The Internet Should Have Been Invented A Few Thousand Years Ago

         As we said goodbye to the Amal this week in Megillot, we were introduced to the Chacham. We saw that in פרק ז, the Chacham seems to be responding to the Neheneh, the Amal, and the Yirei Elokim. He ultimately rejects all of their philosophies.

         The Chacham responds to the Neheneh's philosophy first, and in the process he introduces part of his own philosophy. He states that going to a funeral gives more insight than going to a party. At a party, you enjoy yourself in the moment, but it ultimately goes away. At a funeral, you contemplate death, which inadvertently causes you to contemplate life. You realize what is important. The Chacham's last words to the Neheneh are: the reality is we will all die, and you shouldn't ignore death. You are wasting your life by partying and doing nothing.

         To the Amal, the Chacham respond in the following way: he writes that wisdom is what enlightens you and death is inevitable. He also says that anger makes a person foolish and that focusing on the past isn't good. He ends off by saying that the reality is that G-d made the world so that people die. You should not get upset and get stuck in this fact!

         Lastly, the Chacham responds to the Yirei Elokim. He tells the Yirei Elokim not to be too righteous or too evil. There is no person who has never sinned- even YOU sin. This is also his ending statement- the reality is everyone sins, so you shouldn't think yourself so righteous.

         From each response of the Chacham, we can deduce that first of all, he is a realist. He tells each of the other characters to accept the realities of their circumstances. He also implies that you can find meaning through knowledge and wisdom.

         At the end of פרק ז, a new speaker seems to arise- the POV changes to 1st person. Apparently, the Yirei Elokim fires back at the Chacham, criticizing his methodology. We understand this because of a connection between the words of the Yirei Elokim and the words of Shlomo in Mishlei. In Mishlei, Shlomo writes about two women (a mashal for the two types of wisdom): the first is the good woman, implying good wisdom- the wisdom derived from the Torah. The second is the bad woman, implying bad wisdom- the wisdom derived from man. The Yirei Elokim tells the Chacham that he is examining the world using his own intellect, value system, and moral sense, instead of relying on G-d's wisdom.

         Going back to how the Chacham responded in the beginning of the Perek, I decided to focus on that. After using Google (because who doesn't use Google for everything), I found another article with steps from wikihow.com! I swear, this website is awesome for Kohelet blogs. This week's article is titled "How to Accept Yourself, Your Life, and Your Reality". Guys, how perfect is this!?!? Numbers 8 and 9 in particular jumped out at me. These steps, labeled as "don't try to alter several things at once, this is a recipe for failure" and "avoid the common "do-overs", it's your life and your reality" seemed EXTRA appropriate for this week's blog. These steps are exactly how I imagine the Chacham would have responded to the Amal if they were face to face. Number 9 actually states exactly what the Chacham said: "What happened in the past, happened in the past." If only the internet existed then....

Link to full article: http://www.wikihow.com/Accept-Yourself,-Your-Life,-and-Your-Reality