In this part of Chapter 8, King Solomon continues the major inquiry that runs through the entire book: why the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous suffer, and why the Holy One, Blessed be He, is patient with sinners. In the previous verses he already observed, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily" - judgment upon evil is not carried out immediately, and therefore the hearts of mankind are emboldened to do evil. Now he delves even deeper: not only is there no immediate punishment, but the sinner continues to sin repeatedly, yet the Holy One, Blessed be He, shows him forbearance. And precisely from this observation, Solomon arrives at an unexpected conclusion - from the very patience shown to the wicked, he deduces how good it will ultimately be for those who fear God.
אֲשֶׁר חֹטֶא עֹשֶׂה רָע מְאַת וּמַאֲרִיךְ לוֹ כִּי גַּם יוֹדֵעַ אָנִי אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה טּוֹב לְיִרְאֵי הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר יִירְאוּ מִלְּפָנָיו׃ (ח, יב) - Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and [God] prolongs his days, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who revere Him.
The word "me'at" (מְאַת) - mem, alef, tav - does not mean "a little" (me'at with an ayin). The Pesikta Zutreta explains: the sinner commits a hundred sins, and yet God prolongs His patience. But the Midrash itself raises a difficulty: does it not say, "Behold, all these things God works, twice, three times, with a man" (Iyov 33:29) - twice and three times, but no more; and yet you say a hundred? Rather, it refers to a hundred years: even if a person lives for a hundred years and sins through all of them, the Holy One, Blessed be He, shows him forbearance. And why? In the hope that he might repent.
And upon this he continues: "Yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God." How do I know this? Through a kal vachomer (an a fortiori deduction): if this is how He treats those who violate His will - where someone sins for a hundred years and the Holy One, Blessed be He, patiently bears with him - how much more so will there be eternal reward for those who perform His will! If Hashem bestows such goodness upon someone who acts against His will, how much goodness must be stored away for those who fear Hashem.
There is a well-known story told about Avraham Avinu. An elderly man of advanced years came to him seeking food. Avraham welcomed him into his tent, provided for him, and took care of him. At the conclusion of the meal, Avraham said to him, "Now we must give thanks." The old man replied, "Certainly" - and drew out his idol to kiss it and give thanks to it. Avraham began explaining to him that there is a Creator of the universe, that He created everything and bestows of His goodness, and that everything you ate came from what Hashem provided, not from me. However, the elderly man, set in his ways at such an age, brought out his idol once again and kissed it. Avraham hinted to him that the tent had four openings, and the old man went on his way.
Immediately, the Holy One, Blessed be He, revealed Himself to Avraham and said to him: "Avraham, I have had the patience to wait for this elderly man for eighty years, and you lost your patience with him in a few minutes?" The Midrash relates that Avraham immediately ran after him, called him back to the tent, and patiently worked with him until he turned him into a complete ba'al teshuvah.
This reality of divine forbearance for eighty or a hundred years reveals to us the vastness of the mercy of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and how much He anticipates and waits for every person, hoping that perhaps he will repent. From this, one can understand how good it will ultimately be for those who fear God: if this is the measure of His boundless mercy toward a wicked person, how immense must be His mercy toward the righteous, and how great a reward awaits those who fear God.
Rashi explains that the sinner does evil "me'at" - hundreds of thousands and myriads of times - yet the Holy One, Blessed be He, exercises forbearance, and ultimately exacts retribution from him. Furthermore, the word "me'at" is an abbreviated form in place of "a hundred days" [meaning many days], similar to "veshacharut" in the verse "for childhood and youth (shacharut) are vanity" (Kohelet 11:10). And so too here: from the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not hasty to punish the wicked, I know that everyone will ultimately receive their just due.
This is a direct continuation of what was stated previously: "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily," people do evil, and you see that a sinner may do evil a hundred times or a hundred thousand times, and He is patient with him. This phenomenon itself creates a struggle in faith. Yet, I nonetheless know that honor will ultimately arrive, and the wicked will face judgment for his evil deeds while the righteous will receive good for his good deeds. Even though you currently see something that undermines faith, I know with absolute clarity that it will be good for those who fear God.
וְטוֹב לֹא יִהְיֶה לָרָשָׁע וְלֹא יַאֲרִיךְ יָמִים כַּצֵּל אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ יָרֵא מִלִּפְנֵי אֱלֹהִים׃ (ח, יג) - And it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he prolong his days, like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. (8:13)
At first glance, there is an apparent contradiction here: you just said that he "does evil a hundred times and prolongs his days," and now you say he will not prolong his days? Rather, the meaning is that he will not prolong his days in the World to Come and on the Day of Judgment. There he will be like a passing shadow, and will immediately receive his judgment, as it is written, "Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment" - they will have no standing during the time of judgment, but in a single instant will be condemned. And the reason: "Because he does not fear before God" - he did not repent and did not mend his ways.
