The Internal Infinite: Deleuze, Subjectivity, and Moral Agency in Ecclesiastes

Abstract

Throughout Second Temple Judaism many understood human subjectivity as finite, but this finitude was conceptualized in different ways. For most, humans are finite because they are limited or excluded from an ideal fullness that lies beyond them. In contrast, for Qohelet human subjects are limited because God has hard-wired a non-finite condition within them. Human being is split, barred from any sense of fulfillment and kept open to a perpetual process of becoming something different. Moreover, as Qohelet repeatedly notes in his refrain that everything is ‭לבה‬, this essential alienation is shared throughout the material and social worlds. For Qohelet, this condition is also creative. It enables subjects to experience affects and forge social solidarities that are not determined by their material conditions and social relations. Ecclesiastes conjures moral agents out of this shared alienation by making their affective attachments to the world and to others an ethical concern. Far from trite endorsements of simple pleasures, Qohelet's exhortations to enjoy force subjects to reflect critically on how they respond to and create social and political projects. Ecclesiastes’ commendations of enjoyment push readers to immerse themselves passionately in their singularity, even while they summon readers beyond normative sociality to active participation in the constant transformation of their social and individual lives.