Looking for a fitting way to say goodbye to our good friend Kohelet, I decided to come up with a strong ending point on this sefer that would give us all closure and not cause any tearful goodbyes. Being unable to come up with such an insight, I decided to use the trusty Google and peruse through other people's enlightening notes on the book, in the hopes that there was something interesting and relevant that could be tied in to our learning. Interestingly enough, as I glanced over the search results, something unusual caught my eye: a Sparknotes source explicity mentioning the name "Kohelet." This definitely piqued my curiosity, and so I decided to check it out. Apparently, Sparknotes has a less-well known section that overviews Biblical books, and I had just stumbled on Ecclesiastes. "Great," I thought, "I wonder how Sparknotes interprets it." I must say, Sparknotes has a unique interpretation.
They do have the basic gist, saying it is out to find the meaning of life, but they don't make many of our helpful connections or understand where it is coming from.They call the main character "the Teacher," which sounded kind of creepy to me. They then go on to explain a basic understanding of the Neheneh's, Amal's, Chacham's , and Yirei Elokim's philosophies, but because they lack the understanding of these "characters," they don' t see how this flows, and what each is trying to prove. Rather, they think this is just crazy ravings that make little sense and keep contradicting each other. The organization of ideas here is different, because the text is grouped into sections such as wisdom/ meaning in life, trends of human activity (life cycles, human emotion, cooperation), foolish actions and how to avoid them, and positive recommendations and reflections on life. This is summed up with an analysis on the book repeating how it is repetitive, contradictory, and nonsensical. "Hakol Hevel" is translated as "vanity of vanities," and they do reference the word hevel, translating it as "breath of the wind" and leading towards the interpretation of life being ephemeral.
Now, here comes the interesting part. Sparknotes states that Kohelet contrasts with the rest of the Old Testament because it questions receiving wisdom and ideals. They don't make the distinction here between Torah and Nach. They think these are just more "bible stories," and should be pondered and explained the same way. This, to me, is a pretty important distinction, and without it everything that can be gleaned from Kohelet is not the same. I think that, if they were aware of this difference, it would help them get more out of and have a deeper understanding of Kohelet. They also end on the note that a message of this book is that it is anti- "rigid or dogmatic wisdom." I didn't see this at all, but I think it might come from all the vague wording and metaphors. All in all, it's pretty interesting and worthwhile to check out! Here is a link : http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldtestament/section12.rhtml
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