Understanding the Deeply Religious Message of Ecclesiastes

To many readers, especially modern ones, the book of Ecclesiastes has appeared religiously skeptical, fatalistic, or even at odds with the rest of the Hebrew Bible. To Menachem Fisch, however, it is none of these things. He argues, in conversation with J.J. Kimche, that it is “a very, very religious book,” with a monotheistic theology, where God “is present on every page.” Its structure above all resembles that of the Talmud, where multiple opinions vie with one another in the search for the truth, but not for a single final answer. (Audio, 53 minutes.)