Chapter 12 of Kohelet is the climax of the book: a piercing depiction of man's decline in old age, out of which emerges a powerful call to remember the Creator while one still has strength. In this lesson, we will examine two of the most difficult verses in the chapter - "Before the silver cord is severed" and "And the dust returns to the earth" - first in their literal meaning according to Rashi, and then we will present the great Midrash Kinot, which interprets all these verses as referring to the Jewish people and the Babylonian exile. We have already stated a general rule: the more difficult a verse is to understand in its literal sense, the more homiletical interpretations are offered for it, to clarify every single word and nuance of meaning.
עַד אֲשֶׁר לֹא יֵרָתֵק חֶבֶל הַכֶּסֶף וְתָרוּץ גֻּלַּת הַזָּהָב וְתִשָּׁבֶר כַּד עַל הַמַּבּוּעַ וְנָרֹץ הַגַּלְגַּל אֶל הַבּוֹר׃ - Before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is shattered, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the pit.
"The silver cord" - Rashi explains: this is the spinal cord, which is white as silver, the cord that runs through the vertebrae. Upon a person's death, the marrow is depleted - the bone marrow dries up and empties out, and the spinal cord bends within the vertebrae, becoming like a chain rather than standing straight. This is the meaning of "yiratek," related to "chains of silver" (retukot kesef), or the twisting of silver threads. All this is the consequence of old age.
"And the golden bowl is shattered" - a "gulah" is a channel or canal that spurts water and springs forth like a fountain, as in the phrase "upper springs and lower springs" (gullot iliyot vegullot tachtiyot - where it is explained that the daughter of Calev asked her father for land, saying, "You have given me a dry land," and asked for water sources as well, so he gave her upper and lower springs) - a place from which water wells up and flows out; it is also possible that "gullot" is related to the revealing (mitgalim) and flowing out of water. "Ve-tarutz" comes from the root of crushing (retzitzah): the golden fountain is crushed and impaired, meaning that a person's ability to discharge urine breaks down, and it may be called "gold" due to the color of urine.
"And the pitcher is broken at the fountain" - this refers to the stomach, which ruptures upon a person's death. "And the wheel is broken at the pit" - Rashi explains: the eyeball is sunken within its socket; as a person ages, his eyes sink inward, and the "pit" is the socket into which the eyeball recedes. Rashi further adds: according to the simple meaning, it refers to the wheel used to draw water from a well - the wheel is broken and shattered, and there is no longer anything to draw. The cistern has dried up, the wheel is broken, and no water can be drawn - a sign that the person has reached the end of his life.
וְיָשֹׁב הֶעָפָר עַל הָאָרֶץ כְּשֶׁהָיָה וְהָרוּחַ תָּשׁוּב אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר נְתָנָהּ׃ - And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Rashi cites Midrash Kinot here, and we intentionally deferred it to this verse rather than introducing it at the start of the chapter - even though the Midrash also expounds the earlier verses - so that the entire progression can be seen in one unified sweep. The Midrash interprets all these verses as applying to the Jewish people on the eve of the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile.
וּזְכֹר אֶת בּוֹרְאֶיךָ בִּימֵי בְּחוּרֹתֶיךָ עַד אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָבֹאוּ יְמֵי הָרָעָה וְהִגִּיעוּ שָׁנִים אֲשֶׁר תֹּאמַר אֵין לִי בָהֶם חֵפֶץ׃ - Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years arrive when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them."
"In the days of your youth" (bechurotecha) - while your chosenness still endures. Notice how many themes the Midrash connects to this concept of youth, all stemming from the root of "chosenness" (bechirah): while the Kehunah (priesthood) still functions, as it is said, "And choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest" - not merely that Kohanim exist in the world, for they exist today as well, but when the Kohanim perform their sacred service and guide the nation. While the Levi'im function, as it is said, "For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes" - when the Levites are still upon their platform in song and musical praise. While the Davidic dynasty stands, as it is said, "And He chose David His servant." While Jerusalem stands, as it is said, "The city that I have chosen." While the Beit HaMikdash (Beit HaBechirah) stands, as it is said, "Now I have chosen and sanctified this House" - which is why it is called the "Chosen House." And while you still dwell securely upon your land, as it is said, "And the Lord has chosen you."
Thus, the verse depicts the status of Israel at the height of its flourishing: the Beit HaMikdash, Kohanim, Levi'im, the Davidic monarchy, Jerusalem, and the Chosen House. "Before the days of trouble come" - the days of trouble refer to the exile. "Remember your Creator," meaning awaken while the prophets are calling you to repentance, before the days of calamity arrive and the dire prophecies uttered by Yirmiyahu and his peers come to pass, forcing you into exile.
