Two talmudic passages suggest that ancient rabbinic authorities considered removing the book of Ecclesiastes from the canon, and the standard midrashic commentary on the book states outright that some of its ideas “lean toward heresy.” While medieval exegetes found ways to harmonize the book with accepted doctrines, one brilliant and idiosyncratic Italian rabbi simply threw up his hands. Martin Lockshin writes:

Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal; 1800–1865) was a prolific poet, thinker, linguist, and scholar who composed Bible commentaries that, while rejecting most of the teachings of 19th-century biblical criticism, had a decidedly modern flavor. Most of his life, he taught Bible in the modern, Orthodox rabbinical seminary in Padua.

When he was twenty years old, he wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes which he did not publish. . . . Luzzatto [therein] argues that Ecclesiastes rejects divine personal providence and feels that what happens to people is a result of fate. . . . Luzzatto opposes the final decision of the classical rabbis to include Ecclesiastes in the canon, and he supports the earlier rabbis at the beginning of the first millennium, who, according to classical rabbinic literature, wanted to exclude Ecclesiastes from the Bible.

Thirty-six years later, a mature Luzzatto sent the manuscript to a publisher, with a note explaining that his views of the book had changed, and that he had a newfound appreciation for it. To some extent Luzzatto’s new view mirrors the traditional understanding that King Solomon wrote the Song of Songs in his youth and Ecclesiastes in his old age. Luzzatto wrote:

I hereby apologize and ask forgiveness from the author of Ecclesiastes (whoever he may be). For in the days of my youth . . . I was angry at [him] for saying “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What benefit do people receive from all their efforts?” (1:2–3). . . . Of all the many books that I have seen and read, very few were as valuable to me as the book of Ecclesiastes. . . . From it, I derived the approach that guides me to this very day, that for people whose lives are dedicated to their own benefit, they are vanity and their existence is vanity. But people whose lives and efforts are dedicated to helping others, their lives are not vanity.

“Make no mistake,” said President Biden after the news broke of the murder of six hostages in Gaza, “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.” While this sentiment is correct, especially given that an American citizen was among the dead, the White House has thus far shown little inclination to act upon it. The editors of National Review remark:

Hamas’s execution of [Hersh Goldberg-Polin] should not be treated as merely an issue of concern for Israel but as a brazen act against the United States. It would send a terrible signal if the response from the Biden-Harris administration were to move closer to Hamas’s position in cease-fire negotiations. Instead, Biden must follow through on his declaration that Hamas will pay.

Richard Goldberg lays out ten steps the U.S. can take, none of which involve military action. Among them:

The Department of Justice should move forward with indictments of known individuals and groups in the United States providing material support to Hamas and those associated with Hamas, domestically and abroad. The Departments of the Treasury and State should also target Hamas’s support network of terrorist entities in and out of the Gaza Strip. . . . Palestinian organizations that provide material support to Hamas and coordinate attacks with them should be held accountable for their actions. Hamas networks in foreign countries, including South Africa, should be targeted with sanctions as well.

Pressure on Qatar should include threats to remove Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally; move Al Udeid air-base assets; impose sanctions on Qatari officials, instrumentalities, and assets; and impose sanctions on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera media network. Qatar should be compelled to close all Hamas offices and operations, freeze and turn over to the United States all Hamas-connected assets, and turn over to the United States or Israel all Hamas officials who remain in the country.