In this part of Chapter 8, Shlomo HaMelech deals with one of the most difficult and painful questions: the righteous person who suffers, and the wicked person who prospers - tzaddik ve-ra lo, rasha ve-tov lo. The Malbim emphasizes that Kohelet is not attempting here to grasp the essence of the Creator. "If I knew Him, I would be Him" - as Rav Saadiah Gaon stated: it is impossible to claim that one can comprehend His essence, may He be blessed. "Can you search out the depths of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?" (Iyov 11:7); "No thought can grasp Him at all" (leit machshavah tefisa beh klal). That is entirely impossible, and I did not even attempt it. What then? I am approaching this from the perspective of what I observe - the tangible, jarring, perplexing realities that leave a person unsettled when witnessing injustice, things that seemingly defy righteousness and logic: the wicked succeeds and the righteous is tormented, the wicked celebrates and the righteous suffers.
וּבְכֵן רָאִיתִי רְשָׁעִים קְבֻרִים וָבָאוּ וּמִמְּקוֹם קָדוֹשׁ יְהַלֵּכוּ וְיִשְׁתַּכְּחוּ בָעִיר אֲשֶׁר כֵּן עָשׂוּ, גַּם זֶה הָבֶל׃ - And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and departed from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city where they had acted so; this too is vanity.
I saw wicked people who, according to the wickedness of their deeds, deserved to be in the grave already, yet I see them coming and going and prospering. "And departed from the holy place" - everyone praises them as if they had just stepped out of the Beit Midrash and the Beit HaMikdash, as if they were spiritually exalted and had fulfilled the entire Torah. "And were forgotten in the city" - and afterward they are forgotten like a dead person out of mind, and no one remembers them any longer.
Regarding this, Chazal say: What do the righteous resemble in this world? Like someone who burned the entire Torah. And what do the wicked resemble? Like someone who fulfilled the entire Torah. Notice the sheer power of this expression. When you look at the tribulations that befall the righteous in this world, he appears like someone who burned the entire Torah. And when you see the wicked celebrating, you say: this is surely what a person who fulfilled the entire Torah looks like - for otherwise, why does he fare so well? In other words, we see an upside-down world here: the righteous person, instead of enjoying life, suffers as though he committed transgressions; and the wicked person, instead of suffering, enjoys life as though he fulfilled mitzvot.
From this arises the primary claim of the skeptics: that man has no mastery over his actions, that he is coerced in everything he does, whether wicked deeds or righteous ones, and that there is neither judgment nor reckoning. To this, the verse concludes: "This too is vanity." This argument, too, is futility. To come and claim that there is no justice and no uprightness, that the righteous receives according to the deeds of the wicked and the wicked according to the deeds of the righteous, as though the Holy One, blessed be He, does not establish His world upon justice - and likewise to argue that Hashem knows everything in advance, so one cannot hold me accountable if I did evil, nor withhold reward if I did good - this too is vanity.
אֲשֶׁר אֵין נַעֲשָׂה פִתְגָם מַעֲשֵׂה הָרָעָה מְהֵרָה, עַל כֵּן מָלֵא לֵב בְּנֵי הָאָדָם בָּהֶם לַעֲשׂוֹת רָע׃ - Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Since the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly, one sees a sinner doing evil a hundred times and Hashem being patient with him. Yet this very fact is what proves free choice. For if the Holy One, blessed be He, were to punish the wicked immediately, it would strip away their free choice: the moment someone did an evil deed, he would be harmed, slapped down instantly. In such a reality, free choice would be nullified. Thus, the very thing that poses a question is itself the answer. The question is: why does evil not strike the wicked immediately, and why does good not come to the righteous immediately, leading people to think that not everything is from Hashem, but rather that everything is predetermined? The answer is precisely the opposite: here, of necessity, you see free choice.
