Kohelet Rabbah 12:5:1
“They will also fear heights, there will be obstacles on the way, the
almond tree will blossom, the grasshopper will be burdened, the caper berry
will fail. For the man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners will circle
in the streets” (Ecclesiastes 12:5).
“They will also fear heights” – An elderly man, when they would call
him to a place , he says to them: ‘Are there thorns there? Are there ascents
there? Are there descents there? “There will be obstacles [ḥatḥatim] on
the way” – Rabbi Abba bar Kahana and Rabbi Levi: One said: The fear [ḥititei]
of the way descends upon him, [so that he says:] Shall I go or shall I not go;
and he [eventually] says: I shall not go. The other said: He begins delineating
subdivisions along the route. He says: Until this street, until this place, I
am able to go, but until that place I am unable to go.
“The almond tree will blossom” – Rabbi Levi said: This is the nut-sized bone at
the top of the spinal column. Hadrian, may his bones be crushed and his name
expunged, asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Ḥananya; he said to him: ‘From where does a
person blossom in the future?’ He said to him: ‘From the nut-sized bone at the
top of the spinal column.’ [Hadrian] said to him: ‘Show me.’ What did [Rabbi
Yehoshua] do? He brought him the nut-sized bone at the top of the spinal
column. He placed it in water, but it did not dissolve; in fire, but it did not
burn; in a mill, but it was not ground. He placed in on an anvil and struck it
with a hammer. The anvil split, the hammer split, but it was to no avail.
“The grasshopper will be burdened” – these are one’s ankles. “The caper berry
will fail” – this is the desire that sustains peace between a man and his wife;
it will cease. Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta was accustomed to ascending to our
Rabbi. When he grew old, he was unable to do so. One time, he ascended. Our
Rabbi said to him: ‘Why have we been privileged to see the radiant countenance
of the rabbi today?’ He said to him: ‘The distant have become close, the close
have become distant, two have become three, and what sustains peace has
ceased.’
“For the man goes to his eternal home” – it is not written here, “to the
eternal home,” but rather, “his eternal home.” Reish Lakish said: [This is
analogous] to a king who entered a province, accompanied by dukes, governors,
and military commanders. Although all of them enter through one gate, each and
every one stays in a place corresponding to his status. So too, although all
taste the taste of death, each and every one has a world in and of himself.
“And the mourners will circle in the streets” – these are the worms. (source)
