ABSTRACT
This chapter explores one of the most profound, subversive, and beautiful books in the Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes, known as Koheleth ("member of the assembly") in Hebrew. Specifically, Ecclesiastes contains the melancholy, sceptical, ironic, and rationalist reflections of a philosopher–poet at the sunset of his life rather than a straightforward, unambivalent, pious affirmation of faith and the virtues of living an exacting religious life. Ecclesiastes' way of looking at life is similar to certain life attitudes and values embodied implicitly in the Freudian world-view, but also suggests what psychoanalysis might appropriate or further explore and develop as it tries to enhance itself as a narrative of the human. Ecclesiastes probably taught in one of the well-to-do local academies that educated upper-class Jewish youth. The Book of Ecclesiastes is overflowing with provocative ideas about life, love, suffering, growing old, and death, and it is impossible in this chapter to discuss all of them.
