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Study
Guide
for the
BOOK OF RUTH
Written
by
Prof. Miriyam Glazer
Visiting Scholar, Hebrew University 2002-0
Rabbinical Student,University of Judaism/Schechter
Institute of Jewish Studies
Contributing
Editors: Rabbi Shira Yisrael, Rabbi Diana Villa
I. Journeying: “ V’yelech”
One of the core themes of The Book of Ruth
is how life is filled with journeys; the theme weaves
its way throughout the book, and is echoed in the
Torah as a whole. Look at how the word va’yelech
is used in Bereshit, for example, and then consider
how, as The Book of Ruth unfolds, the word
grows richer and richer with meaning and associations:
Consider:
what is the reason for, and nature of, each of these
journeys? What inner resources does the person going
on the journey seem to possess? What are they searching
for or hope to find? Do they evoke any journeys
you yourself have taken?
Bereshit
- Genesis
“And God sent him out of Paradise to work
the earth from which he had been taken.” (Genesis
3:23)
“And
God said to Avram Go-you-forth [lech l’cha]
from your country, from your birthplace, from your
father’s house, to the land that I will show
you. And I will make of you a great nation, and
I will bless you, and make your name great, and
you shall be a blessing…. So Avram went [va’yelech]
as the Lord had commanded him.” (Gen. 12:
1-4)
“Let
us call the maiden and ask (for an answer from)
her own mouth. They called Rivka and said to her:
Will you go with this man? [ha-telkhi im ha
ish hazeh] She said: I will go [elekh].”
(Genesis 24:57-58)
“And
Jacob left [v’yetzey] Beersheva, and
went toward [v’yelech] toward Haran….[and
he dreamed of a ladder, and the Lord stood above
it, and said] behold I am with thee and will watch
over you wherever you go [telech], and will
bring thee again into this land; for I will not
leave thee [lo ehehzahv’cha]….”
(Genesis 28:10-15)
Megillat Ruth
“…there
was a famine in the land and a man went out from
[va’yelech] from Beit Lechem-Judah to reside
in the fields of Moab, he, his wife, and his two
sons.” (Ruth I.1)
(Why
do you think that at the very beginning The Book of Ruth the text tells us that the story takes place
“when the judges ruled” and it doesn’t
tell us Elimelech’s name --or his wife’s,
or his sons’ -- until verse 2?)
“Entreat
me not to leave you [l’ahzivaych], to turn
back and not follow you. For wherever you go [t’ilkhi]
I will go [aylech].” (Ruth I.16)
“I went away [ha’lachti] full, and I
returned empty.” (Ruth I.21)
“Is this the one whose actions were fitting
and pleasant [ne’imim]? In the past she used
to go in a litter, and now she walks barefoot, and
you say, Is this Naomi? In the past she wore a cloak
of fine wool, and now she is clothed in rags, and
you say Is this Naomi? Before her countenance was
ruddy from abundance of food and drink, and now
it is sickly from hunger, and yet you say, Is this
Naomi?” (Ruth Rabba 3:6)
“And
Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, I would like to
go to the fields [aylcha-na]…and [Naomi]
said Yes, my daughter, go [l’chi biti].”
II.2.
II. Lovingkindness: Chessed
Another
core theme in The Book of Ruth is the idea
of Chessed. We can also trace the
word in Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim. What kind of
actions are considered expressions of Chessed?
What kind of actions are considered expressions
of Chessed in The Book of Ruth?
After you consider these examples, think about the
role of Chessed in your life –
what might it mean to have “lovingkindness”
toward ourselves? Within ourselves?
Do you have any experience of God’s Chessed?
What would help us bring more lovingkindness into
our own lives?
Shemot- Exodus
"And
YHWH passed before [Moses's] face and called out:
"The Lord! the Lord!--a God compassionate,
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness [chesed]
and faithfulness, showing loyalty [chesed]
to the thousandth generation." (Exodus 34:
6-7)
Hosea
"And
I will betroth you unto me forever; I will betroth
you with righteousness [tsedek], justice [mishpat]
and in lovingkindness [chesed], and in mercies [rachamim]."
(Hosea 2:21)
Tehillim-Psalms: 138
"I
will worship in your Temple and praise your name
for your lovingkindness [chessed]
and for your truth...In the day when I cried you
answered me...Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you will revive me...."
