Ecclesiastes Rabbah

Rabbinic literature
Talmud Readers by Adolf Behrman
Talmudic literature
Tannaitic Mishnah Tosefta Amoraic (Gemara) Jerusalem Talmud Babylonian Talmud Later Minor Tractates
Halakhic Midrash
Exodus Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai Leviticus Sifra (Torat Kohanim) Numbers and Deuteronomy Sifre Sifrei Zutta on Numbers (Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim)
Aggadic Midrash
Tannaitic Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle 400–600 CE Genesis Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah Midrash Iyyob Leviticus Rabbah Seder Olam Zutta Tanhuma Megillat Antiochus 650–900 CE Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Sirach Ecclesiastes Rabbah Shir HaShirim Rabbah Deuteronomy Rabbah Devarim Zutta Pesikta Rabbati Midrash Shmuel Midrash Proverbs Ruth Rabbah Baraita of Samuel Targum Sheni 900–1000 CE Ruth Zuta Eichah Zuta Midrash Tehillim Midrash Hashkem Exodus Rabbah Shir ha-Shirim Zutta Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon 1000–1200 CE Midrash Tadshe Sefer haYashar Later Yalkut Shimoni Yalkut haMachiri Midrash Jonah Ein Yaakov Midrash HaGadol Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim
Targum
Torah Targum Onkelos Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Fragment Targum Targum Neofiti Nevi'im Targum Jonathan Ketuvim Targum Tehillim Targum Mishlei Targum Iyyov Targum to the Five Megillot Targum Sheni to Esther Targum to Chronicles
v t e

Ecclesiastes Rabbah or Kohelet Rabbah (

In the list of the old sedarim for the Bible, four sedarim are assigned to Ecclesiastes (beginning at 1:1, 3:13, 7:1, and 9:7); and Kohelet Rabbah was probably divided according to these sections. This appears from the phrase "Sidra tinyana" ("second seder") inserted between the comments to Ecclesiastes 6:12 and 7:1, and the phrase "Sidra telita'a" ("third seder") between the comments to Ecclesiastes 9:6 and 9:7. These phrases occur at the end of the second and third midrash sections, in the same way that "Selik sidra" indicates the end of sections in earlier editions of Ruth Rabbah and Esther Rabbah. The commentary to 3:12 having been lost, so is the phrase "first seder" that would likely have followed it. Nothing remains to indicate where one section ends and another begins, as there is no introductory remark to the commentary on 3:13. But an introduction is also lacking to the commentary on 7:1 and 9:7.

Adaptations from earlier Midrashim

The author - dated to between the 6th-8th centuries - confined himself chiefly to collecting and editing, and did not compose new introductions to the sections. However, he extensively used the introductions found either in the earlier midrashim—

The author of Kohelet Rabbah of course frequently consulted the

A further characteristic indication of the late composition of the work is the fact that in the commentaries on Ecclesiastes 5:5 and 7:11 passages from

The following passage[8] is an example of how in Kohelet Rabbah 1) the allegorical interpretation is connected with the simple literal interpretation; 2) the author, in order to explain a passage, has fused the material collected from different sources; 3) the author used stories and foreign words. The passage explains the description of Solomon's wealth (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8) in three different ways - as referring to Solomon's literal wealth, or to the Torah, or to the wealth that the Jewish people received upon settling its land. The Biblical text of Ecclesiastes is shown in italics:

I made me great works - said Solomon: I made greater works than the works of my fathers; as it is written, 'The king made a great throne of ivory'.^[9] I built me houses - as it is written, 'It came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses.'^[10] I planted me vineyards - as it is written, 'Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon'.^[11]

I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits - even peppers. R. Abba bar Kahana said: Solomon commanded spirits whom he sent to India to fetch water for watering...

I made me pools of water: fish-ponds [πισκίνη] wherewith to water a forest full of trees;—this is the land of Israel; as it is written, "And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon".^[12] I got me servants and maidens - as it is written, "All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred ninety and two."^[13]

I had servants born in my house; as it is written, "and those officers provided victual for King Solomon . . . they lacked nothing".^[14] What does it mean that they lacked nothing? R. Hama bar Hanina said: At Solomon's table there were carrots^[15] in summer and cucumbers in winter; they were eaten throughout the year.

I had great possessions of great and small cattle; as it is written^[16] "u-barburim abusim." What does that mean? The scholars say, "Animals from Barbary" [Βαρβαρία]... I gathered me also silver and gold; as it is written, "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones".^[17] Is it possible?—like the stones on the roads and in the yards, and they were not stolen? No, there were stones eight and ten ells long. And the peculiar treasure of kings - as it is written, "And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon",^[18]—והמדינות [lit. "and of the provinces"] is to be read מדיינת ["the disputing woman"], that is, the Queen of Sheba, who disputed with him in her wisdom, and asked him questions, and could not vanquish him; as it is written, "She came to prove him with hard questions".^[19] I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men,—baths (δημόσια) and male and female demons [שדה, שדות, taken in the sense of שדים, "demons"] who heated them.'

R.

R.