The Book of Ruth - some thoughts

I have been honoured and flattered to be asked to share some Torah thoughts appropriate for Shavuot at the Shavuot dinner. I am not a Torah scholar, compared with my sons, compared with some of my friends, I am an ignoramus, am ha'aretz. In the land of the blind, however, the partially sighted is king. There is not much that I could say about the Ten Commandments that has not been said already, but I can relate to the Book of Ruth, the quintessential immigrant or refugee experience. This is what I will be talking about, shamelessly borrowing from Margo Schlanger and her article, Illegal Immigrants and the Book of Ruth, published in Tablet. My slant is different from hers, in so far as I have a message, it is different from hers, but we have in common seeing in Ruth the difficulties faced by someone fleeing her country. Here is the text of my talk, feel free to comment and disagree.

The story of Ruth – some thoughts

Wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge, I will lodge, your people are my people, and your God is my God, where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.

These are the words Ruth said to her mother-in-law, Naomi. They were both widows left bereft in an inhospitable land. So starts a story about immigration, about being a refugee, that has a contemporary resonance.

Ruth was the best kind of 'receiver of the Torah': she is simultaneously brave and kind. She makes compassion her guiding value, and she boldly ventures to join a community that in turn accepts her fully. Her kindness, her chesed, awakens corresponding compassion in those around her.

Briefly, the story tells us that in a time of terrible famine and political insecurity, Elimelech left Bethlehem with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons and went to Moab, on the other side of the Dead Sea. Elimelech died, and his sons died. The Megilla doesn't tell us how or in what circumstances they died. Was it violence, disease, war, epidemic, we don't know. Moab was a violent place, the country of Balak and Bilam, a place where witchcraft was still practised, and in times of crisis human sacrifices were offered to the Moabite god Chemosh. Nor do we know why the wives of the sons of Elimelech were childless, or perhaps they had children who had also died. In a place like that a religion with humane laws, that extend protection and Sabbath, the day of rest not only to the immediate members of the clan, but also to 'your slave, your maid, your animal, and the foreigner in your gates' would have had a powerful appeal. We are only told what we need to know about Ruth, her acceptance in the Jewish community, her conversion, and her role in the Jewish chain of history.

Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law were left alone—without children, without male heads of household, without economic or social standing. Naomi decided to leave Moab and travel home to Judah. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, returned to her own mother. Ruth, by contrast, stayed with Naomi. The key word in the Book of Ruth is chesed, kindness or compassion. Naomi says to Ruth: 'May God kindly deal with you as you have dealt kindly with the dead and with me.' Ruth’s kindness is vital to Naomi’s survival. Without Ruth, Naomi would have been friendless and helpless on the journey, and perhaps even at its end. Even with Ruth’s help, the two arrived in Bethlehem poor and hungry, dependent on others for food. For others, however, it was a time of plenty. The barley harvest was underway. Ruth went to the field of Boaz, close kin to Elimelech, and gleaned the barley left behind by the reapers who were harvesting the bulk of the yield. Boaz was so taken by Ruth’s kindness and care for Naomi that he made sure she was able to gather more than enough.

Boaz also protected the vulnerable Ruth from the threat of sexual violence and offered her the safety of other women. But she wanted to be a full member of her adoptive family, the family of her dead husband. She tempted Boaz, a relative, a much older man to marry her and give her children. For Boaz this is an act of kindness, chesed: 'Be blessed of God, my daughter,' he said, 'you have made your latest act of kindness, greater than the first, in that you have not gone after the younger men, be they poor or rich.'

And so Ruth the Moabite went first from gentile to Jew, and then from widow to wife, stranger to citizen, gleaner to matriarch. It’s the ultimate immigration story. But the greatest reward granted to Ruth for her kindness and unfailing devotion was the most precious blessing any woman can hope for, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a great-great grandson who became the King of Israel and the model for all future kings.

¹

1Some of these words and ideas were borrowed from ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND THE BOOK OF RUTH

Shavuot offers an important lesson for politics today.

By Margo Schlanger

Tablet, May 26, 2017