Megillat Ruth
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law "Go,
return, each of you to her mother's house, and God
deal with you kindly [chessed],
as you have dealt with the dead and with me."
(I.8)
And she
told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked,
saying, "The name of the man with whom I worked
today is Boaz."
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed
be he of the Lord, who has not failed in his kindness
[chessed] to the living or the dead!" (II.
19-20)
"Be
blessed of the Lord, daughter! Your latest deed
of loyalty [chessed] is greater than the first,
in that you have not turned to younger men, whether
poor or rich." (III.10)
III. What does it Take to Make a Difference?
1.
On the road from Moab to Bethlehem, Naomi turns
to her two daughters-in-law, and encourages them
to return home. After a great deal of persuasian,
Orpah cries, kisses her mother-in-law, returns to
Moab and then, as one commentator has said, “falls
out of history.” How should we view Orpah’s
decision? What are the qualities she possesses,
and how do they differ from the qualities we associate
with a person who changes history? Is there
an “Orpah” within you? A “Ruth”?
a “Naomi”?
2.
At the very beginning of The Book of Ruth,
Elimelech is described only as an “ish,”
a man. And in chapter four of The Book of Ruth,
Naomi’s “kinsman” also remains
nameless. How does that affect the way we view the
two men, and why might the text portray them anonymously?
Why do they lack names? What aspect of
ourselves would we rather not “name”?
3. What’s
your view of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel’s comment
that Elimelech was “one of the leaders of
his generation. But when the famine came, he said,
“Now all Israel will come knocking at my door
for help, each one with his basket. He therefore
arose and fled from them.” How does that compare
with your views about the social responsibility
of our leaders? About our responsibility for others,
in times of hardship? What does it mean to you to
be a leader? Who is the leader within you? During
crisis situations? During transitions? During times
of joy?
.
4. How does the text suggest what motivates Boaz
to pay special attention to Ruth? To whom do you
find yourself paying special attention? How do you
express it?
5.
Notice that Boaz honors the laws of peah
-- leaving a corner of his field for the poor to
glean. How might that relate to the inner meaning
of the “spiritual harvest” of Shavuot?
Given that most of us are not farmers today, how
might we as individuals “leave a corner”
of our “fields”now?
6. Naomi
reacts to Ruth’s report of her day in the
field by saying (2:20): “Blessed be he of
the Lord, who has not left off his kindness to the
living and the dead.” How does that indicate
to us that she has changed? What is the text suggesting
to us about how each of us can transform another’s
feelings and behavior from depression and sorrow
to gratitude and well-being? From a sense of victim-hood
to hope?
IV. The Community and the “Stranger Among
Us”
1.
Trace the role of the community from the
beginning of the story to the end. How and when
do members of the community appear? When are there
groups of men and when are there groups of women?
What do the various communal scenes show us? What
does The Book of Ruth seem to be suggesting
to us about how we treat each other in our own communities
and how we should treat each other?
2. What
do you think the townspeople feel and see when Naomi
enters Bethlehem? (I.19). How has she changed? Do
they see Ruth with her? How do you imagine Ruth
feels when she enters Bethlehem with her mother-in-law?
3.
Why do you think the text keeps describing Ruth
as the Moabite? When does it stop describing
her that way? What’s the effect of the change?
How does the change correspond to the way we ourselves
relate to the “strangers among us”in
our own day?
V.
Redemption
1. Boaz
is said, in chapter 4:12, to have descended from
Judah and Tamar. Go back and read the story of Judah
and Tamar in Genesis (38), which interrupts yet
another story: the selling of Joseph to Egypt. How
do you think the stories may be interconnected with
one another? In what ways does does The Book of Ruth “redeem” the earlier story? Why
and how are the actions of Tamar, Naomi, and Ruth
so important? What is the Tanach suggesting to us
about the vital role women played in the spiritual
history of Israel?
2.
Ruth is a “Jew-by-choice,” a convert
to Judaism, who gives birth to the child who becomes
the ancestor of King David. How do we regard Jews-by-choice
today? What is it, do you think, about the character
of Ruth and the character of Boaz and the meaning
of their marriage that merits their being
the ancestors of King David?
VI. Survival and Spiritual Accounting
The
Book of Ruth takes place during the barley harvest.
