Over the summer I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with my wife alone with our 8 year old daughter Libi. As she is the youngest of four children, moments like this are pretty rare. Her siblings were all off at overnight camp so we decided to see the new Barbie Movie. I had not heard much about that movie. I just assumed it was something appropriate for a girl of eight who likes to play with dolls. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised.

It turns out that this is really a movie for everyone. It is for those who are young and old. It is for those who identify as any gender. It is actually a rather clever and accessible critique of the patriarchy. In its own way it teases apart the system constructed to make men as a group superior to women as a group. 

One thing I enjoyed in the movie was the message that Ken needed to define himself beyond his relationship to Barbie or his power over women. He needed to understand that he was enough. And there was of course the SWAG:

We do not need to and should not take up more power, space, or resources then what we deserve. We are all equal and need to behave accordingly. What would it take for more people to understand that each of us is Kenough? 

I was thinking about this as we get ready for Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot when we read Kohelet, Ecclesiastes. Soon after we will celebrate Simchat Torah, during which we will start the annual cycle of reading the Torah from the beginning. How do we make sense of this transition from Kohelet to Genesis?

Kohelet is written from the perspective of Solomon. Like Siddhartha, Solomon was the king and had everything, but he gave it up to find a life a meaning.There we read:

I said in my heart: ‘Come now, I will try you with mirth, and enjoy pleasure’; and, behold, this also was vanity.  I said of laughter: ‘It is mad’; and of mirth: ‘What does it accomplish?’ I searched in my heart how to pamper my flesh with wine, and, my heart conducting itself with wisdom, how yet to lay hold on folly, till I might see which it was best for the sons of men that they should do under the heaven the few days of their life.  I made me great works; I built me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. (Kohelet 2:1-5)

Solomon has everything, but he realizes that it is not enough. Here in trying to plant every kind of fruit tree it is as if he were trying to recreate Eden itself.  There is a profound connection here between Solomon and Adam.  As we read in Genesis

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ ( Genesis 2: 16-17)

They could eat the fruit of every tree except for this one. What was that  not enough? This speaks to a profound truth to the human condition. Why is it so hard for any of us to be satisfied? It seems that our best worst trait is that we can never have or be enough. If only we could conquer our inner need to have more or be more we might be happy with what we have and who we are.  What is the balance between gratitude and contentment on one side and the drive to be more and have more on the other?

During Sukkot we find interesting ways to return to nature, be it holding the 4 species or moving outside into the Sukkah. In light of Kohelet we see that we are trying to return to Eden. This perennial effort to return to Eden seems  futile, itself a “vanity of vanities”. While this drive might help me grow and be better, if these actions are at the expense of others it does not seem like a good endeavor .This year I want to focus on being grateful for all of the great things I have in my life without wanting more. I am Kenough. Or in Yiddish you could say איך בין קענוג- ikh bin Kenug. In the words of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, “What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” I am truly blessed and I strive to be content but not complacent. How will I tend my garden of gratitude?

*written for YCT seasonal

*also on Barbir see: What Was I Made For? & I am Kenough: A Thought on Barbie