Looking through Kohelet a commonly used word is fool. Every time some one says something, someone else comes in and says, "you are a fool." They don't even try to look at the fact that someone else could be saying something worth listening to. They are all in a mindset that they are the only person who could be right and if someone else has a different life style it must be wrong.
Unfortunately this is also a problem in our world today. Each of us lives our lives in the way that we see best and the people who aren't doing what we are doing must be crazy. It may be that you are doing something right and someone else is doing something wrong but we have to look at what everyone else is doing and learn from it. Just because you think someone is doing something wrong it doesn't necessarily mean they are and it doesn't mean that you still can't learn from it.
Instead of just calling everyone a fool and not going deeper into what they have to say we and the characters of Kohelet could try to work with them to find a greater solution. If we and they acknowledge what other people have to say we might find that our opinions are not always the only ones and other people might be right.
This is really interesting Eliana. I think your right. It would have been s o much simpler if Shlomo took all of these thoughts and combined them form the beginning, but then we wouldn't know and realize all of the problems on being to focused on perfection and having everything.
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