The holy Alshich explains that the struggle with the difficulty we presented continues here. Lest you say: the reason we see that days are prolonged for the wicked is so that he might repent, and because man possesses free will. For if the wicked were punished immediately and the righteous rewarded immediately, the world would not be divided into righteous and wicked, but rather into wise and foolish - only a total fool would continue doing evil. If you saw that for doing good you receive good immediately, and for doing evil you receive evil immediately, what logic would there be to continue doing evil? Why, then, do people still persist in doing evil? Precisely because of free will; precisely because "the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily"; precisely because "a sinner does evil a hundred times and He is patient with him." Were it not so, there would be no free will at all.
However, against this there is a challenge: granting patience to a wicked person who transgressed once or twice makes sense - there is hope he will repent. But what logic is there in extending patience to such egregious evildoers, who sin without limit, who have sinned a hundred times and corrupted and acted so wickedly? After all, this only causes them to become further entrenched in heresy and sin even more. The chance that they will repent is miniscule, for once a person commits a sin and repeats it, it becomes permitted to him.
The answer is: indeed, it is not for their sake. Truly, for them the chance is miniscule. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not execute the decree of evil speedily so that free choice remains for the rest of humanity - so that observers see wicked people succeeding and righteous people suffering setbacks, and vice versa, with no seemingly manifest order in the world. Thereby, a person will believe in Hashem on his own merit, not because he visibly witnesses reward and punishment, nor due to anything compelling him to believe. Hashem desires that people serve Him out of faith, devekut, and wholehearted devotion, rather than out of reward and punishment. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, leaves the world full of perplexing questions, so that if you believe in Him, it will be purely out of devekut and not out of a desire for profit.
Yet one may still ask: it would be enough merely not to afflict the wicked with suffering - that is understandable, for if the wicked were always afflicted, the faith of outside observers would stem from seeing reward and punishment rather than from devekut. But why continue to bestow good upon them? To this, the verse addresses: "And it shall not be well with the wicked" - Hashem will not bestow true good upon these wicked people. Just as the verse says, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all": He will not curse them or bring immediate evil upon them, but He will not bring blessing upon them either. And likewise, it will be "well for those who fear God" - those who fear not out of punishment, but purely out of awe before Hashem.
The Gemara in Kiddushin (page 33b) expounds this verse. Rabbi Elazar said: Any talmid chacham who does not stand before his rebbi is called wicked, does not prolong his days, and forgets his learning. Notice - even though he is himself a talmid chacham, since this is his rebbi, he must stand before him. As it is said, "And it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he prolong his days, like a shadow, because he does not fear before God." And what is meant by "does not fear"? What kind of fear is this referring to? It is stated here, "he does not fear before [milifnei]," and it is stated elsewhere, "Before the hoary head you shall rise up, and honor the face of an elder, and you shall fear your God." Just as there the fear is expressed through rising before an elder, so too here, "does not fear" means that he does not stand before an elder, before a talmid chacham or a sage who has acquired wisdom.
The Imrei Shefer offers a wonderful explanation here: even if this person appears God-fearing, if his fear is merely external while internally he is false, know that he will not prolong his days. That is to say, he will not endure long in his falsehood. Eventually his wickedness will be exposed; people will recognize and know that his fear of Heaven was only superficial, and that there was no genuine fear of Hashem within him.
To support this, the Imrei Shefer cites the profound words of the Malbim on Bereishit chapter 20 regarding Avraham and Avimelech. Avimelech claimed he was innocent and righteous, but Avraham answered him: "Only because there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me for the sake of my wife." The Malbim writes: Avraham informed him that even if we see an individual or an entire nation of great philosophers who established just ethical codes, conditioned themselves to virtuous character traits according to reason, and practice justice and charity based on intellect - even so, we cannot trust that person or nation that whenever desire incites them to do evil, intellect will consistently prevail over desire. On the contrary, when the fire of lust burns within him for a beautiful woman or for his neighbor's wealth with no one watching, his very intellect will be corrupted to murder, commit adultery, and perpetrate every evil.
What, then, is the guarantee? The Malbim continues: there is only one force in the human soul that can be relied upon to prevent sin, and that is the innate faculty of fear, from which branches off the fear of God. By nature, the human soul possesses fear - the fear that keeps someone from leaping into a busy road lest he die, and various other fears; and one branch of this trait is the fear of God. When the soul is filled with the fear of God, Who gazes upon what is hidden and revealed and observes all of a person's deeds, then even when his yetzer hara surges, he will fear and be ashamed before the great King Who sees everything, and he will refrain from doing evil. As it is written, "The fear of Hashem is the discipline of wisdom" (Mishlei 15:33), and "The fear of Hashem is the beginning of knowledge" (Mishlei 1:7). It is worth noting that the Malbim wrote these words generations before Auschwitz, and his analysis is remarkably precise.
