In this lesson, we conclude the end of Chapter 8 in Kohelet, verses 16-17, and afterwards we return to the beginning of the chapter to study the Malbim's explanation of the entire chapter. Kohelet is a book on which the Malbim did not write a running commentary, and we have endeavored to gather from various places where the Malbim offered explanations of words and verses from the book. Nevertheless, there is one complete chapter on which the Malbim wrote a commentary - not as part of a formal commentary on Kohelet, but as part of his homilies, in his work Artzot HaShalom, Derush 6. There, he addresses the question of the righteous who suffer and the wicked who prosper, and in the process takes our Chapter 8 and explains it entirely in order. It was not feasible to study it verse by verse, because the Malbim explains the verses as a single, cohesive progression, all in one breath, so we reserved his commentary for the end.
כַּאֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי אֶת־לִבִּי לָדַעַת חׇכְמָה וְלִרְאוֹת אֶת־הָעִנְיָן אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה עַל־הָאָרֶץ כִּי גַם בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה שֵׁנָה בְּעֵינָיו אֵינֶנּוּ רֹאֶה׃ - "When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth - for neither by day nor by night does one see sleep with his eyes." (16)
Midrash Zuta expounds: "He sees no sleep with his eyes" - he does not see repentance before him, and does not perform it. The Midrash adds: Two good things are close to you and far from you, far from you and close to you. Teshuvah (repentance) is close to you and far from you, far from you and close to you. Death is close to you and far from you, far from you and close to you.
Seemingly, what is the meaning of this repetition, and what is the Midrash conveying? The commentators explain as follows: Teshuvah is close to you, for "it is in your mouth and in your heart to do it"; a person says, "I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have acted wickedly," and he does not move from there before he is forgiven. There are more severe sins, but at any rate, teshuvah can happen in an instant: "On condition that I am a completely righteous person" - in a single moment, a person can become completely righteous. And what is meant by "far from you"? If a person does not abandon his evil deeds, it recedes further and further from him; he draws upon himself a spirit of impurity that distances teshuvah from him. And what is meant again by "far from you and close to you"? Even though it has distanced itself, it is still close to you; you have the opportunity to return and draw near to it once again, to mend your deeds and improve your ways, and thereby it will become close to you once more.
So too with death: Death is close to a person, yet it moves far from him when he mends his ways, "so that your days may be prolonged." On the other hand, even when it is far from you, beware, for you can bring it close to yourself: if one performs wicked deeds, Heaven forbid, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will take a person before his time. Thus, everything depends upon a person's actions: your deeds bring you near, and your deeds keep you far. And this is hinted at in what is written, "Who are they that shall go?" - your deeds bring you near and your deeds keep you far; they are what will determine your path. If you do good, it will bring you close to Hashem, and if not, the opposite.
Pesikta Zutrati explains that the verse speaks of those who labor in the vanities of the world and strive to amass wealth. I saw that this is futility, for he amasses wealth yet prepares no provisions for the road: he prepares neither repentance nor good deeds for the life of the World to Come.
Rashi explains that "ka'asher" ("when") here is not an expression of comparison, like "as he did, so shall it be done to him," but rather an expression of time, like "when Joseph came," or "when they had finished eating." That is to say: at the time when I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, and I saw all the work of God, I saw that "he sees no sleep with his eyes" - the wicked person is so immersed in chasing money and forbidden relations that he does not sleep well at night. He is caught in an endless race after physical desires. See how deeply these matters trouble and consume him, for all his affairs are directed toward amassing wealth and engaging in corruption and transgression, to the point that it even infringes upon his hours of sleep: he rises early and goes to sleep late, all for the sake of another sin.
Furthermore, the Midrash says: "He sees no sleep with his eyes" - meaning that he does not see the day of death, the eternal sleep. Had a person recognized that there is a time when he is destined to depart from the world, it would arouse him to repentance. But since a person does not contemplate this, he does not see the time when he will lie down and sleep among those who dwell in the dust, and consequently he does not repent to mend his ways.
