Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5-6 "A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven...A time for embracing and a time for shunning embraces; a time for seeking and a time for losing, a time for keeping and a time for discarding."
On Sukkot, we read the Book of Ecclesiastes (in Hebrew, Kohelet, meaning “one who convenes a gathering”). The English name is a Latin translation of a Greek word meaning “gatherer” but is usually translated as “preacher” or “teacher.” King Solomon is by tradition considered to be its author, although many believe it was written in the 3rd century BCE, as part of the “Wisdom Literature” which was written at that time.
Kohelet appears at first glance to reject much of life as empty and meaningless (“all is vanity”). On another level, it can be viewed as a search for wisdom by its author, who concludes that the only purpose of life is to live according to God’s commandments, while enjoying God’s gifts during one’s lifetime as well. This dichotomy may be why we read the Book on this holiday: enjoy what God has given us, even while we dwell in temporary huts which remind us that all can be taken from us so easily.
Erica Brown has written on this verse (Weekly Jewish Wisdom, 8/29/13), “Ecclesiastes is reminding us that sometimes we fail in the arena of intimacy. We fail to embrace when we should. And in other aspects of our relationships, we are stuck in drama or toxicity and have not made the space to move away.”
If there is indeed a time for seeking and a time for losing, perhaps we should really think hard about what we are seeking (success? love? health? thanks?) We should also be thinking about what we should be losing (anger? laziness? frivolity? insecurity?).
Kohelet’s demand to evaluate what we are looking for and what we are trying to lose occurs in connection with the festival of Sukkot, when we are commanded to be joyful. Our evaluation of what to find and what to lose needs to take place in a joyful context. It serves as a reminder that while the Book of Life may have been sealed on Yom Kippur, the search for how to live a life with recognition of God’s gifts has not ended.
