Continuing with the theme we have been discussing, we arrive at one of the most difficult verses in the book of Kohelet. King Solomon addresses the young man and seemingly encourages him to do things that are improper: rejoice, follow your heart, follow the sight of your eyes. Chazal keenly felt this difficulty, and therefore expounded upon it with numerous interpretations, each from a different perspective. Let us go through them one by one.
שְׂמַח בָּחוּר בְּיַלְדוּתֶיךָ וִיטִיבְךָ לִבְּךָ בִּימֵי בְחוּרוֹתֶיךָ וְהַלֵּךְ בְּדַרְכֵי לִבְּךָ וּבְמַרְאֵי עֵינֶיךָ וְדָע כִּי עַל כׇּל אֵלֶּה יְבִיאֲךָ הָאֱלֹהִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט׃ - Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Rav Huna resolves the difficulty by dividing the verse in two: 'What is the meaning of what is written, "Rejoice, young man, in your youth"? Up to this point are the words of the Yetzer Hara. "And know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment" - from here on are the words of the Yetzer Tov.' In other words, King Solomon gives voice to the evil inclination, quoting its counsel: rejoice, let your heart cheer you, follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. Then the good inclination steps in and concludes: but do not forget, at the end of every supermarket aisle there is a checkout counter. 'Know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.'
Reish Lakish interprets it entirely differently: 'Up to this point refers to words of Torah, and "know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment" - from here on refers to good deeds.' In his view, there is no mention here of frivolous pleasure at all. 'Rejoice, young man, in your youth' in Torah; 'and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth' that you should master Shas and the Poskim; 'and walk in the ways of your heart' in whichever Torah subjects you desire to study; 'and in the sight of your eyes' that you delve ever deeper into the wisdom of Torah. And 'know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment' is a warning not to neglect the mitzvot either, for if you do not fulfill the mitzvot, God will bring you to judgment. According to this, both parts of the verse deal with spiritual matters, and there is no hint here of pursuing physical desires.
Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak said: The Sages sought to suppress the Book of Kohelet because they found in it statements that tend toward heresy. This is precisely what we noted, that Chazal had serious reservations about this verse. Moses said, 'Do not stray after your heart,' yet Solomon said, 'Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart'! It would seem as though one is permitted to follow his heart, that all restraint has been cast aside, and there is neither judgment nor a judge. But once he concluded, 'And know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment,' they vindicated his words and said: Well spoken, Solomon! Note that this Midrash still does not explain why Solomon chose to phrase things this way, which is clarified by further midrashim.
Rabbi Yudan expounds: 'Rejoice, young man, in your youth' refers to the Mikra (Scripture) that you learned in your childhood. 'And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth' - this is Mishnah. 'And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes' - this is Talmud. And 'know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment' does not refer to a judgment of punishment, but to granting you the reward for your mitzvot and good deeds. That is to say: for all that toil in Mikra, Mishnah, and Talmud that you invested in your youth, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring you into judgment to bestow your reward upon you.
Rabbi Pinchas expounds: "'Rejoice, young man, in your youth' - what caused you to be chosen in your old age? The Torah that you learned in your youth." The word bachur (young man) is related to nivchar (chosen). If today, after you have matured and aged, you are chosen and esteemed, know that it is in the merit of the Torah you learned in your youth. This is something that must always be remembered. When we see a person today who is accorded honor, a gadol hador, a talmid chacham, we praise his current stature. But one must realize that the reason he reached where he is today is what he invested in himself during his youth.
A man once came to ask Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach for guidance. He told him that he learns every evening and strives not to waste time, attending an evening kollel in addition to the kollel where he learns during the day. However, he has many social obligations: a wedding here, a bar mitzvah there, a sheva berachot elsewhere, and all of this takes away from his time. He asked him what he should do. The Rav said to him: "I go to weddings, bar mitzvahs, anywhere I am invited, but I go for a minute, take a brief turn dancing with the chatan, and he is so pleased that this suffices, and I return home. But how did I reach this point? Because when I was your age, I did not go anywhere. I sat and only learned."
The meaning of this is clear: once a person has truly reached the stature of a talmid chacham and a gadol hador, even if he comes for twenty seconds to a wedding, dances a brief circle with the chatan, and takes a picture, that is enough. The host says, "The gadol hador was at my wedding!" Did he sit down and eat? When did he ever eat at weddings? Did he sit with you for two hours? No, he came for twenty seconds and that was enough. And how did he earn this? Because in his youth, he did not attend weddings. Certainly, this is not presented as a directive for the public; there are certainly family and communal obligations, and not everyone is on the level of Rav Shlomo Zalman even in his youth, who was an extraordinary masmid to whom every moment was immensely precious. But the principle must be understood: one does not become great by accident. The reason you are a "bachur" - chosen and distinguished - is because of your youth.
