We are in the concluding verses of the Book of Kohelet. The chapter has described the days of old age and man's departure to his eternal home, and at the culmination of this description comes the great call to repentance, followed by the book's final seal. In the passage before us, we will study the teachings of the holy Alshich regarding the three passions that destroy a person, the words of the Midrashim and the Gemara on "and the dust returns to the earth," and the Alshich's wonderful explanation for why the conclusion of the book is stated in the phrasing "said the Kohelet" - in the third person and with the definite article.
עַד אֲשֶׁר לֹא יֵרָתֵק חֶבֶל הַכֶּסֶף וְתָרוּץ גֻּלַּת הַזָּהָב וְתִשָּׁבֶר כַּד עַל הַמַּבּוּעַ וְנָרֹץ הַגַּלְגַּל אֶל הַבּוֹר׃ - Before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is shattered, and the pitcher is broken at the spring, and the wheel is broken at the pit.
The holy Alshich explains that this verse is a direct continuation of the preceding verse, "and the mourners go about the marketplace." For what do the mourners say? That is the verse before us. The mourners circulating in the marketplace call out to the public: "Before the silver cord is severed" - meaning, before all this happens, repent.
To understand this, the Alshich presents a fundamental premise: three desires destroy a person. The first is the lust for wealth, accumulating money like dust. Even if a person has more than enough for himself, his children, and his entire household after him, the compulsive drive and eagerness give him no rest. The second is the craving for food, eating delicacies and drinking sweets; he is always pursuing the latest culinary novelty, the finest of the fine, never satisfied with a simple slice of bread and cheese. The third is the lust and desire for women.
The Alshich explains: if someone is afflicted with only one of these three desires, his rectification is not overwhelming; it is still manageable, and he can still reform. If he is afflicted with two, rectifying himself becomes much harder. But if all three are intertwined and combined in a single person, Heaven spare us, then hope is lost. In his poetic words, adapting the verse: "A three-ply cord is not easily severed" - once all three cravings are concentrated in one person, they do not easily break away from him, and even one of them can bring swarms of evils upon him from which he cannot heal.
Indeed, we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, divided these desires among people. One person has an obsession with wealth while other matters appeal to him far less - mention money to him, and he will run from one end of the earth to the other for another penny. Another person is calm and indifferent regarding finances, but in matters of modesty, may Hashem protect us. And another is unmoved by either, yet offer him a fine feast and you have won him over. Only when all three become intertwined together does a person become virtually incurable.
Based on this, the wording of the verse is explained: yērātēk is related to retukot kesef ("chains of silver"), which denotes braided work - not a single strand, but a woven, three-ply cord. And kesef ("silver") here is related to kosef (yearning or craving), as in "my soul yearns (niksefah) and pines." The mourners therefore cry out to those immersed in the pleasures of this world: before the cord of craving is braided together - before your rope of desire becomes a three-ply cord made of all three types of lust - repent! For reflect: each and every one of them is utter vanity.
The lust for wealth - wealth does not endure. A person makes money today and falls tomorrow, succeeds in one venture and fails in another. Concerning this, the verse says, "and the golden bowl is shattered" - that golden vessel rolls about, falls, and breaks. What remains today of the fortunes of the legendary magnates of a century ago? Almost all of it is gone. One can cite world wars, but the reality is that riches do not last forever, and financial wealth does not endure for generations upon generations.
It is told of one of the wealthy magnates of Poland, Poznanski, who remarked that he did not forgive Rav Kahaneman, of blessed memory. When asked why, he replied: when the Rav came to collect tzedakah from us, he was too gentle; he did not demand as assertively as he should have. "Look," he said, "when Lenin, Stalin, and the Bolsheviks arrived, they confiscated everything. And I am left stunned: for generations my ancestors amassed wealth - only for Stalin, Lenin, and their comrades! They worked so hard for them. Therefore, I do not forgive him, for had he asked and demanded properly, at least something would have remained for us in the World to Come, 'and your righteousness shall go before you.' For whom did we labor? For this tyrant, this enemy of Israel?" That is "and the golden bowl is shattered" - wealth will perish and sprout wings.
The second matter is the craving for food, regarding which it says: "and the pitcher breaks at the fountain." This is akin to what Chazal expound on the verse, "And I will spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your festive offerings": three days after a person's passing, his belly bursts open and all its foul refuse spills over his face and his mouth, Heaven spare us, as if saying to him: "Take what you put into me; take back everything you stuffed inside." And woe to that great shame!