עַד אֲשֶׁר לֹא תֶחְשַׁךְ הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וְהָאוֹר וְהַיָּרֵחַ וְהַכּוֹכָבִים וְשָׁבוּ הֶעָבִים אַחַר הַגָּשֶׁם׃ - Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.
"The sun grows dark" - this is the kingdom of the House of David that was taken away, as it says, "And his throne is like the sun before Me"; the throne of the House of David is likened to the sun. "And the light" - this is the Torah, "For a mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light," and as is known, Torah study diminished in the wake of the exile. "And the moon" - this is the Sanhedrin, as it is said, "like a round basin (agan ha-sahar)" - and sahar means moon - for the Sanhedrin sat in a semi-circle, like half of a circular threshing floor. "And the stars" - these are the Rabbis, as it says, "and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars."
And there is a profound lesson here. In general society, people speak constantly of "stars": this one is a rising star, and that one is a star. The verse comes and tells you: the true stars are the Torah leaders of Israel, who turn the masses toward righteousness. Do not look for a soccer star or a movie star - leave those "stars" aside. These are the genuine stars, and with the destruction, "the stars grew dark."
"And the clouds return after the rain" - trouble after severe trouble, where even after the rain has poured, the clouds gather again; this is a sign of a persistent, oppressive state. And you find that all the harsh prophecies that Yirmiyahu prophesied over them came to pass only after the destruction of the Temple.
בַּיּוֹם שֶׁיָּזֻעוּ שֹׁמְרֵי הַבַּיִת וְהִתְעַוְּתוּ אַנְשֵׁי הֶחָיִל וּבָטְלוּ הַטֹּחֲנוֹת כִּי מִעֵטוּ וְחָשְׁכוּ הָרֹאוֹת בָּאֲרֻבּוֹת׃ - On the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the men of valor are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows grow dim.
"When the keepers of the house tremble" - at the hour when the Temple was destroyed; the keepers of the house are the priestly and levitical watches. "And the men of valor are bent" - these are the Kohanim, who were mighty men of strength. Rav Abba bar Kahana said: Aharon waved twenty-two thousand Levites in a single day. Calculate it: a Levite every three seconds, without pause, for twenty-four hours straight! And Rabbi Chanina said: The crop of a bird is a very light object, yet the Kohen would cast it along with its feathers more than thirty amot - a distance of fifteen meters - one of the most arduous tasks in the Beit HaMikdash. Incidentally, the strength of the Kohanim was also evident in the miracle of Chanukah: those who went out to fight were the Hasmoneans, the sons of Matityahu the Kohen Gadol. The Kohanim possessed tremendous power from their service in the House of Hashem.
"And the grinders cease" - these are the great collections of Mishnayot: the Mishnah of Rabbi Akiva, the Mishnah of Rabbi Chiya, the Mishnah of Bar Kappara. "And those who look through the windows grow dim" - because the Talmud was forgotten from the heart. It is possible that he refers to the Talmud as "those who look" (ro'ot), since a person truly perceives the Mishnah only through the Gemara. One who rules halachah directly from the Mishnah brings ruin to the world, for the Gemara clarifies and often shows the opposite: you see Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, but the actual ruling may be reversed, so if you rule straight from the Mishnah, you might rule like Beit Shammai while believing you are following Beit Hillel. Similarly, the Gemara explains, "the text is missing words and should be read like this," or "when does this apply?" The Gemara is "those who look" - it opens your eyes and enables you to see.
וְסֻגְּרוּ דְלָתַיִם בַּשּׁוּק בִּשְׁפַל קוֹל הַטַּחֲנָה וְיָקוּם לְקוֹל הַצִּפּוֹר וְיִשַּׁחוּ כׇּל בְּנוֹת הַשִּׁיר׃ - And the doors shall be shut in the street when the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low.
"And the doors shall be shut in the street" - such as the doors of Nechushta ben Elnatan. The commentators sought to understand who this was, as we find no record of special doors belonging to him in the Beit HaMikdash. The Matnot Kehunah wrote that he was a wealthy, generous man who performed great acts of kindness, meaning that the doors of his house were always open to people in need. However, the Radal, followed by other commentators, explains that this refers to the mother of Yehoyachin, whose name appears in II Kings chapter 24: "Yehoyachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months; his mother's name was Nechushta bat Elnatan." According to this, the Midrashic reading "ben Elnatan" is a scribal error and should read "bat Elnatan," whose doors in Jerusalem were open wide - and at the destruction, they were shut.
