Another matter, “when a person [nefesh] will sin…” – that is what the verse said: “All the toil of man is for his mouth” (Ecclesiastes 6:7). Rabbi Shmuel bar Ami said: As much as a person amasses mitzvot and good deeds, it is insufficient to counterbalance the hot air that emerges from his mouth.6It does not repay God for the very act of being able to breathe. Alternatively, it does not counterbalance the sins of improper speech that he commits (Rabbi David Luria).
“But his soul is also not filled” (Ecclesiastes 6:7). Rabbi Berekhya and Rabbi Kartzifa in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan say: Like ropes though a round hole.7Thick ropes that are pulled through a ring on a ship that is roughly the same size as the rope. This and the upcoming descriptions represent the process of removing the soul from a person at the time of death. Rabbi Ḥanina said: Like a nail that comes through the round hole.
Shmuel said: Like a damp, inverted thorn that emerges from the trachea. Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzḥak said: All the mitzvot and good deeds that a person amasses are for his mouth, but not for the mouth of his son and not for the mouth of his daughter.8They benefits him but not his children. The Rabbis say: For his mouth and not for a foul odor.9It is for a good reputation and not for a bad reputation. Because the soul knows that all the exertion that it expends, it expends for itself; therefore, it is never satiated of mitzvot and good deeds.
Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a villager who was married to the daughter of kings; even if he feeds her all the delicacies in the world, he does not fulfill his obligation.10He does not satisfy her. Why? It is because she is exalted. Three are ingrates: The earth, the woman, and the soul.
The earth, as it is stated: “The earth is not sated with water” (Proverbs 30:16). The woman, from where is it derived? “[So is the way of an adulterous woman:] She eats, and wipes her mouth, and says: I did not do wrong” (Proverbs 30:20). The soul, from where is it derived? “But his soul is also not filled” (Ecclesiastes 6:7).
Three take abundantly and give abundantly: the earth,11The earth takes rainwater and produces crops. the sea,12Water flows into the sea and evaporates from it to produce rain. and the government.13The government collects taxes and sees to the needs of the public. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: “Soul” is written here six times14The term soul [nefesh] is written six times in the Torah in the context of sin. corresponding to the six days of Creation.
The Holy One blessed be He said to the soul: ‘Everything that I created during the six days of Creation, I created only for your sake, and you emerge and sin? “When a person will sin.”’