The נהנה Inside Of Us

This week in class we started to see the last of the נהנה. He begins the פרק by wondering, how can there be a world of תשובה and a world of דין? I mean, my opinion is that both create balance and they work hand in hand in this world. After this, like all the characters do, they swing back around to what's הבל. The נהנה talks about how there is no G-d and all that there is, is anarchy and chaos. That makes the world הבל.

Next, the נהנה goes on to list 3 other things that are הבל in his eyes. One, that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. That is actually pretty הבל if you ask me. Two, the only thing that you can do in this world is eat and drink which causes the chaos. And finally, three, no matter how much חכמה a man has, he cannot understand the world. Those last two are obviously responses to the חכם and the עמל.

The last part of the פרק talks about his realizations. The dead know nothing. They don't remember anything. Once you are dead, you are dead forever and there is no after world. This is a response to the יראי אלוקים at the same time because he believed in this world and the next. Finally, the chacham comes to his final realization. He comes full circle back around to his original idea, the meaning of life is to eat, drink and be merry. Everything else in this world is chaos, so why focus on what you can do to change it because there is no changing it. I must say, good job נהנה, you've gotten no where!

The last thing that we talked about in class about the נהנה was that he would have been a normal person in the 21st century. Everybody these days like to eat, drink and be merry because they have been knocked down and don't want to try and get back up, or they were just real hippies. If we think about it, we all have נהנה's inside of us. We all like to chill, and party everyday of our lives but we can't because we have responsibilities. My נהנה is to lay in my bed and watch Netflix all day long because I want to escape the stress of junior year, but I can't because I have responsibility to pass school and do my best live up to my potential. We all have a נהנה, what's yours?