In the passage before us, King Solomon continues his profound inquiry into man's ultimate purpose and proceeds to examine the realm of pleasures: is there any real benefit in any worldly pleasure toward man's ultimate purpose? Afterward, he turns to examine the path of wisdom itself - is wisdom the key to succeeding where others have failed? Let us proceed according to the order of the verses.
רָאִיתִי אֶת כׇּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים שֶׁנַּעֲשׂוּ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ וְהִנֵּה הַכֹּל הֶבֶל וּרְעוּת רוּחַ׃ - I saw all the deeds that were done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and chasing after wind.
The author of Imrei Shefer explains: all worldly matters fall into two categories. There are internal pleasures and external pleasures. Internal pleasures are those things man necessitates - eating, drinking, dwelling - most of which enter inside man, such as food and drink. External pleasures are things that do not enter the body itself, and are primarily luxuries: fine vessels, handsome carriages, magnificent houses, a splendid garden. These are delights seen by the eyes and heard by the ears, and do not enter within.
Regarding both of these categories, Solomon comes and declares: I saw all the deeds done under the sun, and behold, all of it - everything is included in the category of vanity and chasing after wind. In their very essence they are futile; there is no benefit in them for man's purpose, and yet you see that man immerses himself in them and there is no end to all his toil. He is absorbed in these matters, never resting from them for a moment.
מְעֻוָּת לֹא יוּכַל לִתְקֹן וְחֶסְרוֹן לֹא יוּכַל לְהִמָּנוֹת׃ - A crooked thing cannot be made straight, and a lack cannot be numbered.
The first clause refers to internal pleasures, eating and drinking. A person who constantly eats delicacies, seeking only what is tasty and pleasant without discerning whether it benefits or harms the body, distorts his bodily systems and brings illnesses upon himself: stomach ailments, diabetes from limitless sugar, high cholesterol and heart disease from limitless fats. These things bring him to the gates of death. Thus, pursuing physical desires twists a person in a way that cannot be made straight, and even a physician cannot extricate him from it.
Worse than this are external pleasures, of which it is said, "and a lack cannot be numbered." A person spends a fortune on a lavish house, a magnificent courtyard, a vegetable garden, fine clothing, and suddenly he discovers a flaw. The house he built - he suddenly realizes the neighboring building casts a shadow over it, leaving his house somewhat dim most of the time. Beforehand he did not notice, but once built, he saw it. We all recognize this: in worldly matters, every little thing ruins everything. For someone immersed in materiality, every minor detail sours the entire experience. He buys a suit, spots a tiny defect, and even if you tell him it is hardly visible, his pleasure is completely gone. There was a wonderful wedding, but a minor flaw in the salad prompted two people to comment, and it ruined the entire event for him. Such is reality.
Where do we see this? From Haman: "Yet all this is of no worth to me" - everyone bows down, only Mordechai does not, and this single small thing deflates his entire balloon. And before that, with Adam HaRishon - from where the Sages alluded to "Where is Haman found in the Torah?" - for he was permitted to eat from all the fruit of the garden's trees, yet the one thing withheld from him troubled him: the absence of the Tree of Knowledge drained all the pleasure from everything else.
And this is "and a lack cannot be numbered": even if it is the smallest defect in shape or size, a flaw so negligible that it cannot even be counted, which no one measures or notices, he no longer has any joy. He buys a new car, and suddenly there is a scratch. On the contrary, let this first scratch give you peace of mind so you do not spend all your time constantly checking the car. Yet he finds no rest; he searches for matching touch-up paint and wastes days over a scratch. Observe how powerfully worldly matters pull at a person and how deeply immersed he becomes, to the point that the slightest disruption ruins it for him. Is there any greater vanity and chasing after wind than this, that a person is so engulfed in materiality that every minor thing drains all flavor from his pleasure?
The Midrash HaGadol expounds: "'That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is lacking cannot be numbered' - in this world, one who is crooked can be rectified, but in the World to Come, one who is crooked cannot be rectified, and that which is lacking cannot be numbered." A parable of two people who stole, oppressed, and committed all manner of sins together, two identical companions. One of them repented before his death, while the other did not. The one who repented is led to Gan Eden, and the one who did not is led to Gehinnom. When he sees his companion, he cries out and weeps: "My friend and I stole, my friend and I robbed; why is he being led to the righteous in Gan Eden, while that man" - not wishing to speak ill of himself - "is led to the wicked in Gehinnom? Is there, Heaven forbid, favoritism here? Both of us were wicked; why am I the one who suffers?"