And this is "and the pitcher breaks" - the pitcher is the belly, which one fills up just as one fills a pitcher. "At the fountain" - the fountain is the place from which everything flows, the mouth. In other words: repent in teshuvah before the pitcher bursts and spills its contents back onto the fountain.
The third matter is the lust for women, regarding which it says, "and the wheel is broken at the pit" - distance yourself from it before your skull rolls into the pit of destruction. For one who squanders his strength on women first loses his physical vitality, as the Rambam writes: old age leaps upon him, his teeth fall out, and his hair sheds. Second, the power of his mind and his senses is depleted.
And so you see in the world: you will not find someone of towering intellect who was also an elite athlete. Why? Because if one is absorbed in developing the body, it comes at the expense of the soul, at the expense of the higher dimensions of man. And if this is true among the nations of the world, all the more so does Torah not reside alongside coarse physical indulgence. Even men of science, those considered intellectuals, were people detached from the bodily passions of this world; they were immersed in research and deep contemplation, and even if there are anecdotes here and there, that was not their essence. Their true focus was engagement with conceptual truths, and one cannot engage with conceptual truths when one's mind and being are preoccupied with cheap and degraded pursuits. Therefore, "and the wheel is broken at the pit" - the skull rolls toward the grave: it cuts short his days, stultifies his thought, and damages his body.
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.
The Pesikta Zutarta explains: "And the dust returns to the earth as it was" - this refers to the body, as it says, "For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." "And the spirit returns to God Who gave it" - these are the souls of the righteous. For one cannot say that the spirit returns to God in every circumstance; there are cases where the spirit wanders, and cases where it descends into Gehinom. Regarding whom was it said, "and the spirit returns to God Who gave it"? Regarding the souls of the righteous, as it says, "may the soul of my lord be bound in the bundle of life with Hashem your God." Otherwise, it is handed over to Dumah, handed over to harmful and destructive agents.
Rashi explains that this verse too describes the plight of Israel, continuing the Midrash cited earlier regarding the exile. "And the dust returns to the earth as it was" - from Babylon they came, and to Babylon they returned. "And the spirit returns to God Who gave it" - this refers to Ruach HaKodesh, for once the Holy Spirit departed, they were exiled. The Shechinah had rested in the Beis HaMikdash, and when they were exiled, the Shechinah ascended, as it is written that the Shechinah traveled ten journeys until it ascended on high and returned to its place. The Holy One, blessed be He, rested His Shechinah here below, and once we were exiled to Babylon, the Shechinah, so to speak, detached and returned to its heavenly abode.
The holy Alshich continues here based on the principle he introduced regarding the three lusts: if you are not careful, and these three cravings take hold of you, know that "the dust returns to the earth as it was." The Alshich emphasizes that this does not refer to after death, which is obvious - do we need King Solomon to tell us that dust returns to the earth? What else is done with a deceased person if not buried? For that, Solomon's wisdom is hardly needed! Rather, the verse speaks of during a person's lifetime: man reverts to being mere dust, as he was before. A person who chases physical cravings - what is he? A clod of earth, animalistic and coarse. He elevates the material side of his being and allows it to dominate, while extinguishing his spiritual side and denying it vitality.
And what happens to the spiritual dimension? "And the spirit returns to God Who gave it" - the soul does not remain with him. The holy Arizal explains: man possesses the levels of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. When a person sins, the first level to depart from him is the neshamah, which is transcendent - hovering above the head and projecting sparks of light into his mind, the realm of the mochin, unlike the nefesh whose seat is in the liver and the ruach whose seat is in the heart. The moment a person sins, the neshamah detaches and leaves, and subsequently the ruach does as well. The nefesh remains in any case, albeit blemished, and through the nefesh one has the opportunity to draw back the ruach and the neshamah. But if one corrupts himself entirely, Heaven spare us, he reaches the state of "that soul shall be utterly cut off" - an aspect of kareis within the nefesh itself.
So too, the Ari z"l says regarding one who becomes angry: "He tears his soul in his anger" (Iyov 18:4) - his holy soul becomes like a treifah, as if Satan slaughtered it with a blemished knife. And then, even if he accomplished many rectifications during his lifetime, he must start all over again; for if they grant him a soul, it is a new one, and he must begin everything anew from the beginning.
And this is what Chazal say: the wicked are called dead even while alive. It seems to you that he is here shouting, speaking, kicking, and cursing - but it is nothing, do not be shaken by him. "Do you let your eyes glance at it, and it is gone?" (Mishlei 23:5). He is a virtual figure; he does not truly exist. He makes an impression - a suit, elevated rhetoric, cursing in polite phrasing without stooping low - but he does not exist. If Moshiach were to arrive at this very moment, you would suddenly see an empty space: he is gone. Where did he disappear to? Someone was here, was there not? An optical illusion - he never truly was. From the moment he reached a state of kareit, he is no longer part of this world.