This is precisely what Kohelet is telling us. If you see people who cast the fear of Hashem behind their backs and conduct themselves purely by their intellect, where only pride of spirit keeps them from wrongdoing - do not trust such a person to remain decent. Someone might have received a good upbringing at home and avoid wrongful acts; at times one finds people far from Torah and mitzvot who appear thoroughly upright in their conduct. Nevertheless, we cannot trust that they will maintain their integrity at all times. Undoubtedly, if the opportunity for sin presents itself in secret, desire will overpower intellect and they will commit any evil. The reason: they have no fear of God to deter them from evil. Intellect governs them only when they are observed, out of fear of shame and humiliation. But one who believes in Hashem and fears Him is not governed merely by intellect; he knows that the Holy One, blessed be He, is present even where no one else is, and that He examines hearts and minds. Consequently, only with him is there a true guarantee that he will withhold himself from sin.
And that is what Avraham told Avimelech: I am not surprised that you might even be capable of murder for the sake of my wife, for once desire is aroused, nothing stands in your way, and intellect loses control. Therefore: "It will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear [God]." Things will not go well for the wicked, and one who lacks fear will not enjoy endurance; he will inevitably collapse. You may see him prospering now, but this success is fleeting. The mere "wisdom" guiding him will not hold up in times of crisis. When trial or hardship arrives, only fear of God can turn him away from sin and prevent him from doing wrong; without it, he will surely fall in the end. "Nor will he prolong his days" - this decency will not last long; at the very first serious test, you will see him fall. And who endures? The one who has the fear of God in his heart. With him, there is true endurance, and through it, he will succeed in standing firm against even the most powerful desires.
יֶשׁ הֶבֶל אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה עַל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יֵשׁ צַדִּיקִים אֲשֶׁר מַגִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַעֲשֵׂה הָרְשָׁעִים וְיֵשׁ רְשָׁעִים שֶׁמַּגִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַעֲשֵׂה הַצַּדִּיקִים אָמַרְתִּי שֶׁגַּם זֶה הָבֶל׃ (ח, יד) - There is a futility that occurs on earth: that there are righteous people who are treated according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people who are treated according to the deeds of the righteous; I said that this too is futility. (8:14)
Rashi explains: hevel means something that confounds and alarms people. There is a reality that disorients mankind, and what is it? That there are righteous people upon whom misfortune falls as though they had committed the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people who receive good fortune as though they had performed the deeds of the righteous. In plain terms: the righteous suffer, while the wicked prosper.
Rashi adds: Our Sages expounded this differently in Tractate Horayot, though it does not fit smoothly with the flow of the verse in my view, since the Wise King concluded, "this too is futility." In Tractate Horayot (10b), the Gemara interprets the word asher as related to ashrei ("fortunate"): fortunate are the righteous who are treated according to the deeds of the wicked. What are the deeds of the wicked? Rashi explains - the consequences of this world, received in this world. The wicked commit evil and deserve punishment; fortunate are the righteous who receive here in this world what the wicked should have received, arriving in the World to Come pure and cleansed of all sin. And woe to the wicked who are treated according to the deeds of the righteous in this world - who receive all manner of good here, receiving in this world the reward the righteous person should have received for his good deeds here.
According to this approach, what does "this too is futility" mean? This is the difficulty Rashi senses. One could explain that an onlooker who sees this supposes there is no justice, and that misconception is itself one of the futilities in the world.
The holy Alshich adds: The inquiry throughout this chapter is why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Perhaps you might say that here is the answer - the wicked are rewarded for their mitzvot here in this world so that they will arrive in the World to Come completely stripped of reward, as it says, "When the wicked flourish like grass and all evildoers blossom" - followed by, "it is that they may be destroyed forever" (Tehillim 92:8), and similarly, "And repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them" (Devarim 7:10). And the opposite applies to the suffering of the righteous, which aims to cleanse them of their guilt so that they will be free of sin.
However, the Alshich says, even this explanation is insufficient. For if you were to see that all wicked people prosper in this world and all righteous people suffer in this world, you could say: The world is orderly - the righteous suffer here in order to receive their full reward in the World to Come, and the wicked prosper here in order to receive their full punishment in the World to Come. But reality is not like this: there are wicked who prosper and wicked who suffer, righteous who prosper and righteous who suffer. There is no uniform pattern here. And the emphasis is in the verse itself: "There are righteous" and "there are wicked" - some are like this, and some are not. If it had said that all righteous and all wicked were treated this way, it would be a resolution; but since there are some of this sort and some of that, a resolution is still lacking.
