Culpable gloom

“Follow the ways of your heart and what your eyes see; and know that on account of all these, God will bring you into judgment.” The last part of this is often taken as a warning about the limits of joy and pleasure-taking. Seow thinks otherwise: “Human beings are supposed to enjoy life to the full because it is their divinely assigned portion, and God calls one into account for failure to enjoy. Or, as a passage in the Talmud has it: ‘Everyone must give an account before God of all good things one saw in life and did not enjoy.’ . . . For Qohelet, enjoyment is not only permitted, it is commanded; it is not only an opportunity, it is a divine imperative.”

Solemn faces of the world: Repent!