Perhaps this is the journey of all of us. For seven weeks, those between Passover and Shavuot, we took on studying the Book of Ruth. After Shabbat morning services and then again on Sunday mornings with my confirmation girls. Seven weeks, four chapters and a lifetime.

This is an ancient text and a modern text.

The discussions were so rich; we need to preserve them. While we read the text in English—more than one translation, we learned to look at the Hebrew just to be sure our understanding was close to correct, and to see why different translations chose different words. Remember, every translation is a commentary.

What follows are our findings—and our questions. Chapter by chapter.

The Book of Ruth is traditionally read in synagogues on the holiday of Shavuot. It doesn’t have any real historical events behind it. Nor are there any miracles, per se. It is set at the time of the barley harvest and that might be the connection to Shavuot. It is set in the time of the Judges, before the Kings, although it will lay out its connection to the Kings at the end of the story.

What it memorable of the main characters according to Steinsaltz is “not their fastidiously correct behavior, but for their personal decisions to conduct themselves with kindness and generosity toward one another.”

That’s the harvest we need more of these days, kindness and generosity.

For seven weeks, it was like being back in rabbinical school with heartfelt discussions, the back and forth of a yeshiva, some laughter—OK really giggling, and a deep appreciation of this book and our tradition. It was magical.

You know the story. Now come learn the rest of the story with us as we journey through the text together.

This ancient text and this modern text.

Chapter One:

In the days when there was a famine in the land, when the judges (or the chieftains) ruled, Elimelech and his family moved to Moab. Our first question was why was there a famine, or even, what is a famine? And why was Bethlehem. Beit Lechem, the House of Bread, out of food? The text makes clear that this is Bethlehem in Judah, as opposed to the one in Galilee. In order to survive, the rich Elimelech took his family to Moab where the conditions were better.

Does this make them amongst the first refugees? Asylum Seekers? Are we reading an ancient text or a modern one? What is Moab’s responsibility to them? Hospitality is prized in much of the Middle East, even today. What is our responsibility today to welcome the stranger, the widow, the orphan? How do we handle famines? Refugees?

His sons married Moabite women. What? We thought that after wandering in the desert we were forbidden from having contact with the Moabites, let alone marrying them.

Elimelech and his sons died. Leaving Naomi, his wife, and his two daughers-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, with no one to care (or protect) for them.

They arose (from their mourning, we wondered?) and returned to the fields of Moab because she heard that the Lord (the Israelite Lord) pakad (took note, remembered, visited) G-d’s people. To give to them bread. The Hebrew is beautiful here. Lateit lahem lechem. This verbs echoes the story of Sarah, who G-d pakad, and gives Isaac.

Now that the famine is over, Naomi is going back to Judah—a scary prospect to be on the road alone as a widow. She implores them to return, each of them to their mother’s house. We were surprised that it was not her father’s house. And she blesses them, imploring G-d to show kindness to them as they have shown kindness to her.

Naomi is bitter. She is fond of her daughters-in-law but cannot provide for them and urges them to return the homes of their birth. Orpah agrees to return home but Ruth clung to her mother. Three times Naomi tries to convince Ruth. Return. Return. Return. (Verses 11, 12 and 15) Does this mirror the tradition of turning a potential convert away three times?

Naomi sees how determined Ruth is. The Hebrew is Mitametzet which could be translated full of courage. Like Moses said to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage, chazak v’emetz.” Rashi said that this verse is derived from the Talmud (Y’vamot 47b) that we should not put additional barriers in front of potential converts to Judaism, but that they should be welcomed. Again, we have an ancient text and modern text. Fully layered.

Ruth makes a declaration… “For wherever you will go I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge, your people will be my people and your G-d my G-d.”

And the two of them walked until they arrived in Bethlehem. The town was abuzz about their return. In Hebrew it echoes the beginning of Genesis. It was in chaos, tahom. That couldn’t really be Naomi! And Naomi begs to be called Mara because the Lord has made her bitter.

Now despite the prohibition of referring to a convert after the conversion as a convert, the text at this stage makes clear that it is Ruth, the Moabite, who had returned from the fields of Moab.

One remaining question…what happened to Orpah? She exits stage left and is not heard from again. One of our members, wrote a modern midrash of Orpah which I may, with his permission, share later.

Chapter Two:

Naomi had a kinsman, a Gibor Cha’eil, a mighty man (soldier) a man of valor which parallels Proverbs description of a “Woman of Valor, Eishet Cha’eil”. This man, Boaz, was related to Elimelech and while we don’t know much about him from the text itself, other commentaries link him being a Judge in Bethlehem.

Ruth, the Moabite, which the text seems to emphasize still, begs Naomi to go glean. The use of the word “na” implies she is asking permission. Much like a teenager saying that she is going to the mall. We had much discussion about the tone here. Depending on the translation you get different understandings. There she is hoping to “find favor in someone’s eyes,” a classic Biblical phrase. Moses found favor in G-d’s eyes. Naomi grants her request and says surprisingly, “Go my daughter,” since Ruth is a daughter-in-law.

Cue the Hollywood music here. She went and gleaned and the field happened to be the field of Boaz. He blesses the reapers with a traditional blessing and they echo, “Yivarechecha Adonai, May the Lord bless you,” a reprise of the priestly blessing in Numbers. Boaz inquires about who the young lady is. We wondered about the use of the word “na’arah” since in truth we are not given many clues to Ruth’s age. However, while she doesn’t have children, she was married. Again we are told she is a Moabite young woman from the fields of Moab. One who has been standing in the fields from morning to night. It is surprising that Boaz didn’t know who she was. It is also surprising that she rested in a house, not a sukkah. A sukkah was used in the fields to provide shade. A sukkah was used during pilgrimage holidays. I still think this should be a sukkah, not a house!

