What Is Ecclesiastes Rabbah?

Ecclesiastes Rabbah is an aggadic (nonlegal) exegetical midrash on the book of Ecclesiastes dating to the sixth to ninth centuries CE. Like the biblical text on which it comments, Ecclesiastes Rabbah addresses questions pertaining to suffering, death, and the purpose of life. The midrash highlights how the rabbis grapple with especially problematic biblical texts using various interpretive strategies, revealing both their ideals and their agility in textual interpretation.