Kohelet

Kohelet

Introduction

The Book of Kohelet shows us that in the gruesome shadow of death, the whole life of Man is made to seem as so much empty and lonely loitering at the gates of an infinite abyss. There is a word for this emptiness in Hebrew, the word hevel which means empty, unsubstantial, a passing elusive vapor. This is what life is without a personal knowledge of G-d. The author, who calls himself Kohelet “leader of the Assembly,” “Ben Dovid Melech b'Yerushalayim” finds that death has thrown a shroud of gloom and meaninglessness over every kind of work that man does “under the sun.” G-dʼs work endures (