Kohelet (Ecclesiastes)

and Sukkot

 Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs (z"l)

Kohelet, often called "the preacher," is read in the synagogue on the holiday of Sukkot. One traditional explanation is that Kohelet, who is writing in the autumn of his life, is comparable to the Fall harvest. The autumn is a reminder of the winter to come, and the death of plants and trees. Kohelet's views are those of a mature individual, closer to the end of life than to the beginning which would be represented by the buds of Spring. 

The Talmud (Shabbat 30b) states that, at first, the sages wished to hide the work (i.e. they refused to endow it with the sanctity of sacred Scripture) because some of its statements contra­dict the Torah and are even self-contradictory. Eventually, however, the book was accepted as a biblical book on the grounds that it begins and ends with "the fear of heaven." In other words, for all the book's skepticism and pessi­mism about the human condition, the teaching which shines through is: "Fear God and keep His commandments" (12: 13). The usual Mid­rashic interpretation of the book is that the description of all human life "under the sun" as "vanity of vanities" applies only to earthly pur­suits ("under the sun"), not to the way of the Torah, which is "above the sun," eternal and beyond time.

Ecclesiastes is read in the synagogue on the festival of Tabernacles [Sukkot], the festival of joy; an odd choice on the face of it, for a book that seems to question life's values. But, here again, the interpretation holds good that the philosophical probings of the book do not lead ultimately to unbeliefbut, on the contrary, to an appreciation of the higher values which promote true happiness. The book has served as a reminder that Judaism does not necessarily frown on a sincere quest for life's meaning and significance. For this reason, the book is, in a sense, the earliest encounter between faith and reason, a debate which has been continued by the philosophically inclined throughout the history of Jewish thought. The very admission of such a book into the Bible demonstrates how precarious it is to try to draw a picture of Judaism in simple terms.

Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs (1920-2006) was a Masorti rabbi, the first leader of Masorti Judaism (also known as Conservative Judaism) in the United Kingdom, and a leading writer and thinker on Judaism.