“I searched in my heart to tempt my flesh with wine, and, my heart conducting itself with wisdom, to grasp folly, until I will see which is best for the sons of man that they should perform under the heaven during the limited days of their lives” (Ecclesiastes 2:3). “I searched in my heart to tempt [my flesh] with wine” – Solomon said: “I searched in my heart to tempt [my flesh] with wine,” to tempt my flesh with the wine of Torah; “and my heart, conducting itself with wisdom,” with the wisdom of Torah.
“To grasp folly” – Rabbi Yudan raised a question before Rabbi Aḥa: What is this that is written: “To grasp folly [sikhlut]”? He said: To grasp with wisdom [sukhlenuta].11He interprets sikhlut to mean wisdom, as in the word sukhlenuta; this is the opposite of the common translation of sikhlut.