Notice that this is precisely the question of Moshe Rabbeinu. Everyone quotes the question as "the righteous who suffers and the wicked who prospers," but Moshe Rabbeinu asked about both sides: the righteous who prospers and the righteous who suffers, the wicked who prospers and the wicked who suffers - why is it sometimes this way and sometimes that way? This is why the Alshich finds the answer insufficient, for it does not provide a clear understanding regarding all righteous and all wicked people. Therefore, "I said that this too is vanity" - this answer too is vanity, and it is not enough to resolve the difficulty.
The Imrei Shefer explains: The deeper I delve, explore the ways of life, and observe what happens in the world, the more astonishing things I see - righteous people who are treated as though they acted like the wicked, and wicked people who are treated as though they acted like the righteous. These things outrage a person, for he sees injustice and illogical realities, and all humanity is astonished by them. Yet Shlomo says: I was not astonished by this. Why? Because "there is a vanity that occurs on the earth" - I know that the entire reality of this world is vanity.
To illustrate with a parable: Two boys are studying in the same classroom under the same teacher. One is wise and discerning, listens to his teacher, is righteous and God-fearing, studies diligently, and does everything he is told. The other brings shame and grief to his parents, behaving terribly. And behold, you see that specifically the troublesome boy enjoys all good things - he buys himself toys and all sorts of childish nonsense, while the good boy has none of these things. Would anyone look at this and say: "Look, this one has it good while the other suffers"? We would all look at it with dismissive amusement: What does he have that is so good? What does he actually own? What did he buy - a few marbles? Is that what you call an acquisition? Is that what you call a profit?
So too when I observe the prosperity of the wicked - all of it is in this world, and what is this world? "I said that this too is vanity." This entire world is vanity, and if all of their good consists merely of coarse, material matters, it is absolute vanity. Is that something to be astonished by?
We have previously mentioned the story of Count Potocki (the Ger Tzedek of Vilna) when he was led to the stake to be burned in an auto-da-fe. It is related that he walked along singing "Ani Ma'amin," going to offer his life in sanctification of Hashem's Name. On his way, one of the priests said to him: "I know that here in this world we are laughing at you, but there in the World of Truth you will laugh at us and take vengeance upon us."
Count Potocki replied: "When I was a boy, I used to build sandcastles, and sometimes mean children who were jealous of me and wanted to harm me would come and destroy my castles. I would say to myself: When I grow up, I will take revenge on them, I will punish them, I will show them! Now tell me - do you think that once I grew up, it mattered to me at all? Did the sandcastles of my childhood hold any importance for me? The same is true here: Do you think that when I arrive in the World of Truth, any of you will interest me? Will some priest who burned my body here matter to me up there, in eternal, Divine delight?"
This is what Shlomo means: There is a vanity that occurs on the earth, where the righteous are treated as though they acted like the wicked and the wicked as though they acted like the righteous - "I said that this too is vanity," because all the matters of this world are vanity. And if you see someone here who supposedly gains so much, or someone who supposedly loses so much - what is gain, and what is loss? Everything here is vanity.
This is similar to what Rav Shteinman once said. He was asked about the formulation: "For we run and they run; we run and receive reward, and they run and do not receive reward" - can it really be said that they do not receive reward? After all, a person works and gets paid, and if he works in high-tech, he certainly earns a handsome salary! He told them: There is the famous answer of the Chafetz Chaim, that we receive reward for the effort, whereas they receive payment for the result. But Rav Shteinman offered another explanation: We toil and receive reward - this is genuine reward. But with them, what they receive - can that really be called reward? If someone earned a hundred million dollars here, is that a reward? It is mere futility, and in a single moment he departs from his wealth. What does he have for eternity? What remains for him forever? That cannot be called reward; there is no true substance to it.
In these verses, Shlomo teaches us three fundamental principles. First, patience toward the sinner - "a sinner does evil a hundred times and has his days prolonged" - is not a contradiction to justice, but a revelation of the greatness of divine mercy. From this itself, one must deduce a kal vachomer regarding how much goodness is stored away for those who fear God, as in the story of Avraham and the elderly man. Second, "it will not be good for the wicked, nor will he prolong his days" - success and decency built on intellect alone, without fear of God, will not endure; only the fear of God, which is the sole reliable force in the human soul, sustains a person in times of trial. And third, regarding the very dilemma of why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper: even after all the resolutions, one clarity remains - whatever appears to be the good fortune of the wicked in this world is nothing more than sandcastles and children's marbles, "I said that this too is vanity," having no real substance compared to eternity.