Secrets that keep us safe

“I pray God to rid me of God.” Meister Eckhart.


On my way to New York each day I go to work, I sometimes meet this blind man, with a “seeing-eye dog” at the train station in Trenton. He takes the train from Trenton to Princeton Junction, which is one station stop from Trenton. Every time I see him, I feel both a profound sadness and a disquieting envy: sadness because I have sight—and he does not; envy because he has a loyal, if not faithful, companion in his dog—while I struggle daily to affirm, not only my own faithfulness, but also my faith in having faithful companions in the journey of life.

Sight and faithfulness. These seem to be a large part of what we all seek in our lives. In fact, Qoheleth, the Preacher, the author of Ecclesiastes, may be read as addressing this very quest, which he poses in an extremely interesting, if disconcerting, manner.

Qoheleth opens his meditations by asserting “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” The Hebrew phrase he...