Succot With What is Truly Important in Life

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

                                    King Solomon Thinking

Succot, which starts today at sundown, turns to Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament and explains to us what is truly important in our lives.  It was explained by King Solomon, the very wealthy king, who knew what opulence was;  and proclaimed that the pleasures and allures of this world are fleeting and valueless, as we may well realize when find ourselves needing assistance, anyway.

We are told that Spirituality is eternal.  Man must recognize that his health and prosperity should be used to enable him to better serve G-d.                                                    

We are faced with the troubling question of why good people suffer and bad people prosper.  We can know the answer only when we know and understand all the elements upon which G-d  bases His decisions.  such intelligence is beyond our capacity, so our incomplete knowledge cannot be used as a basis to doubt G-d's justice.  That level of understanding will come only at the time of the Messiah arrives and leads the world to its future state of perfection.  Until then, our faith must remain strong.  

Solomon started off in a very depressing mood writing that all is futile! Perhaps he realizes that he has asked men to work for no wages to build the Temple and this is not okay with them.  It may cause a split in  the government.  (which it did when Solomon died).  

 What profit does man have for all his labor which he toils beneath the sun? (1:2-3).  He then ended with "The sum of the matter when all has been considered:   Fear G-d and keep His  commandments, for that is man's whole duty." (12:13) The climax of the Book, the Sages recognized, proved that the treatise-----all of it-----was intended to lead people to the ultimate goal of fearing and serving G-d.   And this is what Jews have worked hard to follow, feeling that this is their goal in life.  

This is my favorite paragraph:  

Solomon:  "I said to myself:  Here I have acquired great wisdom, more than any of my predecessors over Jerusalem, and my mind has had much experience with wisdom and knowledge.  I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.  I perceived that this, too, is a vexation of the spirit, For with much wisdom comes much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases pain."

Oh dear, too bad he didn't live in the scientific age of discovery and know the excitement when something was found.  In his day, he  just didn't have the resources that we do today.    I feel very privileged to live today and to see all the developments we now have.