The Midrash adds an important point here: and if you were chosen in your old age, do not distance yourself from words of Torah; rather, "and walk in the ways of your heart" - this refers to the Talmud you learned from your teacher. Often, when a person reaches old age, he feels he can rest on his laurels, that he can retire. A story was once told of what the Rav of Kiryat Ata related: one day he met a man in the street dressed in fine silks like a rabbi. He asked him who he was, and the man replied, "Rabbi So-and-so." He asked if he held a position, and the man said no, but he is a rabbi. He asked him, "Where do you learn?" He replied, "I don't learn; I told you, I am a rabbi." That is to say, he is like a student who earned a degree and that is the end of the matter. Will he sit in university all his life? He finished his degree and that's it; he no longer studies.
Yet in Torah, this is not so. A person must know: if you were chosen in your old age, do not distance yourself from words of Torah; do not feel that you have already attained everything expected of you and that you already know it all. For do you even know all that the Holy One, blessed be He, expects of you? What Hashem expects of a person is a Torah broader than the sea, and about all of this, as the Mishnah Berurah notes, a person will be asked. If someone comes with Mikra in hand, they ask him: "Do you have Mishnah in hand?" If he comes with Mishnah in hand, they ask: "Do you have Gemara in hand?" If he comes with Gemara in hand, they ask: "Did you ever examine the Yerushalmi?" If he has Yerushalmi in hand, they ask about the Poskim, and so forth, all the way to Ma'aseh Merkavah. Who, then, can say, "That is it, I have completed my quota of study"? Therefore, the Midrash says: do not distance yourself from words of Torah even in your old age; rather, "and walk in the ways of your heart" - this is the Talmud you learned from your teacher. And "know that for all these, God will bring you into judgment" - He will pay you the reward for your mitzvot and good deeds. Whatever you add, the Holy One, blessed be He, will reward you for everything, and nothing will be diminished.
On the verse, "and know that for all these, God will bring you into judgment," the Yalkut cites a series of wonderful parables, all reiterating the same idea in different variations. For after saying, "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you" - enjoy yourself and do whatever you wish - what does "and know that for all these" come to teach?
Rabbi Chiyya Rabbah says: A parable of a bandit fleeing from the kustinar, the officer pursuing him. The officer called out to him: "Run less, so that you do not tire on the return! The farther you run, the longer the journey you will have to walk back. In the end, I will capture you and you will return against your will, so you had better stop right now."
Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta presents a similar parable: A person was swimming in the water and drifted far from the shore. They said to him: "Do not venture so far, so that you do not tire on the return! It is pleasant for you to swim deep into the sea, but you will have to swim all that distance back." Each of these parables expresses a particular nuance of the concept, and we need not delve deeply into the differences now, but rather grasp the general idea.
Rabbi Yoshiyah said: A parable of one who evaded the customs tax. When he was caught and apprehended, they said to him: "Produce the tax; pay the customs duty." He said to them: "Yes, of course I will pay." He thought they were demanding payment only for this current instance of smuggling. They said to him: "Do you think we are asking only for this time? We are demanding payment for all the times you were accustomed to smuggling past customs!" That is: we hold you accountable for every single time you made a habit of evading the customs.
Here you have the origin of the tax authority. They catch a person on one infraction and audit him seven years back, times twelve months, hitting him with retroactive demands in the millions. This is what is meant by "and know that for all these, God will bring you to judgment." There is a major lesson here: generally, a person only remembers his most recent sins and forgets the earlier ones, as is human nature that later troubles make one forget the earlier ones. He remembers that here he missed Birkat Hamazon, here he missed a tefillah, here he spoke lashon hara. But to remember sixty years back, seventy years back? To this the verse responds: "for all these" - for everything. What do you think, only for the customs you just smuggled now? Also for whatever you were accustomed to smuggling from time immemorial.
Rabbi Levi said: A parable of a bird that was placed in a cage. Its fellow bird came, stood above it, and said: "How fortunate you are, how readily available your food is! How wonderful, your master puts out a dish of food and a dish of drink for you, and you do not need to toil at all." It replied: "You look at my food, but do you not look at the snare? You envy me for this abundance, but do you not see that I am trapped in a cage? You roam free; you have no prepared food, but you are a free creature, whereas I have food yet I am in a cage." This is the message: a person must not look merely at momentary pleasure, for the end of that pleasure is a cage, a prison, an evil snare where you will be trapped and pay a heavy price.
