish desires, then he might have found the meaning of life a lot sooner. I said before that nobody has time for lamenting; it is much better to try to fix the problem. Although life is short and man only has a limited number of days on Earth, helping others and finding meaning is definitely something that we should all have time for.