For if the wicked were immediately punished and the righteous were immediately rewarded, free choice could not be preserved at all. As discussed previously: the world would not be divided into righteous and wicked, but into wise and foolish. Only a complete fool would commit a transgression knowing that punishment would strike immediately. Who would eat forbidden food knowing it would get stuck in his throat and cause him to choke and die? A few such incidents would be enough for everyone to realize that it does not pay to be a transgressor. After all, people are careful not to stick their hand into fire even without a Torah prohibition against it. In the same way, the Holy One, blessed be He, could have made transgressions and mitzvot so obvious that a person would realize it is never worth sinning. But then He would not have human beings, but angels - and of angels He has plenty; He would have robots. Hashem does not want robots; Hashem wants you to have free choice. And to create a framework of free choice, it must be possible to do evil without being punished immediately, and to do good without receiving immediate reward. Such a framework is essential, and it is itself the proof of the existence of free choice.
And this is what the verse means: the reason the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly is "therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" - so that their heart would be emboldened to act. For had the punishment arrived swiftly, their heart would not embolden them to do evil - and that would not be desirable, because their restraint would stem merely from fear, and that is not true free choice. On the contrary, Hashem wants a person's heart not to be emboldened to do evil out of genuine reverence of Hashem and out of devotion to Him. Therefore, whether you do evil or good, you will not receive immediate reward or punishment. Do not be dismayed: Hashem wants you to choose for yourself. That is the whole point.
אֲשֶׁר חֹטֶא עֹשֶׂה רָע מְאַת וּמַאֲרִיךְ לוֹ, כִּי גַּם יוֹדֵעַ אָנִי אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה טּוֹב לְיִרְאֵי הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר יִירְאוּ מִלְּפָנָיו׃ - Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his days, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who stand in awe before Him.
You see the sinner doing evil "a hundred" - even a hundred times - and Hashem is patient with him and prolongs his days. Nevertheless, "I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God": their reward will be greater, and the reason is "who stand in awe before Him." It is precisely on account of this that their reward increases. For if one has the capacity to do good or evil, and moreover, if one sees the evildoers prospering, yet one's refraining from evil comes out of awe of Hashem and out of cleaving to Him - how greatly that magnifies one's reward!
It is written in the holy books that toward the coming of Mashiach, the trials will be so severe that they will resemble the test of Eliyahu and Achav on Mount Carmel, except that the fire will descend precisely for the prophets of Baal. And this indeed happened: as anyone familiar with history knows, in the period following the founding of the State, this is essentially what took place. Why did so many abandon their Judaism? Because they saw the wicked prospering. Here people threw off the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, and everything went smoothly and succeeded for them. Such a trial, where fire falls for the prophets of Baal, where wicked people achieve success - injects a thought into a person's mind: Why do I need to be so cautious and meticulous in keeping Torah and mitzvot, when Hashem performs miracles even for the wicked? We hope that we have already passed this trial, that it is behind us, and that no such test will ever confront us again.
Regarding this, Scripture comes and states: "I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who stand in awe before Him." Precisely because you see the wicked prosper and nevertheless refrain from wicked deeds out of fear of Hashem and cleaving to Him - your reward becomes incomparably greater. A person could choose the easy path of the wicked, who lives freely and does whatever he pleases, and behold, he prospers; and this stings. Yet despite this, a person cleaves to Hashem, even when it seems he is losing out, even when he pays a heavy price, even when people mock him and make him a byword and pierce him with hurtful words - yet he clings to Hashem. For this, the Holy One, blessed be He, magnifies his reward. This is why Hashem structured the world this way: so that our awe would be an awe of His majesty (yirat haromemut), not merely fear of punishment.
However, the Malbim notes that despite this answer, the mind is still not fully at ease. For either way, the attribute of justice appears compromised. Even granted that free will was preserved - a situation remains where the wicked receives good and the righteous suffers evil. Why does Hashem not maintain the ledger of justice here in this world as well, granting material reward as promised in the Torah? To explain this matter, the Malbim presents a wondrous parable that illuminates the issue clearly, bringing "gladness to the upright in heart." The parable is written in his customary poetic prose, and it reflects the reality of our world point by point.