The Imrei Shefer explains: "When I applied my heart to know wisdom" - when I delved deeply into investigating this matter, the truth of it was confirmed to me. And after that, I lifted my eyes "to see the business that is done on earth": Is man truly aware that all his toil here is merely in the category of a loan, and that a time will come when he will have to repay it? And concerning this, he says: I see that "day and night, sleep with his eyes he does not see." This means he lives in complete delusion that everything here in this world is his eternal acquisition. And look how much he invests in it! A person does not invest so much in something that will soon be taken from him; if he invests so heavily, it is a sign that he is certain it is an eternal possession. The classic example: A person does not invest in a rented apartment, but in his own apartment, he adds a shelf, builds a room, replaces a window, renovates the kitchen. From this you can observe that man is convinced this world is an eternal world that lasts forever. And that is what the verse means by "day and night, sleep with his eyes he does not see" - it is a sign that he is certain he is engaged here in eternal acquisitions, for otherwise he would not dedicate his life day and night to something he will ultimately have to return.
There is a parable for this: A person who needs to raise capital, and at the end of the year, he must return all the funds. People see him spending an entire year raising and raising and raising money, and even on the very last day of the year, he is still gathering. Isn't this absurd? Tomorrow, everything you have collected you must already return, and you did not even have time to enjoy it! All your days you were preoccupied with gathering, and you were left with nothing from the money you borrowed; he spent all his days toiling to borrow, with no time left to profit from it. So too is man: all the days of his life he gathers, borrowing more and more money, possessions, acquisitions, and material things. But when he arrives at his eternal home, the reality is that he must return all these items to their Master. In the end, all material matters must be returned; you are left with nothing of them, and he departs empty-handed. Would it not have been better to use this here to increase spirituality and advance in avodat Hashem (the service of God)?
The Gemara relates concerning Reish Lakish that when he passed away from this world, he left behind a kav of saffron (kav de'murika), and he applied to himself the verse, "And leave their wealth to others" (Tehillim 49:11). Listen to what he was saying: I left all my money behind here for others, I took nothing with me, and with this I could have performed another mitzvah, I could have done more avodat Hashem! If a person were to reflect in this way, he would not be left empty of all his toil, and his entire toil would not be merely collecting loans; rather, he would build his eternal life, which is what will truly remain with him.
וְרָאִיתִי אֶת־כׇּל־מַעֲשֵׂה הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי לֹא יוּכַל הָאָדָם לִמְצוֹא אֶת־הַמַּעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה תַחַת־הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ בְּשֶׁל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲמֹל הָאָדָם לְבַקֵּשׁ וְלֹא יִמְצָא וְגַם אִם־יֹאמַר הֶחָכָם לָדַעַת לֹא יוּכַל לִמְצֹא׃ (י"ז) - Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, inasmuch as a man toils to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; and even if a wise man says he knows it, he shall not be able to find it. (17)
Rashi explains: "All the work of God" refers to the deeds that God entrusted to His creations. Do not think it means what He did, but rather the deed He gave us to perform. "That man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun" - human beings cannot fathom the ultimate depth of the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He: What is the reward for all the work done under the sun? In other words, where is the reward for all of man's labor, and what is the nature of this reward? For reality seemingly shows the opposite: one sees people prospering who are wicked, and sees righteous people stumbling who are truly righteous. When one reflects on this, one sees people striving to grasp and understand God's governance, yet they do not understand; they do not reach a correct conclusion and cannot comprehend God's way. And even if the wise man claims to know, even the wise man will not attain it. For even the wisest of men, whether King Solomon or Moshe Rabbeinu, are subject to this: "and even if a wise man says he knows it, he shall not be able to find it." After all, even Moshe Rabbeinu asked: Master of the Universe, why is there a righteous person who suffers and a wicked person who prospers? You see that even among the greatest and wisest, there is no ultimate grasp or comprehension of God's ways.
