Pleasures of Solitude
The question is what does it mean that he’s chashuv k’meis because he’s all by himself? He’s alone, so what about it? Don’t we see that he’s benefiting from it, from having time alone to do teshuvah?
Some people would appreciate that very much. Who needs people? You know, when you walk in the streets early in the morning and the streets are empty, sometimes you think, “How beautiful these streets are when there’s nobody around.” A person once told me, “The worst thing about streets is that there are people on them.”
It’s Not Life
But that’s a big error; it’s all wrong. As great as solitude is – as great as the achievements a person can make by having time for himself – there’s something that’s missing from his life. He’s not fully alive because one of the most important achievements of life is living among others. And so, when a person is forced to be away from people it’s a little bit of death; a little bit of the purpose of life is taken away from you.
That’s why in our possuk, when Shlomo Hamelech was telling us that the greatness of being alive is that you can still choose, he didn’t say, ‘He who is alive has hope.’ No, he doesn't say it that way. He states ָ חוֹןִּטִּים יֵשׁ בָּל הַחַ יַּר אֶ ל כּמִ י אֲ שֶׁ ר יְחֻ ב – ‘He who is joined to the living; for him there is hope.’ Why mention ‘joined to the living’? You’re alive, that’s all. It could have said ָ חוֹןִּטִּי מִ י אֲ שֶׁ ר חַ י יֵשׁ בּכ – If you’re alive, you have hope. It’s more economical; it saves so many words.
The answer is it would be a false economy, a false saving, and Shlomo Hamelech knew better. Shlomo said his words with exactness. Because just to be alive? No! That’s not the point. You have to be joined to the living! That’s called life! Free will for a man who is in a desert all by himself is not perfect free will. It’s only when you’re connected to the living, that’s when the gift of free will is really activated.