A certain king had two servants. One was faithful to him, and the king loved him with all his soul; the other was evil in his deeds, and the king hated him. The king commanded them both to perform a great task for his royal needs, and announced their reward: whichever of them was diligent and succeeded in carrying out the matter according to his will - the king would crown him with a royal diadem, mount him upon the royal steed, and heralds would proclaim before him, "Bend the knee!" He also warned both of them against a certain forbidden act, cautioning them that whoever violated his command and did that which he detested - the king would strip him naked, clothe him in tattered rags, and label him a disgraceful, shameful son. He who did good would receive a great reward, and he who committed the forbidden act would receive severe punishment, public disgrace, and ragged garments.
Both of these servants, the beloved and the despised, succeeded in performing the royal mission just as the king had desired. Both carried out the project, and reward was due to both of them. However, both of them also rebelled against the king's warning not to commit the act that his soul abhorred - they transgressed the decree and did that very thing against his will. The king had forbidden it, yet they did it: both the beloved and the despised.
One day, the king found himself with his two servants in an isolated forest in the wilderness. He commanded his attendants to take the servant he loved, strip him bare, dress him in patched, worn-out rags, and humiliate and revile him. Regarding the servant he hated, the king commanded to crown him with a royal diadem, seat him upon the royal steed, and wind a glorious turban about his head. The king's attendants marveled to one another in astonishment, and the faithful servant was deeply grieved, crying out at the injustice: Where is the reward for my labor, I who am the loyal servant, and now you clothe me in tattered rags and subject me to shame? Where is the covenant of his love, that he should favor the son of the despised over the firstborn of the beloved?
Many days later, it was market day in the royal capital, where all the citizens of the realm gathered, numerous and distinguished. The king commanded to take the servant he hated, strip him naked and barefoot according to his judgment, and chastise him through all the city streets - for he had violated the king's command, and the king had decreed this to be his punishment. As for the beloved servant - the king placed the royal diadem upon his head, mounted him in royal garments before this vast assembly and before all the visiting kings, and they proclaimed before him: "Thus shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!"
What actually happened here? The wicked servant received the reward for the good he did in the desert, and the punishment for the evil he did in the city streets. And the good servant received the punishment for the evil he did in the desert, and royal honor for the good he did in the city streets. "Then the king's justice and his great wisdom became known."
For he was bound to give each one his reward and his punishment as he had promised them - for the Holy One, blessed is He, is righteous and without injustice, and every person receives exactly what he deserves, with no discounts. Yet it was repulsive in his eyes to bestow all this great honor upon his enemy, and this great contempt upon his trusted household member and beloved, shaming him publicly in the city streets. Therefore, he preemptively paid the reward to his enemy and the punishment to his beloved in the forest of the wilderness, in a place where no one was present.
There he gave the prize to the enemy and the punishment to the beloved, in such a way that the honor shown to the enemy was considered nothingness and void. What kind of honor is that? You were paraded on a horse before the beasts of the field! It was meaningless, since no human being saw it, only desert thorns and briers; and it also did not last, for afterward the king took the cup of wrath and made him drink his fill before many nations, shaming him in the city streets as he deserved for his transgression. Likewise, the disgrace he inflicted then upon his beloved was fleeting and insignificant - in the wilderness, before thorns and briers, it was no great shame.
By contrast, the great honor and the great disgrace done to both of them inside the royal city was recorded as a memorial and will never be erased. All the people saw it, and the matter was etched for generations: what immense honor the beloved son received, and what severe humiliations the shameful servant endured.
