Ecclesiastes and the Danish Prince

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven," Kohelet says (Eccles. 3:1). There is probably no more familiar verse from the biblical text that we read at this particular season, on the intermediate Shabbat of Sukkot, as the life-sustaining rains begin in the Land of Israel and, in the lands of Ashkenaz, the exuberant notes of Hallel segue into autumn's dying fall. It's a puzzling choice of text because the text itself is puzzling, full of apparent contradictions.