They said to him: "Fool, blind and senseless! Your friend swore to turn away from that path and repented as a tzaddik, and that caused him to come here and receive life and honor." He said to them: "I beg of you, allow me to go and repent!" They replied: "Fool, blind and senseless, what you did is done. The world from which you came is like Erev Shabbat, and the World to Come is like Shabbat; and one who does not prepare on Erev Shabbat - what will he eat on Shabbat?"
A story is told of a man sitting on an airplane, his legs cramped. He tried to recline his seat, but someone was disturbing him from behind, he could not sleep, and a child was crying next to him. He called the flight attendant and complained. She said to him: "Sir, this is the class of ticket you purchased. Had you bought a ticket in first class, it would be a different story." He asked: "How much does first class cost?" She answered: "Another hundred dollars." He said: "Take a hundred dollars and let me move up." She replied: "No, sir; tickets are bought down below." This is a profound concept: tickets are bought down below. What you acquired here is what you will have up there. One who toils on Erev Shabbat will eat on Shabbat.
The Midrash continues: He said to them, "Allow me to go and gaze upon the honor of my companion in Gan Eden." They answered: "Where the pure stand, the impure may not stand" - he is not permitted even to glimpse his place. Immediately, he tore his garments, pulled out his hair, gnashed his teeth, and leaped and cast himself into Gehinnom, may the Merciful One preserve us. Therefore, we are taught: know that what is crooked cannot be made straight, and strive to set all your deeds in proper and upright order, lest you later be left baffled, weeping, and regretting your past when it is already impossible to rectify, and "that which is lacking cannot be numbered."
The Malbim, in his linguistic commentary on II Samuel 24 and in Ya'ir Or, explains that the Holy Tongue contains several expressions for counting: pakad, safar, nasa (as in "lift the head [nasa et rosh] of the sons of Gershon"), and manah. What is the difference between them?
The verb safar refers to the act of counting itself - a person counts one, two, three: "And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat." Likewise, "I would count them, they are more numerous than sand"; "You count my steps"; "Can you count the months they fulfill?"; "according to the measure of his wickedness by number" - all speak of sequential counting. The verb pakad refers to the sum total of the count, the grand total, and it also hints at the ultimate purpose of the counting; for a king counts his troops in order to command them, which is also the root of a military muster in wartime, as appears in Isaiah 13:4.
In our context, "and that which is lacking cannot be numbered [le-himanot]" - the term minyan always relates to how much is missing. "He counts [moneh] the number of the stars" - the Holy One, blessed be He, counts their number so that their requisite total will never be diminished. Likewise: "If a man can count [limnot] the dust of the earth, so too shall your seed be counted [yimaneh]": dust cannot be counted, for if you take a fine speck from the dust, the dust remains as it was and no deficiency can occur in it; so too, Israel will never be diminished and will always retain their full count. Similarly: "Who has counted [manah] the dust of Jacob and numbered [u-mispar] the fourth part of Israel?" The verb nasa, on the other hand, applies to a count that carries prestige and prominence - "lift the head [nasa et rosh] of the sons of Gershon," as well as the leader of the men of war, a warrior and general, where "raising the head" signifies elevation.
דִּבַּרְתִּי אֲנִי עִם לִבִּי לֵאמֹר אֲנִי הִנֵּה הִגְדַּלְתִּי וְהוֹסַפְתִּי חׇכְמָה עַל כׇּל אֲשֶׁר הָיָה לְפָנַי עַל יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְלִבִּי רָאָה הַרְבֵּה חׇכְמָה וָדָעַת׃ - I spoke with my heart, saying: "Behold, I have grown great and increased wisdom beyond all who were before me over Jerusalem, and my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge."
Rashi explains: Now that I have fallen from my greatness, I set my heart to say - who would have said of me that I would come to such a state? That is, who could have imagined that Shlomo, who was so great, would become like any ordinary person, a wanderer whom everyone treats like a fool imagining he was once king? He said: Behold, I acquired great wisdom, surpassing all - and look what remains of all this.
