‘Kohelet’: Advantage vs purpose in Ecclesiastes - opinion

Tamara Ceaikovski

A careful reading of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) we have just read on Shabbat, reveals that it is not a simple book, but rather a challenging and complex one. Chazal, the sages of the Talmudic era, even considered hiding it away, for it contains internal contradictions. Thus teaches Rav Yehuda, the son of Rav Shmuel bar Shilat, in the name of Rav:“The Sages sought to suppress Kohelet because its words contradict each other. And why did they not suppress it? Because its beginning is words of Torah