And the Imrei Shefer explains that here King Solomon is saying: I have spoken extensively about the ways of the world, and here I might have thought that I had a novel explanation regarding the tranquility of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. Yet despite all this, let no one mistakenly think that I attained full comprehension of God's ways and that I now understand how God directs His world. Therefore, I state in advance that man cannot find out the work done under the sun. And although we know the principle, "If a person says, 'I have toiled and not found,' do not believe him," nevertheless, in these matters - which concern comprehending God - no matter how much you toil, you will not grasp it. To comprehend God, to comprehend God's governance and His ways, no matter how much a person toils to seek it out, he will not find it.
And what is written, "beshel" (בשל), is an expression denoting cause, meaning "because of," as in "for my sake (besheli) this great tempest is upon you" (Yonah 1:12). That is to say: man cannot find out the work done under the sun because of the decree that however much man toils to seek it out, he will not find it. The Creator's wisdom dictated and God so decreed that however much man labors to seek it, he will not find it. "And even if a wise man says he knows it" - even if a wise person is found who believes he has a rationale and a logical explanation and can explain God's governance, he will still not be able to fathom the ultimate purpose of God's providence. This matter is hidden from the eyes of all living beings, as the Tanna states: "It is not in our power to explain either the tranquility of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous" (Avot 4:15), meaning we possess no comprehension of why the wicked have tranquility and why the righteous have suffering; and all the wise-hearted grew weary trying to find its solution, striving to find explanations but finding none.
The Malbim opens and explains, in his poetic style, that a measuring line and plumb line have already been stretched over this question: the question of whether man possesses free will has already been exhaustively analyzed by earlier thinkers, and the matter is already addressed in the Book of Kohelet, here in our eighth chapter. And the chapter opens:
מִי כְּהֶחָכָם וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ פֵּשֶׁר דָּבָר חׇכְמַת אָדָם תָּאִיר פָּנָיו וְעֹז פָּנָיו יְשֻׁנֶּא׃ (א) - Who is like the wise man, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom illuminates his face, and the boldness of his face is transformed. (1)
Before presenting the question, the Malbim explains, Shlomo calls upon the wise men, each from the task he is engaged in, and says to them: Who knows the interpretation of this matter regarding the question of divine foreknowledge and free will, which appear to be mutually contradictory? Can a person be found whose wisdom illuminates his face to resolve this question, get to its very bottom, and offer a satisfying answer?
This question has been addressed at length, both in the study of Pirkei Avot on "Everything is foreseen, yet permission is granted," in the Kuzari, and in the study of the Book of Iyov in chapter 12, where it was unfolded in full detail. Here, it will be mentioned only in brief. We accept as a clear and absolute premise that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows all things and envisions all generations in advance, and therefore Hashem knows what we are destined to do. To take a concrete example: if Reuven will drive and desecrate Shabbat this coming Shabbat - desecration for its own sake, not rushing his wife to the hospital - Hashem already knows this beforehand. The second foundational premise is that it is impossible for Hashem's knowledge to be imperfect, or for something not to occur precisely as He knew it would.
These two premises create a dilemma: where is free will? If Hashem already knows today that Reuven will drive and desecrate Shabbat, then because Hashem knows and it is impossible for His knowledge to be mistaken, Reuven must inevitably drive and desecrate Shabbat. If so, where is his free choice? For if Reuven could choose not to drive, it would turn out that Hashem did not know, which is impossible. Thus, Hashem's foreknowledge ostensibly contradicts free will. From the moment Hashem knows in advance everything a person is going to do, man becomes like a puppet on a string: he imagines he is acting freely, but in truth someone else controls him, for Hashem's knowledge compels him to do what he does.