"When the sound of the grinding mill is low" - here the Midrash gives the underlying cause of everything that occurred: they did not occupy themselves with Torah. Rabbi Shmuel said: Israel was compared to a grinding mill; just as a mill never ceases, neither by day nor by night, so too, "you shall meditate upon it day and night." A person must constantly grind the words of Torah. Their mills were watermills, turned by a waterwheel, and as long as the current flowed, the mill never ceased, day or night - and that is how Torah study must be. Even in modern idiom, someone reviewing material diligently is described as "grinding through the text" - studying vigorously. This is also the origin of the Talmudic expression regarding someone who speaks without measuring his words: "he was not mindful of his flour" - he was careless about what he ground, mixing fine flour with bran. (The sefarim note that one should avoid this phrase, as it is harsh and somewhat disparaging, suggesting instead to say "it slipped his mind.") Ultimately, Torah study is called grinding, and all that occurred was "when the sound of the grinding mill is low" - because they ceased to grind the words of Torah.
"And one shall rise up at the voice of the bird" - this is the wicked Nevuchadnezzar. Rabbi Levi said: For eighteen years, a Heavenly voice (Bat Kol) went forth and resounded in the palace of Nevuchadnezzar, proclaiming: "Evil servant, go and destroy your Master's house, for the children of your Master do not listen to Him!" A bird usually symbolizes Ruach HaKodesh or the soul, like a cooing dove, and here it alludes to the Bat Kol that stirred him to come and conquer Jerusalem. "And all the daughters of song shall be brought low" - "They shall not drink wine with song." All those who until then feasted and drank from basins of wine - describing the moral decline of the Jewish people prior to the exile - when Nevuchadnezzar arrives, they will be brought low and subdued, bowed down and humbled.
גַּם מִגָּבֹהַּ יִרָאוּ וְחַתְחַתִּים בַּדֶּרֶךְ וְיָנֵאץ הַשָּׁקֵד וְיִסְתַּבֵּל הֶחָגָב וְתָפֵר הָאֲבִיּוֹנָה כִּי הֹלֵךְ הָאָדָם אֶל בֵּית עוֹלָמוֹ וְסָבְבוּ בַשּׁוּק הַסּוֹפְדִים׃ - They shall also be afraid of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way, and the almond blossom shall break forth, and the grasshopper shall become a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the street.
"They shall also be afraid of that which is high" - he feared the Most High of the world, referring to Nebuchadnezzar. For before coming to conquer Jerusalem, he was apprehensive lest what happened to his predecessors be done to him, and therefore he did not rush to march out. "And terrors shall be in the way" - for he sought omens to determine whether or not to go and conquer Jerusalem, related to the verse "the signs at which the nations are dismayed [yechatu]." They would gaze at the sun, the moon, the clouds, and all manner of signs to see if they would succeed. As it is said of him in Ezekiel 21: "For the king of Babylon stood at the fork of the road... to use divination: he shook the arrows, he consulted the teraphim." His fear was like the apprehension we mentioned regarding Nero Caesar: I will conquer Jerusalem, and the One coming after will wipe His hands on me - "lechapurei yadei behahu gavra" - meaning that this person will conquer, and afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring down the conqueror himself.
"And the almond tree shall blossom" - that the prophecy of Jeremiah would sprout, in which it is said, "I see a rod of an almond tree." Rabbi Eliezer said: From the time this almond tree blossoms until its fruit fully ripens is twenty-one days, and likewise from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tisha B'Av is twenty-one days - in such a short span of time came their downfall. Therefore, repent even before the almond tree blossoms.
"And the grasshopper shall become a burden [yistabbel]" - this refers to the idol of Nebuchadnezzar. The Gemara states: Its height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits. And it asks: "And you say he set it up in the plain of Dura?" How could something so tall and narrow stand without a base? Rav Bibi said: They would set it up and it would fall, set it up and it would fall, until they brought all the gold of Jerusalem and poured a masonry layer over its feet - they made a base for it out of all the gold of Jerusalem, like a mound covering its feet to provide stability. This fulfilled what was said, "and their gold shall be an impurity and for tribute." And "impurity [niddah]" - the Gemara notes this is an expression for idolatry, in the sense of being cast off and distanced, "you shall cast them away like an unclean thing [davah]," and just as Rachel said when sitting on the teraphim, "the way of women is upon me"; for idolatry too must be distanced, "get you hence, shall you say to it." Thus their gold became niddah - used for idolatry, to keep it standing. This is "the grasshopper shall become a burden [yistabbel]": it required something to carry burdens [sovel] so it could stand.
"And desire shall fail [vetaper ha'aviyonah]" - when Israel went into exile, the Midrash explains, the merit of the Patriarchs [zechut avot] was annulled. "Aviyonah" is related to avot (fathers), the support of your forefathers - and that support, the merit of the Patriarchs, had run out.
