According to Jewish tradition, we read the Book of Ecclesiastes on the Shabbat that falls during the Intermediary Days of Sukkot; yet the connection between Ecclesiastes and the festival is not so obvious.

Like Passover, the Festival of the Spring, and Shavuot, the Festival of the First Fruits, Sukkot has both agricultural significance and another name, the Festival of the Harvest (literally, the ingathering of the harvest). It is a time for farmers to look back at their accomplishments with a measure of pride after six months of hard work. This is why this festival is such a joyous one. However, in strident contrast, the Book of Ecclesiastes sounds notes of a distinct pessimism, its general message appearing to be: "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (1:2). Ecclesiastes' narrator asks, "What profit hath man of all his labor ...?" (1:3) and, throughout this book, seeks an answer to the disturbing question, "For whom am I toiling? For whom am I sacrificing my strength?"

These questions undermine the holiday's festive spirit and can be the pins that will burst our balloon. Did the classic rabbinical authorities who decided that Ecclesiastes should be read on Sukkot intend to encourage a spirit of pessimism among us? The moral stance of the written and the oral Torah seeks to restrain us and curb our feeling of pride and self-satisfaction over our achievements. The pride of farmers returning from a bountiful harvest could cause them to forget their mortality and even to deify themselves. For that reason, the Torah commands us to reside in a temporary dwelling, the Sukkah. We must leave our sturdy homes in order to recognize our temporal nature and to acknowledge that all the bounty we enjoy is heaven's gift. The two instruments for arousing in us that awareness of our mortality are the Sukkah and the Book of Ecclesiastes.