This is an ancient text and a modern one. He commands his men not to molest her according to one translation. Not to touch her according to another. Is this a #MeToo moment. Even back then men had to be ordered not to behave. Would they?

She fell on her face and prostrated herself…she is so grateful. Wait, aren’t we commanded not to bow down? Is this how Lord, Adonai, and my master, referring to a person get confused? She wonders why she has found such favor in his sight, even though she is a foreigner, a stranger. He answers because it is what she has done for her mother-in-law. His “blessing” parallels the command to Abram. She left her father and her mother, the land of her birth to go to a people she did not go. Just like Abram who “lech-lecha,” went forth to the Land of Canaan. He prays that she will find refuge, protection, “al tachat k’nafecha”, under the shadow of G-d’s wings. (We know that language from El Maleh Rachamin, which we chant on Shavuot as part of Yizkor.)

They ate pita and hametz (in this case vinegar!) together. And she ate and was satisfied, echoing the words of Birkat Hamazon, Grace after meals. And there was food left over. Perhaps the origins of the idea that even poor people need to give tzedakah. Or the modern organization Mazon.

Boaz orders his men to leave some sheaves for her to glean without shaming her—even some of the choicest without rebuke. How we treat poor people is important. We are not to shame them or rebuke them. From this she was able to glean about an ephah of barley, which was a lot, a more than she needed for herself and her mother-in-law.

When Naomi asked who has been so kind to her daughter-in-law and told it was Boaz, she exclaims, “Blessed be he to the Lord who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and to the dead.” And so Ruth lived with Naomi and continued to glean in Boaz’s fields.

 

Chapter Three:
The scene music changes again. Now Naomi has decided she needs to find a husband for Ruth and hatches a plan that their kinsman, acquaintance, friend Boaz, would take note of Ruth. She tells Ruth to bathe and anoint herself and to dress in her most attractive garment. (One commentary says her “Sabbath best” Ruth Rabba 5:12).

She should go to him at night and lie at his feet. And even uncover his feet. He will then tell her what to do.

This is an ancient text and a modern text. Say what? It is difficult to imagine that a mother, or a mother-in-law, would say that to a daughter. Did she just traffic her daughter-in-law? But for Naomi, bitter Naomi/Mara these are desperate times. Ruth agrees to the plan even though it does not fit within acceptable norms of modesty.

After work, Boaz ate and drank, maybe a little too much from the phrase, “until his heart was merry.”

Cue new music here.

And it came to pass at midnight. Anyone else expect the Angel of Death to show up, or to pass over the house of Boaz? She praises him and calls him, her “redeemer”. And she told him to spread his garment over her. He then praises her and calls her an Eishet Chayil, a Woman of Valor, saying that the men praise her in the gates, the same language as Proverbs and paralleling the earlier language of “Gibor Chayil”, a Man of Valor above.

In order to protect their modesty, she slips out before dawn so that no one can recognize her, “before anyone could discern another”, similar language in the Talmud for when to say the morning Sh’ma. (Berachot)

Chapter Four:

Boaz went up to the gate (alah, aliyah. a spiritual going up to the seat of commerce) to bargain for Ruth’s release from the other, closer kinsman. He would purchase the field, and by extension Ruth (and Ruth’s family, Naomi). The other redeemer did not want to redeem her since she was a Moabite and at risk of ruining his inheritance. Israelites were forbidden from marrying converts from Moab or Amon even until the 10^th generation (Deut. 23-4-5) but the Talmud, we learned, says the prohibition only applies to Moabite men, not women, making this marriage possible if not common. The redeemer may not have been familiar with this law which is why he refused?

In any case, an agreement is reached where Boaz is to acquire the field, Naomi, Ruth the Moabite, as well as “the wife of the dead” which will perpetuate Elimelech’s name since the redeemer is worried about his own inheritance.

A complicated scene “as was the tradition in Israel” ensues where to seal the deal, the seller removes his shoe and gives it to the buyer as a testament, a symbolic expression that the deal is complete.

So Boaz, in front of everyone at the gate, acquired everything that was Elimelech’s and Kilyon’s and Mahlon’s from the hand of Naomi. And he acquired Ruth, the Moabite—still the Moabite, so that the name of Elimelech will be perpetuated and not forgotten. The people, the witnesses, blessed Boaz and Ruth, asking that G-d make her like Rachel and Leah. And Ruth bore a son. And Naomi placed that son on her bosom (was she nursing him, comforting him?) and they called that child Israel. The women called his Oved, the father of Yishai, the father of David.

The full genealogy is then listed from Peretz to David. Ruth is not heard from again, although the Talmud said that she lived to be old and to see the birth of her grandson David and great-grandson David. By linking her to Rachel and Leah, and leaving out the term Moabite, she is now fully accepted. She becomes the grandmother of David, the ancestor from whom the Messiah, the Redeemer, will come. It is perfect as a modern story and it brings us hope.

This is an ancient text and a modern text. Famine. Refugees. Hunger. Interfaith marriages. Conversion. Inheritance. Women’s rights. Land rights. And the lineage of the messiah.

Ultimately, this ancient text is about being kind. Maybe it is that very kindness that brings about the messiah.

Bibliography:

The Five Megilloth, The Soncino Books of the Bible, Hebrew Text and English Translation, Soncino Press Ltd, 1984

The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Commentary 2011, Translation, 1962, 1985, 1989, 1999 by JPS

Reading Ruth, Contemporary Women Reclaim a Sacred Story, Edited by Judith A Kates and Gail Twersky Reimer, Ballentine Books, 1994

Ruth: A Modern Commentary, Translation and Commentary by Leonard S. Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky, URJ Press, 2005

The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Megillat Ruth, Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Koren Publishers Jerusalem, Ltd. 2015, 2018