Another parable: to a scoundrel who entered a shop and said, "Bring me delicacies, fine wine, and a fat capon," and sat down and ate. Like a person who walks into a restaurant, and the waiter asks what he would like to order, and he replies, "Go down the menu, in order, serve everything you have." The waiter serves, and the man eats insatiably, devouring without pause. When the bill comes to several thousand, he looks at it and says, "I have no money." When he tried to walk out, they began breaking his teeth. Everyone understands what "I have no money" means: if you cannot pay, you will pay dearly. They take you to the judge, and break your teeth with gravel. This world, then, is an expensive supermarket. You take and load up your cart, but at the end there is a checkout register, and the Midrash says that in the end they break his teeth.
Rashi asks: How can the verse say, "Rejoice, young man, in your youth," making it sound as though he is commanding him to rejoice? He answers: It is like someone who says to his servant or son, "Sin, sin, for all at once you will be struck for everything." That is: go ahead, keep doing foolish things; all at once I will collect from you for everything. So too here. Do not think that "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart" is permission and encouragement. Rather, it is like one speaking with apparent indulgence: go ahead, continue, and later you will pay for it all. Take, enjoy, do whatever you feel like, but afterward you will have to pay for all your pleasures.
The Imrei Shefer interprets "Rejoice, young man, in your youth" in a decidedly positive sense. In his view, Shlomo comes here to answer the purveyors of vanity who speak ill of our holy Torah, claiming that the Torah has hedged the path of life with thorns and paved it with briars - namely, that the Torah came to make our lives bitter and do us harm, that its mitzvot are meant only to afflict the soul, to abstain from all joy and pleasure, to bow one's head like a bulrush and sit in isolation. Because of this, they rebel against it, pour contempt upon those who cling to it, and mock and deride all who support it. He wrote this during the era of the Haskalah, having lived through that period.
Yet the truth, he explains, is that their right hand is a lie. Never did the Torah command us sadness and grief; does the Holy One, blessed be He, want you to suffer? Nowhere did the Torah warn that a person must abstain from a life of pleasure. On the contrary, the Torah explicitly states: "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, out of an abundance of everything." The Holy One, blessed be He, wants you to serve Him with joy. And when it commands you regarding the pilgrimage festivals, what is said? "And you shall spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for cattle, for sheep... and you shall rejoice." And the Torah commands, "and you shall rejoice," "and you will be altogether joyful." The Torah wants you to be happy.
Our Sages in the Talmud likewise warned in several places against self-affliction. Rabbi Yosi said: An individual is not permitted to afflict himself with fasting, lest he become dependent on others and people have no mercy on him. And what is Rabbi Yosi's reason? Scripture states: "and man became a living soul" - sustain the soul that I placed within you. And Shmuel said: Anyone who sits in fasting is called a sinner, as it says, "and make atonement for him, for he sinned against the soul" - and against which soul did he sin? Rather, he deprived himself of wine. Thus, even for abstaining from wine the Torah took issue. Therefore, Scripture tells you: "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and the sights of your eyes" - whatever your heart desires to do, do, and wherever you choose to go, go. There is only one qualification: that you do not stumble into sin. The Torah never forbade pleasure that contains no sin.
To be sure, the Torah forbids one from being a degenerate within the bounds of the Torah, and certainly the Torah demands: "Sanctify yourself with that which is permitted to you," so that a person does not reach a state where all his days are holidays. Yet the Torah does not require you to afflict yourself. Only one day a year does it ask you to fast, one day and no more. By contrast, Ramadan lasts forty days, which is their way of doing it. And what does the Midrash say? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Did I burden you to bring an elephant as an offering before Me? A lion? A zebra? Did I ask you to go and hunt deer? I told you to bring an ox, a sheep, a goat, from what a person already has in his sheepfolds. I have not burdened you, nor made excessive demands upon you."
The Torah has no interest in burdening a person. The Torah wants man to have a good life, and reality proves this. One who lives according to the Torah experiences good here in this world, not to mention the World to Come: his family life is sound, his children's upbringing is proper, he is blessed with a large household of sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, marries them all off at the right time, and has happiness in life. As for a person who lives without the Torah, it is truly pitiful. Seeing how such people live, what their lives look like, and who their children become later on as the parent ages - who even pays attention to him, who cares about him? It is simply heartbreaking. The Torah comes and says: I am giving you a way to live a good life.
Therefore, nowhere in the Torah - as was already discussed when studying the Kuzari and on other occasions - does it say, "Do what I command you so that you will have it good in the World to Come." The World to Come is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah at all, neither in the Torah nor in Tanach. It always speaks of "that it may go well with you" here in this world, of length of days. And this is not referring to the homilies of Chazal, who certainly expounded "a world that is entirely long" and the like, but rather to the plain meaning of the text. The Torah says: I am giving you a book of life that will grant you happiness here, that will give you the tools to live properly in this world. Thus, the entire purpose of the Torah is to do good for you.