And as Rebbe Nachman of Breslov says: this world misleads us greatly. We are corporeal beings who observe through the physical senses, and therefore we are easily impressed - "Do you know what so-and-so said...". And who is that so-and-so? To a person living a spiritual life, who are they at all? Spiritual reality is what truly exists, and everything else is merely background noise. When a person is with the Holy One, Blessed is He, he sees what needs to be seen, the true reality. And if not - a person walks around here appearing alive, but he is merely dust walking upon the earth.
At first glance, this is difficult: if the verse speaks of a wicked person, what is the meaning of "and the spirit returns to God who gave it"? The Alshich explains that this is, as it were, the complaint of Ruach HaKodesh, saying: If only the spirit would return to God just as He gave it! The Holy One, Blessed is He, placed a divine portion within us, "the soul You gave me is pure" - if only it would return in that same pure state.
A story is told of the Chofetz Chaim, who once announced to his students that at three in the morning he wished to deliver a discourse. The rumor spread throughout Radin, and everyone assumed he was about to speak about Moshiach or the current era; at three in the morning, the beit midrash was packed. The Chofetz Chaim said to them: This morning I recited Birkat HaShachar, and I noticed something I had never paid attention to until now, and I want to share with you what I felt. We recite, "My God, the soul You placed within me is pure; You created it, You fashioned it, You breathed it into me, You safeguard it within me, and You will eventually take it from me and restore it to me in the Time to Come." Notice: it does not say "and restore a soul to me in the Time to Come," but "restore it to me" - the very same soul taken from you is the one that will return to you. In simple terms: if a person leaves this world with a damaged soul, a damaged soul will return to him. There are no refurbishments. Whatever left you - that is what will return. Gentlemen, we must repair it now. And that was it; with that he concluded his discourse - and it remained engraved for generations in the hearts of his students.
The Gemara in Shabbat 152b states regarding this verse: Rabbi Abbahu said, whatever is said in the presence of the deceased, he knows, until the grave is sealed (setimat hagolel), as it is written, "And the dust returns to the earth as it was." That is, only when the dust returns to the earth does he lose his senses and is considered dead in the full sense; but before that, he still hears and knows everything taking place. Therefore, the Gemara discusses whether a eulogy is for the honor of the living (yekara dechayei) or the honor of the deceased (yekara deshichvei). And there the sage said: "Warm up the eulogy, for I am standing there" - stir the crowd during the eulogy, for I am present there. In its straightforward meaning: I am present at the funeral, hearing and knowing; and the Gemara adds that the deceased hears praise spoken of him as though in a dream - he also hears any slander spoken against him, all like a person inside a dream.
Commentators ask: Is this truly what concerns him now, as one who has died, that things should be said about him to make the crowd weep? Commentators explain that this is not the literal meaning; rather, "for I am standing there" refers to the verse, "And I will grant you free access among these who stand here" (Zechariah 3:7). Here in this world, a person is in the state of a "mover" (mehalekh), whereas in the world above he is already "stationary" (omeid); but if he left merits behind in this world, he continues to advance even above, for his merits continue to work and yield dividends for him. This was his request: stir the listeners in the eulogy so that they will be inspired by my passing, and through this I will remain in the category of a mover - for up there I am stationary, and there I can no longer perform additional mitzvot on my own.
The Gemara further states: Here it is written, "And the dust returns to the earth as it was," and elsewhere it is written, "and jealousy is rot to the bones" (Mishlei 14:30) - this teaches that whoever harbors jealousy in his heart, his bones rot; but whoever has no jealousy in his heart, his bones do not rot. Jealousy is what brings a person to the state where his body decomposes. As is well known, more than once or twice deceased individuals have been disinterred from various places whose bodies were found completely intact - their bones did not rot.
The Midrash Rabbah further states: "'And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it' - when does the spirit return to God? When the dust returns to the earth as it was. And if not - 'and the soul of your enemies He shall sling out, as out of the hollow of a sling' (I Shmuel 25:29)." That is, only when the dust returns to the earth does the soul return to God; and as long as the dust has not returned - even though the person has died - the soul does not return to its place, but rather is tossed about as in a sling, finding no rest.
