Sukkot & Simchat Torah
Dvar Torah
by Baruch Sienna
Thomas Cahill in "Gifts of the Jews" suggests that in the revolving drama of the heavens, primitive peoples saw an immortal wheel-like pattern that was predictive of moral life. Life on earth reflected the heavenly bodies—fixed and immutable. When Avram was told: Lech Lecha (Go forth) and the text continues: VaYelech Avram (Abram went...), it is according to Cahill, one of the boldest sentences in literature. Avram put his faith in this Voice, and became a new man with a new name and an individual destiny—not something written in the stars—something no one before him had ever imagined possible. The story continues. Moshe too has hope: hope in the Promise, hope in the future—that there will be something truly new, something full of surprise. New ideas are developing; time is becoming real; a real future is possible. And because of this, the choices I make individually are important: they make a real difference to a real future. And because all outcomes have not been predetermined in advance, the present is full of adventure and the freedom to make choices that will profoundly affect the outcome. So the world is no longer a wheel. This new, radical world view is now so ingrained, we think of it as part of our genetic code. This perspective is what makes history possible (for the first time) and Cahill gives Jews credit for the words: new, adventure, surprise, unique, individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith, hope and justice.
And then we read Kohelet.
1:2 Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet, vanity of vanities; all {is} vanity.
1:3 What profit has a man of all his labour which he takes under the sun?
1:4 {One} generation passes away, and {another} generation comes: but the earth abides for ever.
1:5 The sun also arises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to his place where he arose.
1:6 The wind goes toward the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns again according to his circuits.
1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea {is} not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
1:8 All things {are} full of labour; man cannot utter {it}: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
1:9 The thing that has been, it {is that} which shall be; and that which is done {is} that which shall be done: and {there is} nothing new under the sun.
1:10 Is there {any} thing whereof it may be said, See, this {is} new? it has been already of old time, which was before us.
Kohelet describes the world as the very wheel Cahill says the Jews reject. And I'm not the first one to notice. The rabbis discuss whether Kohelet was to be included in the Canon (i.e. considered sacred writ) and Kohelet and Song of Songs were almost excluded.
Can anything sound more like a wheel than this song, by Pete Seeger and popularized by the Byrds: "To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Their version is not exactly the biblical text:
3:1 To every {thing there is} a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up {that which is} planted;
3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
If we examine the list we see a pair of verbs that are opposite, linked to a similar or related set of opposites, a popular form of biblical poetry. This poem states, there is a time to every purpose. Everything has its time. The Chasid asks the Sassover Rebbe. “What about atheism? Is there any time there can be a purpose to deny God.” The rabbi answered, “Should someone poor come to you asking for help, you cannot say, ‘Trust in God, God will help you,’ but must act as if there were no God, and none to help but you.”
But to return to our initial discussion, the rabbis, of course, were very troubled by Kohelet’s description of life, in Cahill’s words, as the ever turning wheel. Today, scholars unanimously agree that the first and last sentences are later editor’s revisions. It may even be, (as the Rabbi’s admit) those glosses helped ensure the book’s place in the biblical canon. "Said Rav Yehudah, son of Rav Shmuel, son of Shilat in the name of Rav, They wanted to exlcude Kohelet, because it contradicts Torah. And why was it not excluded, because its beginning are words of Torah and its conclusion are words of Torah" (TB Shabbat 30b).
The Rabbis valiantly attempt to give a Jewish spin to Kohelet: ‘all the rivers flow into the sea’ means that Torah will flow into our hearts, yet our hearts are never full. The Rabbis attempt to temper Kohelet’s sweeping condemnation of human pursuits by interpreting ‘There is nothing new under the sun,’ to not include Torah, which over course, transcends even the sun. But even here, the rabbis might agree, that even in the Torah there is nothing new. Gershom Scholem writes that the rabbis believed that:
Truth is given once and for all, and it is laid down with precision... The effort of the seeker after truth consists not in having new ideas but rather in subordinating himself to the continuity of tradition of the divine word and in laying open what he receives from it in the context of this own time. In other words: Not system but commentary is the legitimate form through which truth is approached.
The rabbis apply this idea that nothing can ever change, and nothing can be new to Torah to their advantage.
Even in the Jewish calendar, we see the Biblical holidays (and time) operate on two planes simultaneously: the agricultural (cyclical: every year is spring) and the historical (directional: today is the first day of the rest of my life). So Pesach, for example is both holiday of Spring and Festival of Freedom. But there, the rabbis insist, it is the historical aspect that is crucial, so the spring elements (Karpas) are ignored and downplayed. But on Sukkot, the season of thanksgiving, the time of gratitude for the abundant Fall harvest, we use Kohelet to remind us that life is still a little bit like a circle.
Kohelet provides us with a challenge. For most of the year and much of our life, we are so comfortable with the Jewish concept of freedom, individualism and progress, we forget that much of life is a circle. The truth is, we are not that much different than our ancestors of 100 years ago or even 2000 years ago. We are born, we live, we love, we die. What do we do that makes a difference? What really matters? Certainly, Kohelet would say, to be grateful for our blessings. The question for us is, what in our lives is truly going to be outside of the circle. That's something to think about when you're sitting in your Sukkah!
Hag Sameach.