The Malbim in Yair Or establishes a rule here that we will encounter frequently throughout the book: Wherever it says "I said in my heart" (amarti ve-libi), it refers to something untrue, an untenable supposition; but wherever it says "I spoke with my heart" (dibarti im libi), it refers to truth. Thus, in our verse, "I spoke with my heart, saying: Behold, I have acquired great wisdom...", it is speaking of the truth.
The Imrei Shefer explains the train of thought: Shlomo thought to himself, perhaps those people who failed in their pursuits did so due to a lack of wisdom, not knowing how to exercise caution. Those who pursued these two categories - those drawn after internal pleasures such as food, drink, and clothing, and those drawn after external pleasures like palaces and other grandeur - perhaps stumbled because they were not wise enough and did not know how to manage their conduct with care.
To this Shlomo says: I have seen even great sages stumble in this. Therefore I said - "I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were before me over Jerusalem"; there was no one as wise as I. Not only that, but "my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge" - I possessed vast experience, for through experience a person acquires practical life wisdom beyond mere book knowledge, wisdom no less valuable than formal study. If so, I was certain that I would succeed in my endeavors far more than all those who pursued material pursuits and fell. I said: I have the wisdom that will save me, and perhaps it is what will ground me in the truth so that I will not stumble.
וָאֶתְּנָה לִבִּי לָדַעַת חׇכְמָה וְדַעַת הוֹלֵלֹת וְשִׂכְלוּת יָדַעְתִּי שֶׁגַּם זֶה הוּא רַעְיוֹן רוּחַ׃ - "And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I perceived that this, too, is chasing after wind."
The Imrei Shefer notes: Here too, Shlomo mentions both realms. External pleasures are called "madness" (holelot), because these matters confuse and delude a person's mind, as most of these things are entirely unnecessary - a person buys houses, fields, and vineyards far beyond his basic needs and utility. And internal pleasures, even though they are necessary for a person - eating, drinking, and clothing - are nonetheless called "folly" (sikhlut). For someone who indulges in them excessively, seeking out all kinds of specialties and luxury brands, it is considered folly: had he been satisfied with little, he would lack nothing, and even if he took from this world only the bare minimum of food, drink, and clothing, it would have been enough for him.
And in both of these categories, Shlomo says, I set my heart to conduct myself according to my wisdom. If those who failed did so because they did not act wisely, then I had acquired and added wisdom beyond all who were before me. In matters of eating, I followed the wisdom of medicine; I ate by number, weight, and measure; I listened to the instructions of physicians and experts, consuming the proper food groups and everything strictly necessary. And indeed they were knowledgeable in this, just as we find that Nevuchadnezzar arranged a very specific diet for the youths he raised, believing that through healthy and properly regulated eating they would acquire wisdom and intelligence.
Famous are the words of the Rambam in Hilchot De'ot, that whoever observes all the medical guidelines and proper dietary rules he provided is guaranteed not to fall ill - unless there is a plague, but under normal circumstances he is guaranteed not to become sick. We see that they possessed great wisdom in ordering their food properly. And it is told that once the sultan, whose personal physician was the Rambam, approached him. The local Arab physicians, who had been pushed to the sidelines upon the Rambam's arrival, had argued to the sultan: "Where do you see his wisdom? He has never once cured you!" The sultan asked the Rambam: "They say you are wise in medicine, yet you have never cured me." The Rambam asked him: "And the other doctors?" He replied: "Yes, during their tenure I fell ill." He said: "And during my tenure?" The sultan answered: "Baruch Hashem, I have not been sick at all." The Rambam said to him: "And why do you think you haven't been sick? Because I am the one who regulates your diet. They are clever enough to cure you after you have fallen ill - thank you very much; but I make sure you do not get sick at all, and that is far better."
Thus Shlomo said: In all matters of worldly pleasures, I will act with wisdom - after all, I am a great sage - and I will conduct everything according to the proper, balanced order. In external matters as well - every building I construct, I design according to sound intellect and fitting wisdom. If so, perhaps a person ought to engage in external and internal pleasures after all?
Regarding this, Shlomo says: "I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit." For me, this is merely vanity - "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet," vanity meaning that it has no substance; but for the people, it is in the category of "vexation of spirit" (ra'ayon ruach), which also contains heartbreak. The conclusion is that a person should not occupy himself with matters of pleasure, neither internal physical pleasures nor external physical pleasures.
