“I turned about
with my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the reason of
things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness and madness. And
I find bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, her hands are
bonds; whoever is good in God’s sight will escape from her, and a sinner will
be taken by her.” (Ecclesiastes 7:25-26)
We can’t fathom the
reasons of an uncontrolled behavior, and more so in regards to others. The example
presented here about wicked manipulations is another case when people are
blinded by their mistaken understanding of life, in which goodness does not
exist. Those who share the same approach get trapped in the destructive fate of
living in the absence of goodness.
“See, this I have
found, said Kohelet, adding one to another to find out the account, which my
soul sought yet, but I did not find. One man out of a thousand I found, but a
woman among all these I did not find. See, only this one have I found, for God
made man straight, but they sought many intrigues.” (7:27-29)
The statistics
presented by Kohelet are appalling in a world where goodness is the ruling
principle in God’s creation. This brings us to reflect on the reasons that human
beings may have to follow negative traits and trends out of ego’s fantasies and
illusions as the “many intrigues” that they rather choose instead of the
righteousness of goodness’ ways and attributes.
Intrigues invite
manipulations derived to feelings or beliefs of lack that compel us to control
others in order to get what we think that will satisfy our envy, coveting, lust,
anger and haughtiness.
As long as we
disregard goodness as the source of fulfillment for all our needs, wants and
desires with its righteousness and justice, we will continue living in
fantasies and illusions.
“Who is like the
wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his
face shine, and the boldness of his face is changed.” (8:1)
We have said that goodness is the principle that
defines the qualities of wisdom which leads us to understand (“interpret”) what
we face in life.
The verse brings up light as an abstraction of goodness to
teach us that our wisdom must reflect goodness as radiance can shine from a
face. This reminds us the second of the three priestly blessings in the Torah.
“May the Lord shine His countenance on you, and
make you gracious.” (Numbers 6:25)
In Judaism we know that Divine principles and
attributes are symbolically compared to human traits or other material quality
such as face, light, hands, darkness, eyes, crown, etc. Hence God’s light is
related to the goodness with which He creates, rules and sustains His works,
that makes us graceful as an expression inherent in goodness.
As we live in, with and for goodness, the face that
represents our identity changes to reflect who we really are with the
“boldness” required to approach every aspect of life.
“I [counsel you]:
keep the King’s command and that in regards to the oath of God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:2)
We
exercise our Jewish identity by keeping God’s instructions and commandments as
the allegiance or Covenant that we have with Him. The Torah says that we are His
chosen people, yet we must choose back to His will in order to fulfill our partnership.
This and all the verses in the Hebrew Bible are presented in the context of
being, having and doing goodness as the purpose of such Covenant.
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