One of the very best books I have ever read on Judaism is “Koheleth — The Man and his World: A Study of Ecclesiastes” by Robert Gordis. It was originally published in 1951 and republished many times. I first read it in the 1960s as a college student, and it has remained one of my favorites ever since. Robert Gordis was then a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he later rose to be the President of the Rabbinical Assembly. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible — full of fascinating, thought-provoking, and deeply questioning observations and opinions about human existence and the role of religion and belief. It is a work heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, and the fact that it was ultimately included in the Bible is rather astounding. In Gordis’s words, the book “is a basically heterodox if not altogether heretical work. Above all, it is a profoundly human book. The unknown author [traditionally claimed to be Solomon even though the book was written a couple of centuries before the Common Era] has lost the faith of the Prophets in the victory of justice in the world and the belief that [humans] can attain an understanding of the meaning of life. God does indeed exist, but [God’s] relation to world and [humankind] is open to question.”
–Andy