Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:8

¹“All matters are wearying; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). “All matters are wearying; man cannot….” Matters of platitude render a person weary. Koreh hayom – assemble there; literally means “read there.” However, koreh can be used to mean assemble (see Deuteronomy 33:19) and hayom is translated in Aramaic as yemama , which is similar to taman , there. Thus, one could say koreh hayom is a type of hint or code for “assemble there.” sela ka’oferet – few pieces; is a coin, and the word for money [ ma’ot ] is similar to the word “few” [ mi’ut ]. Oferet means lead, which in Aramaic is avar , similar to evar , a limb, or piece of an animal. mitpalelot betur misken – cut, soaked, cut; in Aramaic is cut, tur is similar to the Aramaic tar , which is soaked, and misken is an allusion to something cut with a knife [ sakin ]. shor mishpat betur misken – beets in mustard. , literally, ox, is tor in Aramaic, and mishpat , justice, is din. Tor-din sounds like teradin , which means beets. Tur is a mountain, or har , which sounds like ḥar , and misken is another word for destitute [ dal ]. Ḥardal is mustard. Rabbi Yonatan’s hair fell out. He went to Migdal Tzeva’im to be cured. There was a barber there, who said to him: ‘Did you come due to your hair, to cure it?’ He said to him: ‘My hair has fallen from my flesh, and I heard that there is a medicine to cure it, and I moved here to accelerate the cure.’ [The barber] stood and prostrated himself to him and said to him: ‘Here, initially, I spoke before the rabbi at night.’ ). ²Another matter, “all matters are wearying” – professional matters are wearying. Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina son of Rabbi Abbahu would say: There was a particular incident involving a woman who took her son to a baker in Caesarea. She said to him: ‘Teach my son a craft.’ He said to her: ‘Let him stay with me for five years and I will teach him five hundred species of wheat.’ He stayed with him for five years and he taught him five hundred species of wheat. He said to her: ‘Let him stay with me for another five years and I will teach him one thousand species of wheat.’ How many species of wheat are there? The Rabbis say: Wheat of Minit, there are numerous [types of] wheat. Rabbi Aḥa said: There are five hundred species of this type of wheat, the numerical value of Minit. – 40, nun – 50, yod – 10, tav – 400. Rabbi Ḥanina and Rabbi Yonatan, both sat, calculated, and arrived at sixty. In addition, Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: There was an incident involving a woman who took her son to a certain chef. She said to him: ‘Teach my son a craft.’ He said to her: ‘Let him stay with me for four years and I will teach him one hundred species of eggs.’ He stayed with him for four years and he taught him one hundred species of eggs. He said to her: ‘Let him stay with me for another four years and I will teach him [an additional] one hundred species of eggs.’ Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] heard and said: We have never seen such goodness. ³Another matter, “all matters are wearying” – matters of heresy exhaust a person. There was an incident involving Rabbi Eliezer, who was apprehended for the purpose of heresy. The governor took him and brought him up to the platform to judge him. He said to him: ‘Rabbi, is it appropriate for a great person like you to engage in these idle matters?’ He said to him: ‘I consider the judge trustworthy.’ [The governor] thought that he said it regarding him, but [in fact, Rabbi Eliezer] said it in reference to Heaven. [The governor] said to him: ‘Since you trusted me, although I [still] say what I have believed: [How] is it possible that these academies would be [so] mistaken [as to believe] in these idle matters, [but nonetheless] the verdict is that you are exonerated.’ After Rabbi Eliezer was exonerated [and allowed to descend] from the platform, he was distressed that he had been apprehended for the purpose of heresy. His students entered to console him, but he did not accept it. Rabbi Akiva entered to him and said to him: ‘Rabbi, did, perhaps, one of the heretics ever say something before you and you found it pleasant?’ He said to him: ‘Yes, by Heaven, you reminded me. Once I was ascending in the upper marketplace of Tzippori, and a person approached me, and his name was Yaakov of the village of Sikhnaya, and he said to me one matter in the name of so-and-so and it brought me pleasure. That matter was: ‘It is written in your Torah: “You shalt not bring the fee of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:19). What are they?’ I said to him: ‘They are prohibited.’ He said to me: ‘They are prohibited for an offering, but is it permitted to destroy these [coins]?’ I said to him: ‘If so, what will he do with them?’ He said to me: ‘Let him make with them bathhouses and bathrooms.’ I said to him: ‘You have spoken well,’ and a halakha was temporarily concealed from me. ‘When he saw that I accepted his words, he said: ‘So said so-and-so: From repugnance it came, and to repugnance it should be expended, as it is stated: “For from the fee of a harlot she gathered them, and to the fee of a harlot they will return” (Micah 1:7). Let them be bathrooms for the multitudes,’ and it gave me pleasure. For that matter I was apprehended for heresy. Moreover, I violated what is written in the Torah: “Distance your way from her, and do not approach the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). “Distance your way from her,” this is heresy. “And do not approach the door of her house,” this is prostitution. Why? It is because: “For she has felled many wounded; abundant are all she has killed” (Proverbs 7:26).’ How far [must one distance oneself]? Rabbi Ḥisda said: Four cubits. For this, Rabbi Elazar ben Dama, son of the sister of Rabbi Yishmael, died. He was bitten by a snake, and Yaakov of the village of Sikhnaya came to cure him [through incantation] in the name of so-and-so, but Rabbi Yishmael did not allow him to do so. He said: ‘You are not permitted to do thus, ben Dama.’ [Ben Dama] said to him: ‘Allow me, and I will cite you proof from the Torah that it is permitted,’ but he did not manage to cite him proof before he died. Rabbi Yishmael rejoiced and said: ‘Happy are you, ben Dama, as your soul emerged in purity and you did not breach the boundary of the Sages, as anyone who breaches the boundary of the Sages, ultimately punishment befalls him, as it is stated: “One who breaches a fence, a snake will bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8).’ But was he not bitten [by a snake]? Rather, that a snake would not bite him in the future. ). What did he have in that regard? “That a man shall do and he will live by them” (Leviticus 18:5) – and not that he will die by them. 85b). ⁴There was an incident involving a certain woman who came to Rabbi Eliezer to convert. ). She said to him: ‘Rabbi, draw me near.’ He said to her: ‘Detail your actions.’ She said: ‘My little son is from my big son.’ He rebuked her. She went to Rabbi Yehoshua, and he accepted her. His students said to him: ‘Rabbi Eliezer rebuffed her and you draw her near?’ He said to them: ‘Once she has decided to convert she will not live at all, as it is written: “None that go to her will return” (Proverbs 2:19), and if they did return, “they do not attain ways of life” (Proverbs 2:19).’ ). Ḥanina the son of Rabbi Yehoshua’s brother went toward Kefar Naḥum, and the heretics cast a spell on him, and they lifted him and placed him on a donkey on Shabbat. He went to [Rabbi] Yehoshua his uncle, and he placed oil on him, and he was cured. He said to him: ‘Since the donkey of that wicked one rose against you, you cannot dwell in the Land of Israel.’ He descended to Babylon and died there in peace. Rabbi Yonatan, one of his students absconded to them [the heretics]. He went and he found him completely debauched. They sent heretics after [Rabbi Yonatan], and so they said to him: But is it not written: “Cast your lot among us, let us all have one purse” (Proverbs 1:14)? He [Rabbi Yonatan] was flying and they were flying after him. They had said to him: ‘Rabbi, come and perform a kindness for this bride.’ He went and found them engaged [in promiscuous behavior] with a certain young woman. He said to them: ‘Is this the way that Jews act?’ They said to him: ‘But is it not written in the Torah: “Cast your lot among us, [let us all have one] purse”?’ He was flying and they were flying after him, until they reached his door and he slammed it in their faces. They said: ‘Rabbi Yonatan, go and relate joyfully to your mother that you did not turn around and did not look at us, as had you turned around and looked at us, more than the extent to which we would have flown after you, you would have flown after us.’ Rabbi Yehuda ben Nekosa, the heretics were harassing him. They would ask him and he would respond, they would ask him and he would respond. He said to them: ‘You are responding to me for naught. Let us agree between us that any person who prevails over his counterpart will wound the brain of his counterpart with a hammer.’ He prevailed over them and wounded their brains until they were filled with wounds upon wounds. When he came, his students said to him: ‘Rabbi, they aided you from Heaven and you prevailed.’ He said: ‘For naught [do you praise me], go and pray for that man and for that bag, which was filled with gems and pearls, but is now filled with coals.’ ⁵Another matter, “all matters are wearying” – even matters of Torah exhaust a person. In the beginning, a person begins to study Torah and, they purify that which [he ruled] impure, and they render impure that which [he ruled] pure, and he does not know through all this exhausting of his strength; ultimately, he will produce a fortiori inferences, verbal analogies, purity and impurity, and the prohibited and the permitted. ⁶“The eye is not satisfied…” Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: All the good, the blessings, and the comforts that the prophets saw in this world, they did not see them effortlessly, but rather, it was because they contemplated, and performed mitzvot and righteousness. If you say that they saw, it is already stated: “No eye has seen, besides You, God, [that which He will do for one who awaits Him]” (Isaiah 64:3). If you say that they did not see, they already saw partially, as it is stated: “For the Lord God will do nothing, unless He reveals His counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). How did they see? Rabbi Berekhya said: As through the crack of the door. Rabbi Levi said: They saw, but they did not see their reward. Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta said: All the good, the blessings, and the comforts that the prophets saw in this world, they saw for penitents, but for those who never tasted the taste of sin, “No eye has seen, [besides You, God]” (Isaiah 64:3).