"Because man goes to his eternal home" - this refers to Israel, who are called "the flock of man [adam]," "you are called adam." And "his eternal home" is the exile, to Babylon. The Midrash says: From Babylon they came, and to Babylon they returned, for Terah, the father of Abraham, was from beyond the river, from Babylon - thus when they went into exile, they returned to the very place from which they originated. This is "to his eternal home [beit olamo]": the world [olam] from which he emerged, to there he shall return and be exiled.
"And the mourners go about the streets" - and here lies a fascinating explanation. The marketplace is typically a place of joy, while mourners express grief and sorrow; how do these two join together? The Midrash says: The exile of Jeconiah preceded the exile of Zedekiah by eleven years. When Nebuchadnezzar exiled the people of Zedekiah's exile, he led them in chains, and the people of Jeconiah's exile - who had already lived in Babylon for eleven years - were forced to go out alongside the rest of the city's inhabitants to meet Nebuchadnezzar, praising him as a mighty and victorious conqueror. Consider how horrifying this was: their fellow Jews were being brought in captivity, and they were forced to go out and praise Nebuchadnezzar for his military triumph and might! They would see the captives and ask after their relatives - what happened to so-and-so, what became of another, for they had not been in Jerusalem for eleven years - "What became of him?" And the captives would answer them: those destined for death to death, those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. Imagine, Heaven spare us, hearing about all the tragic fates of their loved ones. "They would applaud with one hand, and with the other hand clap their chests and wail in mourning over their brothers and children" - with one hand clapping for Nebuchadnezzar, for woe to anyone who failed to praise him, and with the other hand beating their chests in agonizing grief over the death of their relatives. This is "and the mourners go about the streets": a person goes out into the marketplace to celebrate with Nebuchadnezzar out of sheer lack of choice, while simultaneously mourning for his relative whose death he has just learned of.
And regarding all of this, he tells them: Repent before the silver cord is snapped. "The silver cord" - this is the chain of genealogy, which would be severed. Indeed, we see that for hundreds of years we have lacked complete genealogical records, and we have no people of confirmed lineage. One might say of someone that he is descended from so-and-so, and that person had a lineage tracing back to another, and he to another - but an unbroken lineage tracing back to Aaron or the House of David has been lost to us ever since. For their reality in Babylon was extremely difficult; when they ascended from there, half of them spoke Ammonite and half Ashdodite, and Ezra had to separate them from the gentile wives they had married. It is written that Ezra made the Land of Israel like dough compared to Babylon, meaning he brought all those of blemished lineage to the Land of Israel so as to leave behind in Babylon the purely refined - and from this you can see how thoroughly the chain of genealogy was severed. Therefore he tells them: Repent even before the silver cord is snapped.
"Or the golden bowl is broken" - these are words of Torah, which are more desirable than gold and fine gold. Torah study beforehand was on a vastly higher level, and afterward it declined - "and the golden bowl is broken." "Or the pitcher is broken at the fountain" - this refers to the pitcher of Baruch ben Neriah at the spring of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was like a spring, a flowing brook, and Baruch ben Neriah his disciple was like a pitcher receiving the waters of the brook, who watered the flock through his pitcher - and from where? From Jeremiah's spring. Repent before the pitcher is broken at the fountain, for both of them were exiled to Babylon and their study was disrupted by the hardships of the journey. This does not mean they ceased studying altogether, but rather that they could no longer study properly and gather public assemblies. At first they were taken to Egypt, exiled by Johanan ben Kareah, and when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Egypt, they were exiled from there to Babylon. "Or the wheel broken at the cistern" - this is Babylon, which is the depths of the world, like the phrase "the depths of the sea [zuto shel yam]," a remote place and an obscure recess cast out from the civilized world.
In the literal sense of the verses, Kohelet depicts the decline of the human body: the spinal cord that becomes knotted like a chain, the spring of bodily fluids that is broken, the belly that ruptures, and the eyeball that sinks - or the broken wheel with which nothing more can be drawn. In Midrash Kinot, however, these very same verses become a lamentation for the Jewish people as a whole: "in the days of your youth" - while the Kehunah, the Levi'im, the Davidic monarchy, Jerusalem, and the Beit HaMikdash still stand; and if you do not awaken to the voice of the prophets, the sun of the Davidic dynasty will darken, the light of Torah will be extinguished, and the moon and stars will grow dark - the Sanhedrin and the rabbis, those who lead the multitude to righteousness, who are the true stars. The cause of it all is stated in the words "when the sound of the mill is low": because they stopped grinding the words of Torah, whereas the millstones of Torah should never cease day or night. From here emerges the call that remains unchanged throughout the generations: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, while the silver cord is still attached and the golden bowl remains whole.