“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving to you, and you reap its harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first of your harvest to the priest” (Leviticus 23:10). “Speak to the children of Israel…you shall bring a sheaf of the first of your harvest to the priest” – that is what is written: “What advantage is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3).
Rabbi Binyamin ben Levi said: They sought to suppress the book of Ecclesiastes because they found in it matters that tend toward heresy. They said: Was it appropriate for Solomon to say this: “Rejoice, young man, in your youth. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth”? (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Moses said: “You shall not stray after your heart and after your eyes” (Numbers 15:39), and Solomon said: “Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes” (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
Is restraint to be slackened; is there no judgment and no Judge? When he said: “But know that for all of these, God will bring you to judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9), they said: Solomon spoke well. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: They sought to suppress the book of Ecclesiastes because they found in it matters that tend toward heresy. They said: Was it appropriate for Solomon to say this: “What advantage is there for man [in all his toil that he toils under the sun?].”
Is the implication [that this is so] even regarding toil in Torah? They then said: Had he said: “In all toil,” and was silent, we would have said that the implication is even regarding the toil of Torah. But he says only “in all his toil.” It is his own toil that is ineffective, but the toil of Torah is effective.
Rabbi Yudan says: Under the sun he does not have [advantage], but above the sun1There is an advantage to toiling in the Torah that transcends the sun. he does have. Rabbi Levi and the Rabbis, Rabbi Levi says: For all that people do to proliferate mitzvot and good deeds in this world, it is sufficient for them that the Holy One blessed be He shines the sun for them, as it is stated: “The sun rises and the sun sets” (Ecclesiastes 1:5).
The Rabbis say: For all that the righteous do to proliferate mitzvot and good deeds in this world, it is sufficient for them that the Holy One blessed be He renews their faces like the sun, as it is stated: “May all those who love Him be like the sun emerging in its might” (Judges 5:31). Rabbi Yanai said: The way of the world is that when a person purchases a litra of meat from the marketplace, how much exertion must he expend, and how much trouble must he experience until he has cooked it!
But the people sleep in their beds and the Holy One blessed be He causes the winds to blow, causes the clouds to ascend, causes plants to grow, and the fruits to fatten, and they give Him only the wage of the omer. That is what is written: “You shall bring a sheaf of the first of your harvest to the priest.”