“I saw all [in]
one that walks under the sun, with the second child who will rise in his stead.
There is no end to all the people, to all that were before them; also the last
ones will not rejoice with him, for this too is vanity and frustration.” (Ecclesiastes 4:15-16)
As long as we “walk under the sun”, which means
in this material world, we are bound to live by our choices every time we are
able to exercise free will. We set our boundaries based on our ability to
discern between good and evil, and the priorities derived from either living in
the ways and attributes of goodness or living in ego’s fantasies and illusions.
In times of distress we have to maintain the
awareness that the goodness coming from God’s love is our freedom, as the
psalmist says.
“Show me Your
ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach
me, for you are the God of my redemption. I wait for You all day long. Guide me
in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation. I wait for You
all day long. Remember Your compassion, O Lord, and Your loving kindness, for
they are eternal.”
(Psalms 25:4-5)
Once our priorities and choices are made, we are
bound to them and live by and for them. Every action or creation (including
having children) are also ruled by them, and continue to rule under their
predicament of vanity and frustration. Our sages also call “children” deeds and
inventions to tell us that all our actions have consequences, and we better
think more than about what the real priorities and choices in life. Thus we end
up realizing that what really matters is goodness as our true sustenance,
fulfillment and joy.
“Watch your feet
when you go to the house of God, and be ready to obey rather than fools should
give sacrifice, for they know not that they do evil.” (Ecclesiastes 4:17)
We indicate often that the “house” represents
our consciousness and what we have in it or put in it. In this verse, “the
house of God” encompasses ways and attributes that He wants to share with us as
part of our essence and identity.
“Send forth
Your light and Your truth. May they lead me, they bring me onto the mount of
Your holiness and on Your dwellings. And I go unto the altar of God, unto God,
the joy of my rejoicing. And I thank You with a harp, O Lord, my God.” (Psalms 43:3-4)
Coming to His house means to engage ourselves in
all forms and expressions of goodness, peace, grace, compassion, slowness to
anger, abundant loving kindness and truth, as traits and qualities with which
God directs His creation and relates to it (see God’s attributes of compassion
in Exodus 34:6-7). These are the light and truth that lead us to Him.
In order to have a life inspired, sustained and directed
by these attributes as our common bond with our Creator, we have to “watch our
feet” by letting our discernment and judgment to embrace constantly all expressions
of goodness in every choice that we make. We live in God’s house by following
(“obeying”) the principles that bind us to Him.
Thus we understand that the choices of our foolishness
are not the proper “sacrifices” we offer to Him, for sooner or later we
all realize that a self-centered approach to life as negative consequences as
the evil that we seem unaware of.
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