[Buddha-l] Koheleth

[Bob Woolery]

Morris Jastrow, Jr. published books on Koheleth _A gentle Cynic_  and on
Job. Ca. 1918, but to be found I can't find my _  Cynic_ tonight for an
exact quotation, but the issue of how this subversive literature came to be
canonized is discussed at length.

The argument runs (after several pious insertions and violations of rhyme
and meter in the Hebrew were discussed) that these pious insertions in each
book served to supply material attractive to minds that would form
canonization councils.  

 "Only two things are worth doing; Making love and Making distinctions."  
Author forgotten

Bob Woolery, DC
326 deAnza dr
Vallejo, CA  94589
www.stateoftheartchiro.com
(707)557 5471
 

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of JKirkpatrick
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:22 PM
To: 'Buddhist discussion forum'
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Koheleth

Pretty dang amazing, folks. Who'd thunk it in ye olde Bible?
Joanna 

____________________

Gang,

Gary, I too am amazed the book is canonical. I suppose it's the
last few verses that snuck it in, but they are (at least to my
eyes) transparently the interpolation of another author;

Dan, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi is onto something with the "Daoist"

comment. I have, open on my desk, a copy of Rami Shapiro's _The
Way of Solomon_ <http://tinyurl.com/268oo3y>, a translation of
and commentary on Koheleth/Ecclesiastes. Shapiro translates its
first two verses this
way:

    Emptiness! Emptiness upon emptiness!
    The world is fleeting of form,
    empty of permanence,
    void of surety,
    without certainty.
    Like a breath breathed once and gone,
    all things rise and fall.
    Understand emptiness, and tranquility replaces anxiety.
    Understand emptiness, and compassion replaces jealousy.
    Understand emptiness, and you will cease to excuse
       suffering and begin to alleviate it.

Schachter-Shalomi, who was one of Shapiro's teachers, may read
the book as Daoist, but in Shapiro's hands it is clearly Buddhish
(sic), as we can read above. In any case, it remains emphatically
Jewish, and, as Dan's etymological gloss showed, that Jewish
insight into hevel is not at all far from the Buddhist insight
into śūnyatā.  
Indeed, Koheleth would tell us the time we waste in
distinguishing them is itself hevel.

Franz
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