The Rambam, as is well known, raised this question and offered an answer: "Our knowledge is not like His knowledge." That is, you ask this question based on a false comparison, likening Hashem's knowledge to human knowledge; if I know what you are going to do, that strips you of your free choice, but with Hashem, knowledge is of an entirely different nature. And what is the substance of this answer? In plain terms: you cannot comprehend it. On this, the Raavad wrote that this was not the way of the wise: if you raised such a formidable difficulty, why did you offer an answer that does not satisfy? If you are simply going to resolve it by saying it lies beyond human comprehension, you should not have raised the question in the first place, for there were people who were not troubled by it at all, and now, having raised it without providing an adequate resolution, they are left with a difficulty that your answer fails to settle.
Some raise a question from the very text of the Torah: how could the figures acting there have had free choice, given that the Torah was cherished with Him 974 generations before the creation of the world? Esav is written as wicked, as are Yishmael and Amalek - so how could they have acted otherwise? Yet this is not truly a difficulty, for when the Torah was with the Holy One, blessed be He, 974 generations before the creation of the world, it was not written as it is written today. The entire Torah is the Names of the Creator, blessed be He, and everything we see in the text before us is an external garment, an outward perspective, the narratives of the Torah, whereas in truth the Torah is of a very high internal reality. Because the deeds occurred as they did, the outward form was arranged accordingly, and it was recorded that Esav was wicked and Yaakov was righteous. Had the situation been reversed, the outward form would have been arranged differently, and when Moshe wrote the Torah, its outward form would have recorded that Yaakov was wicked and Esav was righteous. What existed before Hashem for 974 generations was the Torah in its letters, the sequence of letters, the Names, the mitzvot; but the form in which they would combine and take shape was determined by the deeds that actually took place.
Korach was wicked, and the earth swallowed him up. Had he repented, it would not have been written that the earth swallowed him up, for the Torah was transcribed by Moshe - Moshe Rabbeinu wrote at Hashem's dictation, and had the reality been different, he would have written differently. Korach's story was recorded after the event occurred. Indeed, it could not be conceived otherwise, for the Torah was given scroll by scroll (megillot megillot nittnah); that is, at each stage in the wilderness they received another scroll in accordance with the events that unfolded. There is a dissenting view that the Torah was given in its entirety only at the end, but there is no opinion that the entire Torah was already given at Mount Sinai. This is a very common misconception: ask any kindergarten child and he will tell you that we received the Torah at Mount Sinai, but that is not so. At Mount Sinai we received the Ten Commandments and nothing more. We had already received mitzvot earlier, some at Marah and some before that, and the mitzvot came in stages. Furthermore, if the written Torah had already been in their hands, would Korach read his own parashah and still persist in his actions? Certainly that is unthinkable. It follows that the existence of the Torah itself presents no difficulty, and the dilemma stems solely from Hashem's foreknowledge versus free choice before the Holy One, blessed be He.
אֲנִי פִּי־מֶלֶךְ שְׁמֹר וְעַל דִּבְרַת שְׁבוּעַת אֱלֹהִים׃ (ב) - I counsel you: Keep the king's command, and that on account of the oath of God. (2)
This very question was addressed by the wisest of all men, King Solomon, which is why he opened: "Who is like the wise man, and who knows the explanation of a matter?" - whoever is wise and knows the explanation of the matter should come and provide us with an answer. And now he presents the difficulty: with every action I perform, it seems to me that I choose it through free will, but in truth, "I observe the command of the king" - all my deeds are nothing more than observing the king's decree; I was compelled to act because it issued from his mouth. "And because of the oath of God" - as if an oath of God preceded my deed, as though Hashem swore that this is what you will do, and there is no other possibility. When I perform an action, ultimately I have merely observed the king's bidding and acted in accordance with the Creator's foreknowledge, like a person bound by an oath to do what Hashem knew he would do. If so, where is free will? And if you say there is free will, that means you have negated His foreknowledge, for it cannot be that only after a person chooses and acts does it become known to the Holy One, blessed be He, which would mean His knowledge is retroactive and He did not know beforehand.
