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Kohelet: Seeking to Uncover and Bury

By
Shlomo Zuckier
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Shlomo Zuckier

Well-known is the (ultimately aborted)聽Rabbinic attempt to excise Kohelet from the Biblical canon (Shabbat 30b):

讘拽砖讜 讞讻诪讬诐 诇讙谞讜讝 住驻专 拽讛诇转 诪驻谞讬 砖讚讘专讬讜 住讜转专讬谉 讝讛 讗转 讝讛, 讜诪驻谞讬 诪讛 诇讗 讙谞讝讜讛讜 – 诪驻谞讬 砖转讞讬诇转讜 讚讘专讬 转讜专讛 讜住讜驻讜 讚讘专讬 转讜专讛

Until recently I鈥檇 never paid close attention to the language of this statement, but it appears to be an allusion to and inversion of the following verse in Kohelet (12:10):

聽讘旨执拽旨值砖讈 拽止讛侄诇侄转 诇执诪职爪止讗 讚旨执讘职专值讬 讞值驻侄抓 讜职讻指转讜旨讘 讬止砖讈侄专 讚旨执讘职专值讬 讗直诪侄转

While Kohelet sought (讘拽砖) to find (诇诪爪讗) items of great value,聽treasures, the Rabbis weren鈥檛 so keen on retaining what he had dug up, and sought to (讘拽砖讜) bury (诇讙谞讜讝) the book once again.

 

* Note that 聽in multiple places in the Bavli (see Git 45b, San 97b) one finds (诪爪讗) and then buries (讙谞讝) an item, or vice versa.

 

Shlomo Zuckier
Shlomo Zuckier
https://yale.academia.edu/ShlomoZuckier
Shlomo Zuckier, a Founder of the Lehrhaus, is the Flegg Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at McGill University and a lecturer at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He recently completed a PhD in Religious Studies at Yale University as well as studies in Yeshiva University's Kollel Elyon. Shlomo was formerly Director of the Orthodox Union鈥檚 Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Yale University. An alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva University (BA, MA, Semikhah), he has lectured widely across North America, and is excited to share Torah and Jewish scholarship on a broad range of issues. He has taught at Yale Divinity School, Yeshiva University, the Drisha Institute, Bnot Sinai, and Tikvah programs, and has held the Wexner and Tikvah Fellowships. Shlomo serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition, is co-editor of Torah and Western Thought: Intellectual Portraits of Orthodoxy and Modernity, and is editing the forthcoming Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut.
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