The Kol Ephraim explains the phrasing: "I spoke with my heart." Scripture states that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Shlomo "a wise and understanding heart, such that there was none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you." Indeed, the phrasing is peculiar: what does it mean, "I spoke with my heart" - is my heart someone else? He should have said, "I spoke in my heart." But according to this, it is magnificent: the Holy One, blessed be He, planted a wise and understanding heart within Shlomo, and Shlomo's heart was almost not Shlomo himself - it was a holy vessel implanted within him. It was a tremendous wisdom that Hashem planted in him, like an external planting, something distinct from him, and therefore he speaks with his heart, with that divine power bestowed within him.
This wisdom came without labor, without toil and without exertion, for Hashem planted it in his heart. But there is another dimension: "Give to a wise man, and he will become yet wiser" - that the wise man himself, after the wisdom given to him, understands one thing from another, strives, toils, and attains higher insights. This is what Shlomo adds: "and I increased wisdom more than all who were before me over Jerusalem" - I added and augmented wisdom beyond what was given to me as a gift. And this part of "I increased" is more significant than the part given as a gift; for what was given to you as a gift was given to you, but what did you do for it? Whereas "I increased wisdom" - that is effort, that is my own toil. Therefore, he opens with "I": "I spoke with my heart, saying: 'Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom'" - I increased it myself, through my own strength. He places this first, because this is man's glory and distinction: what you have added through your own toil and strength, not the gifts you received.
And he continues: "and my heart saw much wisdom and knowledge." The Malbim establishes a fundamental principle: when Scripture places the noun first and follows it with a past-tense verb, it indicates that the event occurred long ago. He should have said, "Veyara libi" (and my heart saw), yet he says "velibi ra'ah" (and my heart, it saw) - meaning from back then, already from the age of twelve, from the moment Hashem gave me a heart full of wisdom and knowledge, already then my heart saw much wisdom and knowledge. Note the order: first he preceded with what he added on his own, because that is man's glory and virtue, and only afterward does he state that Hashem also gave him wisdom and knowledge. Proof of this is found in the blessing of Chonen HaDa'at in the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, where we say: "You grant man knowledge," "favor us from Yourself with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge" - the aspect of wisdom and knowledge is a gift from Him, blessed be He, and it is the vessel through which a person magnifies and increases wisdom.
Here Shlomo arrives at his third investigation: is the purpose of creation that man gather wisdom for himself so that he may become wise, or perhaps to make the world wise, to magnify wisdom and glorify it, and to teach the world wisdom and knowledge - is the goal man himself, or the magnification of wisdom in the world? Regarding this he says: "And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly; I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit."
Rashi explains: "And I applied my heart" - now I set my heart to know and deeply examine wisdom, what its outcome is, and to deeply examine madness and folly, what their outcome is. In other words, what results from wisdom compared to what results from madness and foolishness. For the entire book of Kohelet is a book of investigation, of contemplation and deep study into all the ways of man: what is the right path, and what is the path where light dwells.
And what is madness (holelut)? Rashi explains: insanity and derangement, related to mixture and confusion. Holel is like mahul - "your wine is mixed (mahul) with water," mahul meaning diluted or mixed up. A wild person (holel) is an unsettled person; mitkholel refers to one who behaves like a madman. A settled person has a clear, steady mind; he does not act rashly, does not do foolish things, and does not act impulsively. Madness is like confusion, a person whose actions are muddled, in the sense of folly and foolishness.
"I perceived" - Rashi says - I knew now that even in wisdom there is brokenness of spirit, and this is "ra'ayon ruach," from the language of breaking and frailty (hitro'e'ut). Why? Because a person is confident that he has magnified wisdom, and consequently he relies upon himself; and when a person relies upon himself, his downfall is near. He says to himself: "Could I possibly stumble? Don't worry, with me everything is fine. The Rabbis prohibited it? Come on, am I a child? Believe me, none of that nonsense interests me." The person is certain that he is protected. Yet the truly great sages were afraid - Rabbi Akiva and others - because they said: "Go know, a person might stumble, for there is no guardian against illicit relations." But apparently, they weren't speaking to our generation, nor to strong people like us... In this lies ra'ayon ruach, brokenness of spirit: a person does not distance himself from transgression, and thereby angers the Holy One, blessed be He.