אַל־תִּבָּהֵל מִפָּנָיו תֵּלֵךְ אַל־תַּעֲמֹד בְּדָבָר רָע כִּי כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר יַחְפֹּץ יַעֲשֶׂה׃ (ג) - Do not hasten to leave His presence; do not persist in an evil thing, for He will do whatever He pleases. (3)
When any action presents itself to a person, and he deliberates whether to do it or not, Scripture says to him: Do not be flustered, do not start contemplating whether to act or refrain, as though you could "depart from His presence" - as if you were not standing before the Holy One, blessed be He, but separated from Him, possessing an independent will and the choice to act or desist. Furthermore: "Do not persist in an evil thing" - do not stand back and refrain from doing an evil deed when the opportunity arises, for it will not avail; if it has been decreed upon you, you will do it, because if Hashem knows you will do it, you inevitably will. "For He will do whatever He pleases" - whatever Hashem desires, man will do. And it must be emphasized: these are not practical instructions, but merely the presentation of the philosophical difficulty; there is, Heaven forbid, no recommendation here for a person to commit sins on the pretext that this is the Creator's will. For now, Shlomo is only presenting the paradox: it will not avail you to refrain, because you are compelled by the Master of the Universe's foreknowledge.
בַּאֲשֶׁר דְּבַר־מֶלֶךְ שִׁלְטוֹן וּמִי יֹאמַר־לוֹ מַה־תַּעֲשֶׂה׃ (ד) - For the word of a king is sovereign, and who may say to him, "What are you doing?" (4)
Here the Malbim provides a parable: There is a king who is not an absolute ruler over his subjects to do with them as he pleases, but is rather dependent on a council, on the king's close advisors, on people standing before him by whose word every law and judgment is decided. Under such a king, one can still devise schemes to act contrary to his decree, since he is not the final authority and there are other officials who can voice an opinion. But with a king who holds totalitarian power, like the ruler in North Korea, he depends on no one in his country: not the courts, not the council, and not parliament. He is accountable to no one, and can decide tomorrow to execute his brother, as he indeed did. Under such a king, who would dare question his orders, and who would seek schemes to act against his will? Where would you turn - would you petition the Supreme Court? Regarding this it is said, "For the word of a king is sovereign" - this refers to a king who is the sole authority, with no ruler above him and no partner alongside him. Simply put: you have no ability to exercise free will; the king's word is supreme, and what Hashem knew you would do, His knowledge compels you to do, leaving you no possibility of doing otherwise.
שׁוֹמֵר מִצְוָה לֹא יֵדַע דָּבָר רָע וְעֵת וּמִשְׁפָּט יֵדַע לֵב חָכָם׃ (ה) - Whoever observes a mitzvah will know no evil thing, and a wise heart knows time and judgment. (5)
Shlomo continues and says: Observe, one who keeps a mitzvah and performs one of Hashem's commandments - it cannot be said that he kept the mitzvah or refrained from sin through his own power; rather, "he will know no evil thing," as if he has no knowledge whatsoever of how to do evil, and it is impossible for him to do evil. You might say: Here, I performed a mitzvah and refrained from a transgression! But that was not you; it was the will of Hashem. The one who observes the mitzvah cannot truly be defined as a "guardian" or keeper, for he did not guard anything, since he simply does not know how to do evil, and even if he wanted to, he could not, for Hashem's will is that he not do it. And how do I know this? Because in the end, I see that he did not commit a sin, and Hashem certainly knew this beforehand, which means Hashem caused him not to do it. He has no power at all to do evil, for Hashem's foreknowledge essentially prevented him from doing wrong.
"And a wise heart knows time and judgment" - every wise heart will know that all of its actions have a predetermined time: when they will be performed and how they will be performed, just as we explained regarding suffering, where Hashem determines when it arrives, in what measure, and when it departs. If foreknowledge applies to human actions, a wise heart will know that everything has its time. Every action you performed and thought you chose to do has a predetermined time. And "judgment" (mishpat) refers to the predetermined measure: how long the action will endure, its quantity, quality, and duration.
