Synagogue Sermon
The Cult of Youth (1960)
Our rabbis maintain that the three major books written by King Solomon were composed during different times of his life, and that each book represented the mood of the author during that period in which it was written. Thus, the “Song of Songs” – Shir ha-Shirim – was written during Solomon’s youth, when he was most predisposed to the use of romantic metaphor. The “Book of Proverbs” – the Mishle – was written in his middle ages, when a man’s inclinations are towards sententious wisdom, when all the world seems clear to him and he is ready to offer sage aphorisms on how to live. In his old age, Solomon wrote “Ecclesiastes,” the Book of Kohellet, which we read this morning. The Book of Kohellet is neither romantic nor straightforwardly wise. It represents, rather, a maturity that comes from the experience of life itself, from having met skepticism, struggled with it valiantly, and in the end having overcome it. It is not a simple book of easy aphorisms, but a profound and deeply confusing work. And despite, or perhaps because of, the confusion – it remains most enlightening.As a book of his old age, Solomon’s Kohellet presents us with some sturdy prejudices concerning youth and old age. Solomon is not blind either to the vices or the virtues of either youth or maturity. Thus he tells us, “rejoice, o young man, in thy youth,” enjoy the vitality and the vigor that are characteristic of youth; and yet, in the long run, he warns us (ibid.), “but know thou that for all these things G-d will bring thee into judgment.” Youth’s vigor is compounded with folly for which a man must ultimately pay. On the one hand Kohellet will tell us, “better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king.” And yet he reminds (ke’tefillat zaken ve’ragil: she’ne’emar mipenei sevah takum – ve’yareta me’elokekha), “woe to thee, o land, when thy king is a mere boy.” Yet if one takes all of Kohellet’s remarks, we have the feeling that all other things being equal, youth is a time of greater f…