And the prime example of this, says Shlomo, is from the wisest of all men himself. Who was wiser and more discerning than him, and what chance was there that he would commit an act of foolishness and folly? Come and observe: I said, "I will multiply horses, but I will not return the people to Egypt" - yet in the end, I did return them. I said, "I will multiply wives, and they will not turn my heart away." Could a woman turn my heart away, even if there were a thousand? After all, I am the wisest of all men, even among men, and you tell me among women? In those days, women were far removed from scholarship; they did not engage in statecraft or leave the home, and their knowledge and worldly concepts were far more limited. Nonetheless, of me it was written: "and his wives turned away his heart." And so, Rashi says, he relied on his wisdom and did several things, as it says: "The words of the man to Itiel, to Itiel and Ukhal" - he was certain: the Holy One, blessed be He, is with me (Iti-El) and I will succeed, there is nothing to fear, I can do everything (ve'ukhal). And behold, that very wisdom I thought to rely upon - its end was vexation of spirit. Do not think, therefore, that only madness and folly are bad; sometimes wisdom that you rely upon is no less disastrous.
The Kol Ephraim explains: "And I applied my heart" - when I realized what a precious vessel Hashem had planted within me, that heart which is like a distinct planting apart from me, I took this precious instrument and utilized it "to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly." That is to say, to comprehend the pathways of wisdom, and on the other hand, the pathways of folly as well. For one must understand: when a person seeks to refute an opinion and contend with a system of thought, he must know its foundations. Without this, he cannot contend with anything or refute anything.
Only Judaism is subjected to every fool and novice speaking out against it without knowing anything about it. Consider someone who once complained about the "archaic" ketubah, claiming that it allegedly protects only the rights of the man and gives no rights to the woman - yet he had never read it, nor was he even capable of reading it, since it is written in Aramaic. Anyone who has read the ketubah even once knows that it does not contain a single right belonging to the man, and everything written in it consists entirely of the rights of the woman. Such is the way of people: they speak with supreme confidence as if they know, relying on the fact that their listeners are just as uninformed. Every so often, people come along who check the facts and uncover glaring errors, showing that someone has placed historical figures centuries away from the period in which they actually lived. But there is no immediate penalty for ignorance; if there were a penalty for ignorance, many people would walk around in plaster casts all their lives. The result is that a person can say whatever he wishes, but one who has never truly known Judaism can never legitimately contend with it. If one wishes to challenge a religion, a worldview, or a philosophy and prove it to be madness, he must understand it; likewise, one must also understand the mindset of the foolish to contend against it.
This is the aspect of psychology: to understand motives, to understand what lies behind a mindset. Similarly, the discipline of philosophy occupies itself with investigating what can be grasped by the human intellect and what cannot, and whether one can genuinely reach the depths of truth. Philosophers have occupied themselves with this extensively: Can good and evil be defined in absolute terms? What is called good, and what is called evil? After all, what one person defines as good, another considers an absolute evil. So too with profound questions of what was before and what will be after, deep matters that human beings cannot always fully fathom.
Regarding all this, Shlomo declares: "I perceived that this too is grasping after the wind." It is far better to delve into and contemplate the wisdom Hashem gave you, in matters that are attainable to you, rather than in things beyond your ability to comprehend. Do not use wisdom to delve into and research those systems of madness and folly - that is not why you received wisdom. Wisdom was given primarily to be used for Torah, the knowledge of Hashem, and the recognition of the Creator, not for these pursuits that add nothing of true value.
Shlomo surveys all the pursuits of the world and finds that everything is futility and frustration: internal pleasures lead a person to "that which is crooked cannot be made straight" in his own body, while external pleasures lead to "that which is lacking cannot be numbered," where any minute flaw strips away all pleasure - as seen with Adam HaRishon and with Haman. The Midrash adds that in the World to Come there is no rectification at all, for tickets can only be purchased down here, and "one who toils on Friday will eat on Shabbat." Afterward, Shlomo examined whether wisdom itself could save a person, and testified with the words "I spoke with my heart" - an expression of truth - that neither the immense wisdom given to him as a gift nor that which he added through his own toil availed someone who relies on himself; on the contrary, "this too is grasping after the wind." The conclusion: a person must not immerse himself in the pleasures of this world, nor waste the precious vessel of wisdom given to him on unattainable inquiries, but rather apply it to Torah, the knowledge of Hashem, and the recognition of the Creator.