כִּי לְכׇל־חֵפֶץ יֵשׁ עֵת וּמִשְׁפָּט כִּי־רָעַת הָאָדָם רַבָּה עָלָיו׃ (ו) - "For every desire has a time and judgment, for the evil of man is great upon him." (6)
Here he tells you that not only for the actions a person performs is there a fixed time and defined boundary, but also for every desire - meaning, even what you desire in your heart, "whatever he desires." This too is predetermined and known in advance to the Creator of the world, how and when you will desire to do it. And this connects to what we say: "For it is He Who gives you strength to achieve wealth" (Devarim 8:18), which the Targum explains as: He gives you the counsel to acquire property. There are things that are not within our choice: whether a person will be tall or short, wise or foolish, where he will be born - these are among the things determined for him in advance. Likewise, whether a person will be rich or poor is allocated to him, decreed on Rosh Hashanah and also ordained through his mazal, whether upper or lower, as discussed at length in Michtav Me-Eliyahu. And a person might say: "I came up with the idea for an innovative development, a start-up company." They tell you: both the counsel and the idea you conceived are not from you, but from Hashem: "For it is He Who gives you strength to achieve wealth" - counsel to acquire property. Even the counsel, even the thought, this too is from Hashem.
And the verse concludes: "for the evil of man is great upon him" - meaning, it is not that you overcome the evil deed and act through your own free choice; rather, the evil deed seemingly overpowers you. In simple terms: you do not control actions to perform them or refrain from them, but rather the actions seemingly control you as to whether you will act or not act, for according to this premise, man has no free choice; rather, everything stems from the Master of the World's foreknowledge.
כִּי־אֵינֶנּוּ יֹדֵעַ מַה־שֶּׁיִּהְיֶה כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה מִי יַגִּיד לוֹ׃ (ז) - "For he knows not what shall be, for when it comes to pass, who can tell him?" (7)
And if you were to say that Hashem, blessed be He, does not know what will be, I would ask you: "when it comes to pass, who can tell Him?" Does He only find out after the fact? If He only learns of it now, it turns out you are saying that new knowledge is constantly being acquired by the Holy One, blessed be He - that there is a multiplicity of knowledge in Him: at one point He knows this, and at another time that; at one point He knows, and at another He does not know. Knowledge is renewed only in mortal human beings. With the Holy One, blessed be He, His knowledge is His essence, and just as there is no change in His essence, so there is no change in His knowledge. In a human being, knowledge is distinct from his essence: today I know this, and tomorrow I know more, yet I remain the same person, today with less knowledge and tomorrow with more. But with the Holy One, blessed be He, His knowledge and His essence are one. If you say that new knowledge is acquired by Him, you have, as it were, separated His knowledge from His essence, and this does not apply at all to the Creator of the world, for Hashem is an absolute unity, and neither change nor multiplicity can be attributed to Him.
אֵין אָדָם שַׁלִּיט בָּרוּחַ לִכְלוֹא אֶת־הָרוּחַ וְאֵין שִׁלְטוֹן בְּיוֹם הַמָּוֶת וְאֵין מִשְׁלַחַת בַּמִּלְחָמָה וְלֹא־יְמַלֵּט רֶשַׁע אֶת־בְּעָלָיו׃ (ח) - "No man has mastery over the spirit to restrain the spirit, nor is there dominion on the day of death, nor is there a discharge in battle, neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it." (8)
"No man has mastery over the spirit to restrain the spirit" - "spirit" (ru'ach) here means will or desire, as in whatever comes upon your mind (ru'ach). The word nefesh also expresses will, as in: "If it is your wish (nefesh), intercede for me with Ephron the son of Zohar" (Bereishit 23:8), which means your desire. The verse tells you that man has no mastery over his spirit to restrain his spirit - meaning, to hold himself back through his desire and will from something he supposedly does not want, for we have already said that desire itself comes from Hashem, and the will itself, whether you desire to act or to refrain, is known to Hashem, and therefore you have no control over it either.
