“Don’t curse the
king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom, for a
bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the
matter.” (Ecclesiastes 10:20)
Thus we understand
that we must cherish our most precious and valuable beliefs and principles (the
“king” and the “rich”), for these are the blessings by which we achieve the
goodness God wants for us. We must not despise them, either with our actions or
with our words or thoughts. We know that by our ways and actions we portray and
express ourselves; and for them, sooner or later, we will be accountable.
“Send forth your bread on the face of the waters, for in the multitude
of the days you will find it. Give a portion to seven, and even to eight, for
you don’t know what evil is on the earth. If the thick clouds are full of rain,
on the earth they empty themselves. And if a tree falls in the south or to the
north, the place where the tree falls, there it is.”
(11:1-3)
Our Sages relate to
water in many ways, hence we can understand the first verse in diverse forms.
The context here is a life that encompasses a “multitude of days” in which we
live to find the goodness that we are commanded to share with others. Here, we
take “the waters” as the thoughts that we direct by discernment, understanding
and knowledge with goodness as their ruling principle.
Thus we share it
with as many as possible to keep away the negative ways and trends of vanities
and illusions, as “the evil on the earth”. This factual statement is followed
also by natural facts, such as the rain over the earth and the trees that fall
on it.
In a deeper meaning, and following the same
context, our thoughts (“the waters”) eventually turn into concrete actions
(“the earth”), where the former “empty themselves”. The trees symbolize life
standing in the material world to which we give a direction, either positive or
negative, where we live and stay when we die.
“He who is
observing the wind does not sow, and who is looking on the thick clouds does
not reap.” (11:4)
We are warned time and again that we reap what
we sow, and inaction leads nowhere. Wind and clouds can be understood here also
as the whims and desires of material fantasies and illusions that don’t have
true profit or benefit, and from which we can’t sow or reap.
“As you don’t
know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who
is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all. In the
morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you
don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will
be equally good. Sweet also is the light, and good for the eyes to see the sun.” (11:5-7)
Our ignorance extends from our own unawareness
of the effects of ego’s fantasies and illusions to the ways of nature and the
ways God directs His creation. Hence we have to do what is right and proper in
all our endeavors without selfish reservations, and share our goodness the best
way we can, without expectations or manipulations.
Goodness knows its ways, and the ends of its
qualities. As long as we direct goodness in our own personal ways, it may not
be as good as it is by itself. We have said that light is an abstraction of
goodness, and we contemplate on its sweetness and kindness, as we are pleased
by the radiance of the sun that fills every open space.
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