To understand this, consider what Sefer Chasidim writes (siman 920): I heard that one who swallows persimmon - what is called balsam, a certain type of resinous fruit, not our modern persimmon - in the weight of three half-coins, dies immediately, as it lacerates his intestines. An incident occurred with one who swallowed it and immediately ran home, made a will, and died, his intestines having been perforated. Yet the radiance of his face remained forever as it was at the moment he ate and anointed his face. It appears that this was a pungent, volatile substance - as we find in the Gemara regarding balsam oil with that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law - and it preserves the face. Therefore, if he died in his youth, his face would appear handsome like that of a living person; and if he anointed his face in his prime, he would remain in that appearance forever.
And he writes further there: An incident occurred with a man who swallowed balsam and died. Years later, he appeared in a dream to his sons, telling them to dig him up so they would know what was tormenting him - that he was suffering. They thought perhaps he had been stripped naked. They dug him up and found him as intact as the day he was buried. They touched the garment and the body to see his state - and immediately the body and the garment collapsed into nothingness, for it had turned to dust years before. And why did he appear in a dream? Because as long as his body remained intact, he was being subjected to judgment. Thus far his words.
This is indeed what is written in the works of Kabbalah: the soul does not depart and reach its designated place so long as the body has not decomposed in the grave. Therefore, we need "and his earth will atone for His people" (Devarim 32:43). For this reason, when someone is buried in a casket - as is customary for IDF soldiers to prevent distressing scenes - the casket is opened from beneath, or at least holes are drilled into it, so that there will be direct contact with the earth. For this very reason, there is a very difficult halachic issue with modern multi-tiered burial niches, where this aspect of "and his earth will atone for His people" is lacking, and matters are not handled properly. Therefore, anyone who can - if you invested in your villa here, invest in your villa there too. Granted, it is for a short time, until the Resurrection of the Dead, but here too we invest for a short time: "The days of our years are seventy years, or if through strength, eighty years" (Tehillim 90:10). So invest there as well for the short term, and do not choose a multi-tiered niche that entails a serious problem in this regard.
From this one can also see what a terrible mistake it is when certain wealthy people seek to preserve their bodies in formalin or through cryopreservation. There are companies abroad that, for a handsome fee, will keep the body of a loved one in a deep freeze, and there are people who leave instructions in their wills to be frozen - reasoning that modern science has not yet advanced enough to bring people back to life, but if in thirty years they discover the secret, they will be preserved and ready, able to be thawed fresh. This is no joke; such people really exist. And it is a terrible mistake, because as long as the body does not decompose, the soul has no rest, and it cannot leave it to reach its resting place, as we saw in the Midrash and as Sefer Chasidim states.
In truth, one must know that none of this applies to exalted tzaddikim. With exalted tzaddikim, a person is considered alive during his lifetime, and even in his death he is called alive; therefore, in their case, an intact body does not pose any hindrance to the soul reaching its prepared place. Everything we have discussed pertains to ordinary people, who need to decompose and return to the state of dust. But great luminaries - as the Gemara relates regarding Rabbi Meir, Rabbeinu HaKadosh, and other great figures whose bodies remained intact - this does not prevent their souls from returning to their place and delighting in the heavenly Eden. The purification they achieved during their lifetimes spares them the need to be purified through the decomposition of the body upon death.
The Gemara in Shabbat 152b further explains regarding "and the spirit returns to God Who gave it": Give it back to Him as He gave it to you - just as He gave it to you in purity, so too you must return it to Him in purity. And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi interpreted the verse as referring to the Beit HaMikdash: "and the spirit returns to God" - this refers to the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh). For you find that once Shlomo saw Jerusalem destroyed, the Beit HaMikdash burned, Israel exiled, and the Holy Spirit departing - as we explained throughout all the verses here describing the exile of Israel - he opened and recited the following verse:
הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים אָמַר הַקּוֹהֶלֶת הַכֹּל הָבֶל׃ - Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet, all is vanity.
Shlomo saw through Ruach HaKodesh all that he had toiled and laboured for - the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Spirit, everything - and behold, everything was destroyed and Israel was exiled; therefore, he opened and said, "Vanity of vanities."
Ibn Ezra explains that this is the final stage: the compound that the Holy One, blessed be He, assembled from two partners - the soul, which is the spiritual component, and the body, which is the physical component - dissolves, and they part from one another. This is what Shlomo tells us: "And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it." All of this comes to substantiate what he stated at the outset: "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet, all is vanity." Here he has guided you by the hand from the cradle of man's days to the end of his days, when the body returns to the grave and the spirit returns to God - and what do you see from this? All is vanity.
