This is from the writings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. 

Our tradition equates hevel, vanity, in Kohelet, with short shallow breaths, with the passing of time, the sense that our days fly away and are gone before we know it. This is the sense that a life not fully lived is no life at all.

Hence the Psalmist wrote: 

“O Lord, what is man that You should care about him, mortal man that You should think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”

Similarly In Job Ch. 7, we read: “What is man that you make much of him?” And a few verses earlier, “You frighten me with dreams, And terrify me with visions, Till I prefer strangulation, Death, to my wasted frame. I am sick of it. I shall not live forever; Let me be, for my days are a breath.”

And finally in Kohelet Ch. 2 we read:

“And so I loathed life. For I was distressed by all that goes on under the Sun, because everything is futile (hevel) and the pursuit of wind.”

Even the word hevel when you say it softly is reminiscent of shallow breath.

But our tradition rails against despair. Kohelet tells us to enjoy life and, whatever we do, do it with all our might and strength.

This is an answer of our tradition to despair. Not for us is the shallow breath.

Rather, we must dive deep into our Torah, and inhale it fully.

It is this deep inhalation of Torah, the collective wisdom of our sages, that is the antidote to despair and the antidote to the futility of a life of only shallow breath.

When I enter the Yeshiva, I allow myself to breathe deeply. My heart rate is lowered as is my blood pressure. This is my body’s way of telling me that immersion in Torah brings life.

My prayer for all of us in the coming year is that we breathe deeply every day, inhale fully the wisdom of the Torah, and help each other to number our days and gain a heart of wisdom.