The Malbim explains: Now, who could understand the king's thought and deep counsel in the forest fields, as he poured the cup of wrath upon his beloved while blessing his enemy with illusory honor? The king's servants were left there in the desert with questions: It makes no sense! You torment and disgrace your beloved, while honoring your enemy? But "the end of a matter is better than its beginning": the honor shown to the shameful and disgraceful servant is actually the ultimate disgrace and fury, testifying to the king's hatred of him and his plan to destroy him - for afterward in the city he would receive nothing but humiliation, having already consumed all his honor there in the forest. And the anger he displayed toward his beloved, embarrassing him before the forest trees - on the contrary, it was the ultimate expression of love and a mark of glory, for he intended to honor him and adorn him with the diadem and bracelets at the public gates; he reserved that honor for him in the city before everyone.
And so does the great King to Whom the kingship belongs deal with His servants dwelling in this lowly realm, having promised an abundant reward to those who observe His commandments, and disgrace and wrath to those who transgress His will. Inevitably, even His righteous servants whom He loves will fail in some commandment for which they incur the designated punishment - for it is impossible that even a tzaddik would have no sin, as "there is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin." Likewise, the wicked sometimes perform one of Hashem's commandments, and He must pay their reward. Did the wicked person never honor his parents? Did a poor man never approach him and receive a coin? And so forth. Yet neither of these is pleasing before Him: to honor His enemies, or to disgrace His beloved ones for the few transgressions they possess.
Therefore, Hashem does not want to do this in the spiritual realm, in His royal city, where honor is eternal honor and disgrace is everlasting shame. What did He do? He divided the reward and punishment between the two realms, preemptively paying the reward to the wicked here in the valley of tears. Let him celebrate: he feels like the chief justice of the Supreme Court, rides in a luxury car, everyone answers to him - let him have it; it will end eventually. Here in the valley of tears, in the material world where everyone is like dead corpses, He crowns him with royalty - with the royalty of fleeting, imagined success, of false happiness and honor that has no true substance. The status is passing: either it will pass from you, or you will pass from it.
For all of temporal existence is rooted in falsehood, unformed and void, nor does it endure: "In an instant, he keeps watch over the tomb," as if already laid in the grave; in another moment his pomp and multitude will descend into the depths of the pit. Meanwhile, He clothes His faithful beloved here in worn-out rags - the tzaddik suffers here - stripping him bare and submitting him to contempt in the eyes of severed thorns, mindless toilers, and dying flies that melt away. Before the flies and all the coarse material reality here, the righteous person undergoes his humiliations. But what follows? An eternity of eternities in the World of Truth.
And one who has eyes to discern temporary honor and success, recognizing that it is nothingness, and that all the toil and contempt within it are likewise sheer emptiness - would he truly grieve over missing out on a temporary crown woven from spiderwebs, gilded with shining mud, like rotting wood that glows faintly in the pitch-black night? On the contrary, let him rejoice in the worn-out rags with which temporal life clothes him. One who has eyes will actively seek worn-out rags here in this world and will not prefer the crown here; otherwise, one is like that shameful, rebellious servant who took the crown already here - and what will remain for you there? We have discussed on several occasions that the righteous do not want to take anything from this world, because whatever one takes from here comes at the expense of there.
Thus, anyone with eyes will truly scorn all the affairs of this world, and like a bridegroom wearing a priestly headdress, he will stand in glory, majesty, and splendor in the House of God, within the kingdom of the soul - and this kingdom is forever, never to cease. Concerning this it is said (Shabbat 30b): "Anger is better than laughter," and "through sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" - the anger that the Holy One, blessed is He, directs at the righteous in this world is good for them. Seek the worn-out rags in the desert, out there, and that will save you from worn-out rags in the city before the eyes of all the people and the crowd - it will save you from worn-out rags in the World of Truth. "Through sadness of the countenance the heart is made better": this anger is merely a temporary punishment, and it is a sign of complete love, meant to benefit their ultimate destiny in the eternal world.
