Praise Her Works: Conversations with Biblical Women

21 Ruth

165 o Chapter 2 Ruth HAVIVA-NER DAVID :v*bÇ¡KâF±kág ,hÃßk¡g ¦<»Ät& ý u k^h÷*j UϺ¡g ,Ib¡‚C ,IºC»r “Many women have done well, but you surpass them all” (Prov. 31:29). wr rnt /ohrahv uhbcu sus vbnn tmhu ,fza ,ur uz 'khj uag ,ubc ,ucr ,tu /,ujca,u ,urhac v"cevk vura sus vbnn tmha ',ur htn ibjuh /iuatrv in iurjtv lsxj ,cyhv h,c zgc vk rnta 'vbkf kg ,hkg Many women have done well, this is Ruth, who merited that David and his righteous offspring were to be her descendants. Said Rabbi Yohanan :“WhyRuth?BecauseDavidwouldcomefromher,whosesoulwas so full, he would sing to God in songs and praises.” —Midrash ha-Gadol Elimelech, a wealthy leader in Israel, and his wife, Naomi, leave Bethlehem in the Land of Judah because of famine. They go to Moab with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Eventually, Elimelech dies, and the sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Ten years later,thetwosonsdie,too,leavingtheirwiveswithnochildren;and,with no hope of descendants to carry on the line of her husband and sons, Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem. Naomi advises her two daughters-in-law to return to the homes of theirmothers,andatfirstbothrefuse;butintheend,Orpahispersuaded byNaomi`sargumentthatshecanofferthemnofuture.Iftheyremainin Moab, they will have a future. But Ruth is not convinced; she clings to Naomi and tells her: “… wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, Iwilllodge;yourpeopleshallbemypeople,andyourGodmyGod.Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1:16,17). 166 Praise Her Works At the end of Ruth 1, the two women return to Bethlehem as paupers at the beginning of the barley harvest. Actually, it is only Naomi who is physically returning. Ruth is returning to her deeper, spiritual roots even though it is not her actual homeland. People are excited to see them. After all, it has been many years. But Naomi is bitter and tells them that she left full and has returned empty. In order to feed herself and Naomi, Ruth goes to glean in the fields of Boaz, Naomi’s relation, as according to Jewish Law, one must leave the corners of the fields unharvested for the poor to gather. Boaz notices Ruth and takes an interest in her; he tells his reapers to treat her well, and he invites her to partake of their food at mealtime. She thanks him, and he commends her on her courage and hesed (lovingkindness ) to have left her home to take care of Naomi. After some time, Naomi tells Ruth to go to Boaz at night when he will be on the threshing floor and to lie at his feet. Then he can redeem her according to the laws of levirate marriage.1 Ruth does as Naomi bids and Boaz is moved by her actions. He thanks her for turning to him rather than to a younger kinsman. But he explains that there is a closer relative who should be given first claim on Ruth. In front of 10 elders, Boaz asks this relative, Ploni Almoni, if he would want to marry Ruth and thus also acquire the land that Elimelech left years before. He refuses. Therefore, Boaz and Ruth are able to marry. They have a son, Obed, father of Jesse, father of King David. In this way, Ruth has done her duty to perpetuate the name of her deceased husband, Mahlon, in Israel. The townswomen tell Naomi that her new grandson “will renew your life and sustain your old age; for he is born of your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons” (Ruth 4:15). Commentary Deuteronomy 23:4,5 states: “No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord; none of their descendants , even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the 167 Chapter 21 Ruth congregation of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor … to curse you.” The Talmud in tractate Yevamot reacts to this declaration by asking how is it that King David was descended from Ruth, the Moabite convert? After all, she should not have been allowed to convert in the first place because she was a Moabite! The Talmud goes on to interpret the biblical prohibition this way: “Read the verse to mean … a male Moabite and not a female.” Is this answer satisfying? Could we not find a more meaningful answer in the story of Ruth herself—an answer that could shed light on Ruth’s message to us as well? There is no doubt that in the text of the Book of Ruth, the writer wants to emphasize Ruth’s origins. She is constantly referred to as “Ruth the Moabite.” Yet, she is also set up as a parallel figure to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. “Wherever you go I will go; wherever you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” she tells Naomi in Ruth 1:16,17. This conjures up God’s words to Abraham: “Go you from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1–3). Like Abraham, Ruth leaves her land and her people to go to a place that is unknown to her. Like Abraham, she displays extraordinary courage, vision, and faith. But there is more to the parallel between Ruth and Abraham than this. Like Abraham, who was known to have opened his tent on all sides to welcome visitors, Ruth exemplifies hesed (lovingkindness ) that goes above and beyond what would be expected of the average human being. Orpah is the example of ordinary hesed in this story. She offers sincerely to stay with Naomi, but when Naomi pushes her to go, she is persuaded. Ruth, on the other hand, will not be swayed. She is determined to remain with Naomi and care for her in her old age. Ruth stays despite the fact that in Judah, as a Moabite among Israelites, this could mean a life of poverty. She will have no hope for a future husband or children. Still, Ruth goes with Naomi. 