The Artist That Was Never Late — Ecclesiastes/Koheles # 13

The Lion and the Ox: Two Modes of Jewish Leadership

Ecclesiastes/Koheles 5:7-19.

If you see in a province oppression of the poor and suppression of right and justice, don’t wonder at the fact; for one high official is protected by a higher one, and both of them by still higher ones.

Thus the greatest advantage in all the land is his: he controls a field that is cultivated.

A lover of money never has his fill of money, nor a lover of wealth his fill of income. That too is futile.

As his substance increases, so do those who consume it; what, then, does the success of its owner amount to but feasting his eyes?

A worker’s sleep is sweet, whether he has much or little to eat; but the rich man’s abundance doesn’t let him sleep.

Here is a grave evil I have observed under the sun: riches hoarded by their owner to his misfortune,

in that those riches are lost in some unlucky venture; and if he begets a son, he has nothing in hand.

Another grave evil is this: He must depart just as he came. As he came out of his mother’s womb, so must he depart at last, naked as he came. He can take nothing of his wealth to carry with him.

So what is the good of his toiling for the wind?

Besides, all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation and grief and anger.

Only this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion.

Also, whenever a man is given riches and property by God, and is also permitted by Him to enjoy them and to take his portion and get pleasure for his gains—that is a gift of God.

For [such a man] will not brood much over the days of his life, because God keeps him busy enjoying himself.

(courtesy of Sefaria)