[Dennis Prager Speaking to Rabbi Harold Kushner] “How do you deal with that famous opening phrase in Ecclesiastes of, everything is vane or vanity or meaningless? Do you believe that?

[Harold Kushner’s Response]“No I don’t. Funny thing about the book of Ecclesiastes, I first discovered it as a teenager in Hebrew High School when I loved it because I saw [Solomon] as puncturing pomposity and just bringing a healthy cynicism to things, [and I] missed the whole point of the book. Ecclesiastes was written by an old man who is terrified of dying because he’s afraid that everything that he’s invested his energies in will disappear when he dies. I don’t believe that. I don’t know how many years I have to live, I’ve already lived longer than my mother did, I’m 72 and in good health, but who knows. I’m not worried about that. I think that some of what I’ve done will outlast me. I’ve had the advantage that not everybody has of writing ten books now, they’re published and to some degree they will continue to be in libraries and on people’s bookshelves. I’ve influenced people. I’ve shaped the thinking of I don’t know how many thousands of people. I have had an impact, I will leave a daughter, I will leave grandchildren behind. No, I don’t think that everything is vanity.”[1]

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[1] Rabbi Harold Kushner on the Dennis Prager Show (7/30/07) – Rabbi Kushner “missed the whole point of the book” as a child, and he still doesn’t understand Ecclesiastes. How tragic.