Ecclesiastes 9:4: “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”
“…how hard it must be to live only with what one knows and what one remembers, cut off from which one hopes for…there can be no peace without hope.” Albert Camus “The Plague.”
“A living dog is better than a dead lion.” Now I suppose that is supposed to mean something?
In the first century the school of Hillel and the House of Shammai both questioned whether the Book of Ecclesiastes should be include in the Canon as it was book filed with despair and hopelessness. It was like a primer for existentialism. It gave no meaning to life and in fact suggested that life was worthless. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, in the end the rich die just like the poor and the cycle of life continues. So why work and struggle all your life and then go to a grave.
Such thoughts give rise to hedonism. Just live for the moment and find all the enjoyment you can. The Talmud, however, instructs us that Ecclesiastes is telling us that what is done under the sun is of no value as it will pass away. However, what is done above the sun will have eternal value. Our focus should be not on what will quickly pass away but on that which will continue to exist. Thus, our existence on this earth is only to prepare that which has eternal value. So long as we are alive we have hope,. A dog in this context is considered a vile animal, not the domesticated animals we are familiar with today. A lion was considered to be a noble animal. Yet it is better to be a vile beast and to be alive than to be a noble animal and be dead. We can envy the wealth, power and fame of JP Morgan but he is dead and wherever he is and whatever he accomplished for eternity is long past. But here we are alive and we still can accomplish something of eternal value.
It is interesting that the word used for hope which is the central thought here is the Hebrew word batach. Batach is the word used for trust, security, to confide in, to cling to and to have confidence in. Using the English word hope is seems to be stretching it a bit. The basic thought is that the opportunity we have in being alive is to trust and to cling to something.
The word batach is spelled Beth, Teth and Cheth. Can the meaning of life be spelled out in these three letters. Well, I tell you, right now the meaning for life for me is to just get some sleep, it has been a long day and I keep dozing off so I think I will just shut down my computer, close my Hebrew Bible here and…. Say what? “Batach, is that you? It’s time to go to bed, go on get some sleep. No you are not going to jump through my Looking Glass hanging from my Daleth, it is just too late at night to visit Hebrew Esoteric Land. Oh, so you want to show my me own personal journey with you Batach (hope). I know that journey and I want…come back here you, you…you Hebrew word you.” He’s gone, that crazy Batach has so many different English words that if you follow him you will never know what he means. Batch can be a very individual word. Well, I guess I will have to go after him. Come on you can follow me behind my Looking Glass, maybe you will find your own English word for Batch, but I need to caution you that this can be a very personal journey and Batach may look different to you that he does not me.
So as I step behind my Looking Glass I find a bright, sunny day. Birds are singing, grass is growing, not a dark cloud in the sky. This ain’t too bad, it is better weather than we have been seeing in Chicago of late. It is close to zero on the other side of my Looking Glass. Ah ha, there he is, that first letter to Batach, the Beth and he is waving to me. I think he wants me to visit him in his home. You see Beth represents a house and boy he does have a very comfortable home, with a nice white picket fence, well cared for lawn surrounded by flowers. My landlord is selling the building I live in and I am in the market for a new home, I could go with something like this. We go inside where Beth serves a cup of tea just the way I like it. We start to have a nice conversation about the weather, the Blackhawks Hockey team winning the World Series. Excuse me I mean the Super Bowl. “What’s that? Whose Stanley? What do I care about the cup he drinks his tea out of. What do you mean he doesn‘t want to drink tea out of that cup? Beth, you have been hanging around Batch too much, you are not making sense.” I am finding this conversation is getting pretty boring as I can’t make any sense out of it at all. Beth admits he is a pretty boring fellow. I kind of yawn and wonder if this is all there is to my visit to Hebrew Esoteric Land, I mean I could be getting some good sleep right now and… “Huh? I am? I couldn’t be dreaming all this…Wow what was that?” There is a sudden gush of wind outside. We look out the window and see a snow storm approaching. “Oh my Gosh,” I shout, “it’s the Boston Snow Blizzard and it followed us into Esoteric Land.” Beth picks up the phone and calls his friend Teth over as it appears things are going to get pretty exciting and we will need some shelter.
Teth, the second letter to Batch, appears having arrived by riding on a gust of a powerful wind and some nasty looking snow clouds. Beth and I run to meet him just as the storm dumps him on Beth‘s doorstep. Beth did not think his house could stand up against such a powerful storm and Teth is built like a readymade shelter, a half circle with two arrows like points at the top which are pointing inward. The arrows seem to indicate self-examination. Beth and I dive inside just as another gust of wind picks Teth up, with us inside and begins to bounce us around Esoteric Land. Feeling the end is near I being to do some pretty heavy self-examination. Beth explains to me that his friend Teth has a direct link to the creator as he is the first letter to the Hebrew word Tov which is goodness or harmony with God. It is this self inward examination, like I am doing now, that helps to bring us into harmony with God.
Outside the storm rages. Teth is being bounced around like a rubber ball in a tennis match and inside it feels like we are on a roller coaster. Well, said Beth this is a little more exciting than inside my house and trying to explain Hockey to you, wouldn’t you say?” “You’re right,” I reply, “I could care less about this fellow Stanley and his cup. But, oh, your poor house!” We take a peek at the outside in time to see Beth’s beautiful little house being blown away in the storm. Beth just shrugged and said: “No big thing, it was not built to last and it was getting a little boring anyways, in a few months Stanley’s Cup will not be an issue anyways.
Suddenly Teth calls out: “Hang on the storm is really about to hit and hit it did and we were tossed around bruised, battered and beaten, but Beth was smiling and said; “Far out, what a ride.” Finally we came to rest against a huge tree. I looked out and found it was not a tree but it was Chet, the last letter to the Hebrew word Batach (hope) who represents a unity or binding with God. Beth and I climbed out of the Teth. The storm is past and I trudge through two feet of snow back to my Looking Glass. As I walked away I saw Beth, Tet and Chet (Batch – hope) waving at me. They formed the word Batach or hope. I could not help but think that this is the hope mentioned in Ecclesiastes 9:4. Perhaps the translators were correct to render Batch as hope in this case. There is a time for peace and comfort with Beth, but a time of raging storms where we are seeking shelter in the Teth but it is when Chet joins up with Beth and Tet to form Batch (hope) that the good times roll and the bad as well, that all contributes to a binding together with God. The good times and bad have no value unless it is joined by the Chet to give it eternal value. I mean a hundred years from now nobody will care whether Stanley finds his cup or not.
I return from behind the Looking Glass understanding the message of Ecclesiastes. Whatever we experience in this world is short lived. What we do with those experiences can have eternal value if we use them to help bind us to God. So if you happen to see a Hawk that is Black, tell him not to worry about Stanley’s cup, it won’t matter in the long run, he can drink his tea out of a glass, what’s the diff?
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