Shalom

"The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Utter futility! - said Koheleth -
Utter futility! All is futile!
What real value is there for a man
In all the gains he makes beneath the sun?

One generation goes, another comes,
But the earth remains the same forever.
The sun rises, and the sun sets-
And glides back where it rises.
Southward blowing,
Turning northward,
ever turning blows the wind;
On its rounds the wind returns.
All streams flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is never full;
To the place [from] which they flow
The streams flow back again.
All such things are wearisome:
No man can ever state them;
The eye never has enough of seeing,
Nor the ear enough of hearing.
Only that shall happen
Which has happened,
Only that occur
Which has occured;
There is nothing new
Beneath the sun!"
(Ecclesiastes 1:1-10)

Every time I read Ecclesiastes, I'm surprised again by the teacher (Koheleth)'s pessimism.  There are a lot of famous passages in this book that are so comforting when taken in isolation. To everything, there is a season. People tend to hear this sentiment and think it means you should take life as it comes, that there are highs and lows, pains and comforts.  But Koheleth follows up that famous passage with "What value, then, can the man of affairs get from what he earns?" (3:9). Why bother?

Likewise, 1:1-10 is described by Koheleth as 'futility.'  Everything has happened before and everything will happen again, so why bother? But I always forget that's his point, because taken out of context I find this idea really comforting.

As a writer I find it comforting because writers are always struggling to come up with something 'new.' Something no one has thought of, something that has never occurred to people before. But that's not really possible, there's a vast range of human experience but we all exist within that range.  There's nothing you can feel that hasn't been felt before. There's nothing you can say that hasn't been said before. I don't find that discouraging, I find it soothing. No man is an island.  No one is alone. We're all treading familiar ground. I'm linking all of these songs just to demonstrate the way these ideas are borrowed and repeated.

That moment of recognizing yourself in someone else, in someone else's experience, is so precious. There's this quote from History Boys that I basically live by.  I quote it every time I'm interviewed, in practically every presentation I give (which you'll no doubt see in the course of this blog):

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something- a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things- that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.”

Since I visited Israel last summer on Taglit, I've spent a lot of time searching for a hand like this in regards to my feelings about Israel. I've read a lot of essays (even a lengthy study about the impact of Birthright), a lot of books, met a lot of people, gone to a lot of events, listened to a lot of music, read a lot of Torah, lit a lot of candles... but I haven't quite found it yet. I think I should write down my experience so maybe I can be that hand for someone else. That's my main goal in writing in general. To set down that unique and particular experience that resonates with another person out there somewhere. Let's hold literary hands!

The other point of this blog is so ya'll back in the US can see what I'm up to :).