Eccl. R.

Ecclesiastes Rabbah or Kohelet Rabbah (Hebrew: קהלת רבה) is an haggadic commentary on Ecclesiastes, included in the collection of the Midrash Rabbot. It follows the Biblical book verse by verse, only a few verses remaining without comment. In the list of the old sedarim for the Bible four sedarim are assigned to Ecclesiastes, namely, to i. 1, iii. 13, vii. 1, and ix. 7; and the Midrash Ḳohelet was probably divided according to these sections. This appears from the phrase "Sidra tinyana" inserted between the comments to Eccl. vi. 12 and to vii. 1, and the phrase "Sidra telita'a" between the comments to Eccl. ix. 6 and to ix. 7. These phrases occur at the end of the second and third midrash sections, in the same way that "Seliḳ sidra" indicates the end of sections in Ruth R. and Esth. R. in the earlier editions. The commentary to iii. 12 having been lost, the exposition of the conclusion of the first section is missing. Nothing remains to indicate where one section ends and another begins, as there is no introductory remark to the comment on ii. 13. But an introduction is also lacking to the comment on vii. 1 and ix. 7.

The author confined himself chiefly to collecting and editing, and did not compose new introductions to the sections. He, dated between the sixth and eight centuries however, used to a great extent the introductions which he found either in the earlier midrashim—Bereshit (Genesis) Rabbah, Pesiḳta, Ekah (Lamentations) Rabbati, Wayiḳra (Leviticus) Rabbah, Shir ha-Shirim (Canticles) Rabbah—or in the collections from which those midrashim were compiled. This shows the important part which the introductions to the earlier midrashim played in the later midrashim, in that they served either as sources or as component parts of the latter. For introductions to commentaries on the Bible text and for homilies on the sedarim and Pesiḳta cycle, it was customary to choose texts occurring not in the Pentateuch, but chiefly in the Hagiographa, including Ecclesiastes. This, even in very early times, gave rise to a haggadic treatment of numerous passages in Ecclesiastes, which in turn furnished rich material for the compilation of the Midrash Ḳohelet.

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