And the amusement Hashem has with the wicked is mere mockery, devoid of any real benefit. He behaves like a madman before the lowly stones of the field, proclaiming that his house is full of wealth and riches, strutting about with arrogance, imagining he is someone of stature - yet he is like the mire of the streets in the eyes of the spiritual soul, which is the true essence of man. We look at a person, and as noted previously, appearances mislead us, for our gaze shows us only temporary, external success. But one endowed with spiritual vision does not look at things this way; instead, he asks: Who is this person? After all, he commits transgressions and sins punishable by karet, Heaven spare us. He has no real soul-life. What seems to you to be alive and active here is like the severed tail of a lizard - it twitches, but it is not truly alive. "Will you cast your eyes upon it, and it is gone?" - a virtual reality.
If so, what are you getting excited about? His success? The "good life" he seems to be enjoying? After all, for a single willful desecration of Shabbat, Gehinnom itself is exhausted; it incurs karet, it incurs stoning - and you envy him? Over what? Over his financial situation being better than yours? Is that what you truly desire, to be mounted on a horse and crowned in the desert? If you truly understand the emptiness of these vanities, you will not grieve over the absence of their splendor. Does the spiritual soul benefit from gourmet steaks, or suffer without them? Such matters do not speak to it at all. On the contrary, the honor given to the wicked here is a sign that he is despised in the eyes of Hashem, Who repays him to his face in order to destroy him and cut him off forever, in line with the aforementioned parable: if you received great honor here in the desert, that alone tells you what awaits you in the royal city.
וְטוֹב לֹא יִהְיֶה לָרָשָׁע וְלֹא יַאֲרִיךְ יָמִים כַּצֵּל, אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ יָרֵא מִלִּפְנֵי אֱלֹהִים׃ - But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
יֶשׁ הֶבֶל אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשָׂה עַל הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר יֵשׁ צַדִּיקִים אֲשֶׁר מַגִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַעֲשֵׂה הָרְשָׁעִים, וְיֵשׁ רְשָׁעִים שֶׁמַּגִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַעֲשֵׂה הַצַּדִּיקִים, אָמַרְתִּי שֶׁגַּם זֶה הָבֶל׃ - There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: that there are righteous men unto whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked men unto whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous; I said that this too is vanity.
What you observe - that the righteous person receives in this world what seems due to the wicked, and the wicked receives the judgment due to the righteous - is not an absolute, true vanity. It is a vanity "upon the earth" alone, precisely as the verse phrases it: "There is a vanity which is done upon the earth." As seen in the parable, there, in the World of Truth, everything is for all eternity. Here you might say: Look, see how the righteous one was repaid, he is suffering. To this Scripture replies: This is a vanity that occurs upon the earth, but in the World of Truth, you will see the true, eternal reward.
This concludes the explanation regarding the question of the righteous who suffer and the wicked who prosper. Regarding the core question of free will and the Creator's foreknowledge - as noted earlier, one who wishes may listen to the lessons mentioned previously, where this was addressed at length, showing that in actual practice man possesses free will. The discussion is extensive and will not be dwelled upon here. This concludes Chapter 8.
In this part of Chapter 8, Kohelet teaches us not to judge the world by what meets the eye. We do not presume to understand the essence of the Creator - "If I knew Him, I would be Him" - but rather to confront the jarring sight of the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering. The delay of retribution is not a difficulty, but the answer itself: it is the very foundation of free will, for if reward and punishment were instantaneous, humanity would be divided into the clever and the foolish, rather than the righteous and the wicked. Furthermore, one who refrains from evil precisely when seeing the wicked prosper receives a magnified reward, for his fear of Heaven is an awe of Divine majesty. The Malbim's parable of the two servants clarifies the rest: the king repays his enemy for his few good deeds and his beloved servant for his few misdeeds here, in the forest and desert - in a realm of no true substance or permanence - so as to reserve eternal honor for his beloved and eternal disgrace for his enemy in the royal city, before all eyes and for all generations. Thus, "Anger is better than laughter, for through a sad countenance the heart is improved": the anger displayed here is a sign of complete love, and the fleeting success of the wicked is nothing more than a crown of cobwebs. One who has true eyes will despise the vanities of this world, serving like a glorious bridegroom in the House of God within the everlasting kingdom of the soul.