And besides this, on the day of death too, there is no dominion to do anything, and likewise in war. What does this mean? The vanquished, the one falling by the sword, the killer and the killed - everything is scripted in advance and everything is already known to Hashem. And from this perspective, "neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it": when a wicked deed presents itself to a person and his nature restrains him from it, saying, "I am incapable of stealing, I am incapable of insulting him, I am incapable of doing a wicked deed," according to this explanation the wickedness itself has no power to deliver the person from committing the sin. It is not your conscience, nor is it the wickedness itself that drives you away from the transgression; rather, Hashem delivers you from that wicked deed. Everything is from Him, and wickedness will not deliver its possessor.
אֶת־כׇּל־זֶה רָאִיתִי וְנָתוֹן אֶת־לִבִּי לְכׇל־מַעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ עֵת אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַט הָאָדָם בְּאָדָם לְרַע לוֹ׃ (ט) - "All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun, a time when one man rules over another to his hurt." (9)
Shlomo continues: All this I have seen, and applied my heart to. Not only does Hashem decree the actions a person performs for himself, but even the actions a person carries out toward his fellow - damaging him, striking him, or doing good for him - are likewise not within his free choice. According to this premise, it would be impossible to punish the wrongdoer and impossible to reward the benefactor, for neither the wrongdoer nor the benefactor possesses free choice, and what each will do was already scripted in advance: this one was decreed to be murdered, and that one was decreed to be the murderer.
And part of this we indeed accept as the true conclusion: we accept that it was decreed upon a certain person to die, but not that it was decreed upon you to kill. That is to say, regarding someone who killed another person, you cannot claim that had he not killed him, the victim would still be alive today. No, the matter was already allotted to him, and no person can do anything against the will of the Creator, blessed be He, if life was decreed upon that person. A person does not touch what is designated for his fellow even by a hairsbreadth. Everything concerning your fellow - whatever you did to him - was already decreed upon him, whether for good or for bad. If you did good to him, you were privileged that the good decreed upon him came through you, and you will receive a reward for it; and if you did evil to him, you incurred guilt because the evil due to him came through you. You were the channel, and a pipe through which water flows becomes wet, so you were affected, either for good or for bad. Certainly, what happened to that person was destined to happen to him. This seemingly clashes with Chazal's statement regarding the verse, "His blood and the blood of his descendants cry out to you from the ground" - for if he was destined to die anyway, why are you held accountable for the blood of his descendants? This issue is discussed at length in Michtav Me-Eliyahu, where there is a wonderful explanation that is highly recommended to study.
In any case, Shlomo says here, learn from this that even when a man rules over his fellow to his hurt, it is not in his own hands. Not only was it decreed upon that other person to die, but it was also decreed upon me to kill, or decreed upon me to do good. And according to this argument, when you say there is free choice, that choice paradoxically includes the claim that it was already decreed upon me to harm him.
The conclusion of the chapter teaches us two truths. The first is ethical: "He sees no sleep with his eyes" - a person is immersed day and night in the vanities of the world, blind to the day of death and blind to the repentance set before him. He invests in this world like an owner in his own home, whereas all his toil here is merely a loan he will have to return to his Master, like Reish Lakish who applied to himself the verse, "and leave their wealth to others." Your deeds will bring you close and your deeds will distance you: repentance is close to you and can slip away, while death seems distant from you and can draw near. The second truth is intellectual: "man cannot fathom" - we understand neither the tranquility of the wicked nor the suffering of the righteous, and even the wisest of all men cannot grasp the ultimate purpose of Hashem's providence. Against this backdrop, Shlomo presents throughout the entire chapter, according to the Malbim's explanation, the question of Divine foreknowledge and free will in all its sharpness: "I counsel: keep the king's command," "For the word of a king is sovereign," "For there is a time and judgment for every purpose" - everything appears bound by the Creator's prior knowledge. We have presented this challenge here in all its gravity, and Heaven forbid it be taken as practical guidance, but rather as an opening to its clarification.