Vanity is a sin when it means living for other people’s admiration, for praise of our looks, gifts or success. Christian tradition calls this vainglory, has counted it among the capital sins, and traces it to pride. The “vanity” of Ecclesiastes is another word, the Hebrew hevel, breath. It names life’s brevity and futility; it is no sin. The two meanings meet in one picture. Hevel is breath, here for a moment and then gone, and the praise vanity runs…

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