168 Praise Her Works When they arrive in Bethlehem, she works hard on her feet all day to make sure Naomi does not starve. The Book of Ruth is telling us that Ruth the Moabite is more akin to Abraham than to her true blood ancestor, Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Lot displays a warped sense of hesed. He is prepared to sacrifice his own daughters in order to protect strangers when he offers to throw his daughters, instead of his guests, out to the angry Sodomites, to be raped. Ruth, the paradigm of hesed, is more a daughter of Abraham than of Lot, the author is telling us. Ruth is not really going to a strange land when she sets out for Judah. She is returning, as the text tells us. Hers is not a physical return, but rather a spiritual one. In fact, Ruth displays a higher level of hesed than Abraham himself . While Abraham is especially welcoming to strangers, his hesed at home is not as strong. In Genesis 12:13 he tells his wife, Sarah, to misrepresent herself as his sister. He is worried that the king of Egypt might kill him in order to take Sarah as his wife. He makes Sarah seem sexually available, putting her body in jeopardy, so that his life won’t be in jeopardy. Then, later, he is willing to sacrifice his own son. Ruth’s hesed, on the other hand, has a fuller quality. It is directed to everyone, as her relationship to Naomi demonstrates. Naomi is not a blood relation of Ruth’s, but she is also not a stranger. She is something between kin and stranger, telling us that Ruth’s hesed is nondiscriminating and rises above even that of Abraham himself. The Book of Ruth transforms the prohibition in Deuteronomy to one based not on ancestry but on character. Moabite men become a symbol for the type of person who is barred from joining the Jewish people. The Gemara, not the Torah, provides this distinction as to why Ruth is allowed to marry Boaz, but the real reason is implied by the text of the Book of Ruth itself. Because of Ruth’s character, which is decidedly “un-Moabite” and essentially Hebrew, she is allowed to enter the nation. A spiritual son or daughter of Lot who is with the Moabites in the desert may not enter the assembly of the Lord. However , one who is descended from the Moabites in blood, yet displays 169 Chapter 21 Ruth that he or she is truly the spiritual heir of Abraham, is accepted with open arms into the Jewish people. Moreover, he or she is honored with the same royal lineage that will eventually bring forth the Messiah, the redeemer. Ruth Speaks As far back as I can remember, I did not feel at home among my people. My giving nature did not match what was presented as virtuous in my culture. “Humans are a selfish breed,” my father would tell me. “You have to look out for yourself, because no one else will!” But my heart told me there must be another way. So I searched for role models who could show me this other way. And then I met Naomi. When I first saw Naomi, she was nursing her sick husband, Elimelech. I watched her carry him out of their house to feel the warm sun on his almost translucent skin. This, my heart told me, is the other way that I have been searching for. So I offered my help. I came every day to help Naomi with her husband. She did not want to leave him alone, and her sons needed to look after their livelihoods . She was unable to leave the house until they came home. I would come to stay with Elimelech while she went out to get food or see to other needs outside of the house. It was not easy to convince Naomi to let herself be helped, but really she had no choice, as there were things she needed to attend to outside of the house, even if just for the good of her family. Soon I brought my childhood friend Orpah along as well, for a bit of company, and because I wanted to expose her to Naomi’s ways. Even when Naomi was at home, we stayed and helped her, mostly because we wanted a chance to watch her and listen to her musings. When Elimelech was not listening, she would tell us of her regrets . “I should never have agreed to leave our home and our people. I knew it was wrong to take advantage of our fortunate position and leave while others starved. If anything, as I told Elimelech, we should go just to gather enough food to bring back with us for the others. 