|
Support
for this interpretation can be found in the rabbinic literature, in a
midrash that relates this passage directly to the story of Cain and Abel:
“‘If a man fathers a hundred children’: This refers to Cain, who had
a hundred sons but gained no satisfaction from his wealth or the goodness
of the world…. ‘Astillborn is better’—this refers to his brother
Abel.”42 For the stillborn is born in hevel. In
Kohelet’s view, man is disparaged not because fleeting life is itself
unworthy, but because he has made it so by virtue of his actions. It is
better, then, to have the most transient existence of Abel, whose life was
short but exemplary, than the misery of Cain, whose long life became a
curse.
The
third stage covers the last four chapters of the book. By this point, hevel
has lost any trace of the negativity which it carried in the early
chapters. It is never tied to a second word—never “transience and,”
together with something distasteful. On the contrary, in these final
chapters, all uses of hevel are associated, directly or indirectly,
with joy, or simha |