When a person thinks that by grabbing and taking everything he will enjoy it, reality proves otherwise. A child given a candy once every two days will enjoy it far more than a child who has an entire box of candy sitting beside him to take from whenever he wants. The Torah closed the box and gave you the candies in measured doses, and that is how you can truly enjoy them. But one who grabs the whole package and eats it at once gets a stomachache. That is the reality for people outside. A ten-year-old child today is exposed to things that a thirty-year-old was never exposed to in the past, and what psychological scars that inflicts upon his soul! And parents already give him a smartphone from the age of eight. It is terrible.
An investigative report broadcast on one of the channels illustrated what is happening to children. It showed three-year-olds - those familiar with smartphones and those who are not. First, an astonishing thing: when a child accustomed to smartphones and tablets is shown a regular magazine or newspaper, he tries to pinch and zoom with his fingers as if on a screen. He tries again and again, but it does not budge, and he cannot understand why this newspaper does not work. Then they conducted tests on them, and it turned out that those with smartphones suffer from a lack of focus, unable to concentrate even for a few seconds, unable to complete tasks, and lacking any delayed gratification. Everything for them must be immediate.
In one test, two marshmallows were placed before a child, and he was told: "If you wait until I return, you can eat the second one too, but if not, you may take only one." All those who were accustomed to smartphones - little children of three - ate it immediately. Whereas a child who was not, one sees him walking away, occupying himself with something else, returning, looking, and walking away again. Delayed gratification - and in the end, he received both. And the most touching part was that when the child received both, he said: "Abba, I am giving one to you."
From this one sees that when the Torah says something is not recommended, it is not an imposition, but for your own good. A person asks: "Why does the Torah forbid me? Is a smartphone not convenient?" Of course it is convenient! But every time you feel you need it and do not have it, say: "Master of the Universe, for Your honor I do not hold this. For Your honor." Believe me, you will receive an immeasurable reward for this, because everyone has one and everyone is convinced they cannot live without it. And why do you need it? It dulls your mind, consumes hours of your day, and damages your soul. If a person were to reflect, he would see that the Torah desires what is good for him. You say: "This is forbidden and that is forbidden." What would you want, for everything to be permitted? Would that be good for you? Do you think you would enjoy that? A sensible person understands that when you are given everything, you enjoy nothing. When the Torah sets measured doses, it wants you to enjoy life, so that things will be good for you here in this world.
Reality proves this. Is one who enters all sorts of relationships at age fourteen or fifteen better off in life? First, reality proves that nothing remains of these relationships; they are empty connections, and all that lingers is heartache. Second, when he finally arrives at a real relationship, what does he have on his resume, and what does she have on hers? What comparisons does she make, and to whom? She does not arrive pure and holy; she arrives scarred, God forbid. Now he has to measure up in her eyes to the eight who came before, and she has to measure up in his. What kind of life is that, and is it any wonder it does not last long? Through comparisons, she falls short after a year or two, and then he is already looking elsewhere, because there is always something new. So then, is that good for you or not? Build a wholesome life, a stable marriage, one wife, a home, and well-raised children. But when a person is in a perpetual chase, it may look like he is enjoying himself, yet that pleasure is only momentary.
If you eat the entire tub of ice cream all at once, you vomit rather than enjoy it. The Torah wants you to enjoy life slowly. Why did the Torah mandate seven clean days for a niddah? Chazal say: So that she will be as beloved to him as when she entered the chuppah. That is the secret of the Torah: it comes to set the right doses for you. If the doses are right, the Torah says, you will enjoy life. But if not, it may seem to you in that moment that you enjoyed it - you finished the entire package - yet the suffering that follows is what I want to spare you. It is better to eat one ice cream each day than to finish the whole package and suffer afterward.
The verse "Rejoice, young man, in your youth" troubled Chazal to the point that they sought to suppress the book, and it was interpreted in several ways: According to Rav Huna, its first half is the voice of the evil inclination and its second half is the response of the good inclination; according to Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yudan, the entire verse refers to Torah, Mishnah, and Talmud, and the judgment mentioned is a judgment of reward; and according to Rabbi Pinchas, Scripture teaches that one chosen for leadership in his old age owes it to the Torah he learned in his youth, yet even so, he must not distance himself from words of Torah in his old age. The parables of the Yalkut add warnings: Run moderately so that you do not tire on the return journey; do not gaze at the food while ignoring the snare; and do not forget that in the end, an accounting is made for everything and from all times. Rashi explains "rejoice" in the sense of: "Sin, sin - for in the end you will be punished for everything at once." On the other hand, we learned from the Imrei Shefer that the Torah itself does not desire self-affliction and gloom, but rather seeks joy and gladness of heart, simply establishing the proper doses for man. That is the entire secret of joy: not grabbing everything at once and paying dearly for it, but living according to the Torah and enjoying life slowly, in purity and truth.