And the Pesikta Zutreta states: These are words of wisdom spoken by Kohelet from the mouth of the Almighty regarding the vanities of the world, from the time it was created until its end and until the Day of Judgment. "All is vanity" - everyone must recognize the vanity in which the world was created, so that one will consider what to do in order to achieve merit. That is to say, the reality of this world is vanity; and if you can transform something of it into an enduring and eternal reality, that is Torah, those are mitzvot, those are good deeds. But trying to carve out something permanent from the worldly realm itself is vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Ultimately, the body reaches the dust, the soul returns to God, and what remains for man from all that he labours here?
And Rashi explains: Vanity of vanities do I see in the world, said the Kohelet - and he is called Kohelet, as we explained, because all wisdoms were gathered within him. And everything created during the six days of Creation - all is vanity.
The holy Alshich raises a difficulty here: we have already encountered the verse "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet" at the beginning of the book, so how does it suddenly become here "HaKohelet" with the definite article? It is also astonishing that he would refer to himself using the definite article. What is the meaning of this?
The Alshich explains: Shlomo declared worldly matters to be futile at the beginning of the book and throughout it, stating that aside from the service of Hashem, everything is vanity. Now, at the conclusion of the book, the Holy Spirit comes to seal the book and ratify these words - so that you do not think that Shlomo dismissed things as futile that were not fitting to dismiss, or that he took important matters and turned them into vanity with the mere breath of his mouth. This is proven by the language of the verses: the entire book of Kohelet speaks overtly in the first person - "I, Kohelet," "I spoke," "I grew," "I increased," "I had" - all in the voice of a person speaking about himself. But here it speaks about him, about that other person: "Said the Kohelet," in the third person. This proves that someone else is speaking about him; the one who seals the book speaks in a few lines about the author of the book.
וְיֹתֵר שֶׁהָיָה קֹהֶלֶת חָכָם עוֹד לִמַּד דַּעַת אֶת הָעָם וְאִזֵּן וְחִקֵּר תִּקֵּן מְשָׁלִים הַרְבֵּה׃ - And besides that Kohelet was wise, he also taught the people knowledge; he weighed, searched out, and set in order many proverbs.
And there is an additional proof from this verse: How could King Shlomo write this about himself, and moreover in the third person? He does not say, "I became wise and increased wisdom," but rather, "Kohelet was wise," "he taught the people knowledge," and "he weighed." Certainly someone else is speaking here about King Shlomo, for otherwise, how could he himself violate what he wrote: "Let a stranger praise you, and not your own mouth"? Would he now come and praise himself? That is impossible. Therefore, these words did not come from his own mouth; rather, another sage related his praise at the end of the book - with concise words and immense benefit - his purpose being to demonstrate the importance of the book, from whom these words came, and what benefits are to be gained from it.
And do not wonder at this, for we find the like at the end of the Book of Yeshayahu. Rashi cites in the name of the Midrash: Rabbi Simon said that Be'eri, the father of Hoshea, prophesied these two verses, but there was not enough in them to form a book of their own, so they were attached to Yeshayahu. That is to say, these two verses did not originate from the prophet Yeshayahu but from Be'eri, and since his prophecy was insufficient for an entire book, they joined and affixed them to another book. Thus we see that sometimes the conclusion of a book comes from someone else. And whoever has his name and his father's name mentioned, his father was also a prophet. In truth, one might wonder why there is a need to search that far, for we have something similar in the Torah itself: regarding the final eight verses, which describe Moshe's burial - "And he buried him in the valley," etc. - there is an opinion that Yehoshua wrote them. Even though there is a dispute there, we already see a precedent for the conclusion of a book being written by another.
If so, says the Alshich: Know that everything Shlomo said is truth, correct and just. And it is the Holy Spirit that states at the end: those vanities of vanities that "HaKohelet" spoke of - which is why it has the definite article, since the Holy Spirit is speaking on his behalf and about him - know that all is vanity. There is a seal of approval here from the Holy Spirit that everything he said is true: everything is indeed vanity, devoid of substance.
The mourners who circle in the marketplace call out to man: Repent before the silver cord snaps and a three-stranded cord is forged from the three desires - money, food, and women - at which point healing becomes exceedingly difficult. And all three are vanity: the golden bowl is shattered and wealth sprouts wings, the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the cistern. One who is drawn after physical cravings becomes, even during his lifetime, mere walking dust upon the earth, and his holy spirit abandons him - for the wicked, even in their lifetime, are called dead. In contrast, the Holy Spirit pleads: If only the soul would return just as it was given, in purity, for "and to restore it within me" - that very same soul will return, and there are no renovations afterward; one must rectify it now. And finally, the Holy Spirit comes and seals the book in the third person, "Vanity of vanities, said the Kohelet," as a seal of validation that all of Shlomo's words are true: nothing remains of this world, and all that can be rendered eternal is Torah, mitzvot, and good deeds.