170 Praise Her Works But he assured me we would not be gone long. He said we had to look out for our family first. And this I could understand. But once we settled in Moab, and life was materially good here, not so much of a struggle as it was back home, I knew he would never leave. I thought about going back myself, taking the boys, but then my husband fell ill, and now there is no choice. I could consider leaving him when he was well, but I cannot leave him in this condition. He is my husband, after all.” She nursed him for years until he finally breathed his last breath. By then we were all family. Her sons were grown. It was obvious that we would marry them. I think I was in love with Naomi as much as Mahlon. I was in love with their way of life, what they thought to be most important. They taught me a new word, hesed, which was not even in the vocabulary of the culture I came from. Ten years passed and neither Orpah nor I conceived. This was painful to all of us; and if not for Naomi, I am not sure I would have made it through those years. She showed me how I could transform this desire to nurture and care for a child, which was at the source of my very being, into hesed. Our home became an outpost of hesed in Moab. No one knew what to make of it. We served food to the poor and cared for the sick, while Mahlon and Chilion were out all day working. They brought home the money, and we poured it into our House of Hesed. But they didn’t mind. After all, they were not only the sons of Elimelech, but also the sons of Naomi. Then came the terrible accident. On their way home from work, bandits attacked Mahlon and Chilion. They were left bleeding on the side of the road, and no one came to help them. They bled to death. After all those years in Naomi’s home, I was shocked. How could this happen? What kind of human being would leave two men to bleed to death on the side of a road? And then I remembered that this was how I was raised. And then I knew that I had to leave. So when Naomi told me to go back to my mother’s house, I could think of no fate worse than that. I could not bear the thought of Naomi 171 Chapter 21 Ruth living on her own. How would she take care of herself in her old age? And how could I bear never hearing from her again? Even more important , how could I stay in this place where there is no hesed? I went with Naomi back to the Land of Judah, despite her pleas that I return home. She was worried about my future. She was right; I knew life would not be easy for me there. Israelites are not supposed to marry Moabites. Mahlon and Chilion did so only because they had no choice. Besides, Naomi allowed it. She said Orpah and I were Israelites at heart. But she warned me that this might not be the way others would see it. When we first arrived in Bethlehem, I was treated like a stranger. “Ruth the Moabite,” they all called me. Then I met Boaz. He noticed me gleaning in his field. He told his reapers to deal kindly with me, and he invited me to eat with them all. He sensed my Israelite heart. He perceived my hesed. And when I told this to Naomi, her face lit up. “He sees in you what I did,” she said. “He sees that you are a daughter of Abraham. Now go to him, and he will redeem us.” So I did and so he did. My womb was opened after all of those years. And now we have a House of Hesed in Judah: me, Boaz, Naomi, and Obed, our son. A Message from Ruth Since I have come from outside the Jewish People, I have had to learn what is central to Jewish identity and tradition. First, we judge people not by the way they look or the place they come from or the labels others have put on them, and not even by the deeds of their community or family, but by who they are inside and how thatmanifestsitselfintheiractionsintheworld.Peoplecandefyalllabels and categorizations, so it pays to look closely and carefully at everyone ratherthantorelyonwhatotherstellusaboutthemorevenwhatourfirst impressions may be. Take the time to look deeply into a person’s soul. Second, people can overcome their national and even personal pasts. A woman can always turn her life around through the acts she 172 Praise Her Works performs and the decisions she makes at the immediate moment. I was at a crossroads in my life, and I had to make the decision I knew was right even though it meant leaving home forever. Third, even in the larger scheme of things, small acts of hesed can change the course of history and thus help to repair the world. Finally, love can, at times, override all rational thinking. Sometimes , listen to your heart instead of your head. Often, it is in these kinds of internal communications that we tap into the spark of the Divine that is in each of us. Know that when you perform acts of hesed, you repair your own soul, the souls of others, and nothing less than the soul of the world. For Further Thought What was it about Ruth the Moabite that made her worthy of being the mother of the messianic line, in opposition to the biblical decree that a Moabite should not enter the people of Israel, as described in Deuteronomy 23:4–7? Boaz was the descendant of Perez, one of the sons of Tamar, a woman whose story is found in Genesis 38. Tamar was also an outsider to the Jewish people. What are links between the story of Ruth and the story of Tamar? See Judith A. Kates and Gail Twersky Reimer, editors of Reading Ruth: Contemporary Women Reclaim a Sacred Story (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994). This exciting compendium of essays on Ruth by imaginative and thoughtful Jewish women writers will stimulate much discussion. Ilana Pardes’ “The Book of Ruth: Idyllic Revisionism” in Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), pages 98–117, is a perceptive essay that rereads the Book of Ruth in the light of the story of Rachel and Leah. ...