Ecclesiastes is a strange and disquieting book. Traditionally, we read it every year during the celebration of Sukkot. It gives voice to an experience not usually thought of as religious: the pain and frustration engendered by an unblinking gaze at life’s absurdities and injustices. The man speaking in Ecclesiastes, the preacher, sees things that are distressing to observe: the distortions and inequities that pervade the world; the ineffectuality of human deed; the frailty and limitations of human wisdom and righteousness. This awareness coexists with a firm belief in God—whose power, justice, unpredictability are sovereign.