Debra Band and Menachem Fisch. Qohelet: Searching for a Life Worth Living

We must be grateful to Baylor for publishing this one-off study of Ecclesiastes, which embraces both art and scholarship. Two Jewish scholars have provided separate contributions. Band’s contribution is the more extensive of the two. It is remarkable for the strikingly beautiful “illuminations” it adds to the text, section by section. She has added a commentary on each illumination, relating its symbolism to the textual section and incorporating designs from the Muslim Alhambra in order to convey a Mediterranean aura to the text. Band has also provided a translation and a mainly socioeconomic introduction to Qoheleth, assigning it to a Persian setting that brought economic disruption to Judah’s agrarian lifestyle and discussing the relationship of Qoheleth to other wisdom books in the Mediterranean world.Fisch has provided his own introduction to the book and also introductions to each chapter of Qoheleth along with a summarizing one. His intention has been to provide a philosophical approach, rather than a word-for-word commentary. For Fisch, the clue to a coherent understanding of the book comes from finding a parallel with the House of Hillel’s acceptance of the book as canonical. According to the Mishnah, the House of Hillel was marked by flexibility and openness to self-criticism. Accordingly, Fisch renders the book’s keyword, hevel—a term traditionally translated “vanity”—as “vapor,” understanding it as meaning transient and impermanent, rather than empty or insignificant.1Band has taken over this translation for her own work, incorporating it into a translation made by Harold Fisch, Menachem’s father. In Qoheleth’s world, hevel prevails, whether representing bad, neutral or good types; his problem is how one may live a worthy life in God’s eyes in such an uncertain world.In chapter 1, in order to illustrate the multitudinous variety of life, Qoheleth compares himself to the wisest king of Israel, surely Solomon. Correspondingly, conducting a worthy life in Qoheleth’s diverse world is a difficult task. Like Solomon, he needs to engage in a lifestyle that can match hevel at its best and so accomplish great achievements finding joy in doing good. However, the transient nature of human life makes Qoheleth despair in chapter 2; for him hevel has brought only worthlessness. But this very fact leads to a turning point in chapter 3, with the “song of seasons” that details personal responsibilities to which humans are to tentatively respond as God’s standards for them to follow. Chapter 4 commends details as to what counts as doing one’s best, such as engaging in cooperation with others. The king, least foolish in such a variable setting, would be one who prepares for the worst rather than telling his subjects what is good for them.Chapter 5 deals with religion. There is a type of fool who engages in complicated rituals, while refraining from doing good, and another religious fool who arrogantly claims to do what is good. The need for both is to humbly fear God. Chapter 6 studies what is of value in life. Material success is not a good aim. The poor can face life’s challenges and achieve something better within their limits. It is necessary to speculate about the future, rather than waiting to see what will happen. Chapter 7 asks about the conditions that enable us to assign value. Two of them relate to seeking criticism from others and the third is to be humbly aware of our own limitations. So, one should strive for a worthwhile life, while being prepared to avoid extremes of righteousness, wisdom, wickedness, or folly. The limiting circumstances of Qoheleth’s life forced him to such a conclusion. Chapter 8 claims that doing one’s best for God with awareness of one’s own limitations is the will of God. The claim is applied to a powerful king who should be prepared to back down if necessary. Since we have no certain knowledge of divine morality, we have only our own ethical decisions to rely on.In chapter 9, Qoheleth deplores hedonism as unwise. A philosophy of pleasure and self-seeking does not fit the hevel principle. Chapter 10 shows us that optimistic hedonists and pessimistic faultfinders are both fools. The former are marked by denial of the hevel principle, and the second by refusing to find any value or worth in their actions. Chapter 11 illustrates wisdom at its best, as both acting on the hevel principle and in doing so achieving life’s value. Now Qoheleth can appreciate the choices of a divinely approved life. Chapter 12 reveals the distance the book has covered by the contrast between the wise farmer of 11:19 and the loathing of life in 2:17–18. It presents the value of a finite life by portraying death as being as natural an occurrence as birth. The shadow of death need not trouble us in our youth. Death cannot deny life’s value, Qoheleth states in a gentle poem.Providing this somewhat detailed outline of Fritsch’s position has seemed the best way of reviewing this book. It enables readers familiar with Ecclesiastes to recognize in its distinctive simplicity considerable differences from the commentaries of other scholars. From Fritsch’s perspective, in the challenging world of instability that Qoheleth knew at first hand, this philosopher was endeavoring to find positive ways forward for himself and others, ways that God would judge to have been the right ones.