Barley is the second of the seven species, often
considered the “poor people’s bread,”
and the barley harvest takes place during the Omer
period between Pesach and Shavuot. It’s a
time of great trepidation for farmers, for as botanist
Nogah Hareuveni from Neot Kedumim explains, cold
northern winds, on the one hand, and the hamsin,
on the other, can bring either blessing or disaster
to the crops. As the Talmud (Baba Batra 147a) says:
“The
northern wind is beneficial to the wheat when it
has become 1/3 ripened, and damages the olive trees
when they have blossomed. The southern wind is damaging
to wheat when it has become 1/3 ripened, and is
beneficial to the olives when they have blossomed.”
1. How
might the tension of the weather and winds during
this period in the land of Israel relate to the
mood and tensions of The Book of Ruth?
2. “What’s
good for the wheat may damage the olives….”
In Jewish tradition, the Omer period has become
a time for each person also to take a spiritual
account. How do we balance the conflicting tensions,
the “cold northern winds” and the “hot
dry winds” within our own lives as individuals,
as Israelis, and as Jewish women?
VII. “Your People will be My People”:
The Talmud on Conversion
“And
your people will be my people,” says Ruth.
Her process of “conversion” may seem
very foreign to us, for whom the process of conversion
to Judaism has become much more complicated. The
Talmud proposes that process. Read the texts from
the Talmud below. How did the rabbis draw on The Book of Ruth in their discussion? Consider:
1. How
did the rabbis redefine the process of conversion?
What are the three-fold halachic requirements of
conversion?
2. How
stringent must the demands on the convert be?
3. How
did they view the desire to convert to Judaism in
order to marry a Jew?
4. Talmud Study for The Book of Ruth
- by Rabbi Diana Villa
Talmud
- Mas. Yevamoth 24b
{Both
a man who became a proselyte for the sake of a woman
and a woman who became a proselyte for the sake
of a man, and, similarly, a man who became a proselyte
for the sake of a royal board, or for the sake of
joining Solomon's servants,15 are no proper proselytes}
–[Surely
concerning this it was stated that R. Isaac b. Samuel
b. Martha said in the name of Rab: The halachah
is in accordance with the opinion of him who maintained
that they were all proper proselytes.]
(15)
To enter the king's employ.
Talmud
- Mas. Yevamoth 47a
[Our
Rabbis taught: If at the present time a man desires41
to become a proselyte, he is to be addressed as
follows: ‘What reason have you for desiring42
to become a proselyte; do you not know that Israel
at the present time are persecuted and oppressed,
despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions’?
If he replies, ‘I know and yet am unworthy’,43
he is accepted forthwith, and is given instruction
in some of the minor and some of the major commandments.
He is informed of the sin [of the neglect of the
commandments of] Gleanings,44 the Forgotten Sheaf,45
the Corner46 and the Poor Man's Tithe.47 He is also
told of the punishment for the transgression of
the commandments. Furthermore, he is addressed thus:
‘Be it known to you that before you came to
this condition, if you had eaten suet48 you would
not have been punishable with kareth, if you had
profaned the Sabbath you would not have been punishable
with stoning; but now were you to eat suet48 you
would be punished with kareth; were you to profane
the Sabbath you would be punished with stoning’.
And as he is informed of the punishment for the
transgression of the commandments, so is he informed
of the reward granted for their fulfilment. He is
told, ‘Be it known to you that the world to
come was made only for the righteous, and that Israel
at the present time are unable to bear
(41) Lit., ‘who comes’.
(42) Lit., ‘what have you seen that you came’.
(43) Of the privilege of membership of Israel.
(44) V. supra p. 308. n. 8.
(45) V. loc. cit. n. 9.
(46) V. loc. cit. n. 10.
(47) V. loc. cit. n. 11.
(48) I.e., forbidden fat.
Talmud
- Mas. Yevamoth 47b
[As
soon as he is healed arrangements are made for his
immediate ablution, when two learned men must stand
by his side and acquaint him with some of the minor
commandments and with some of the major ones.4 When
he comes up after his ablution he is deemed to be
an Israelite in all respects.
In the
case of a woman proselyte, women make her sit in
the water up to her neck, while two learned men
stand outside and give her instruction in some of
the minor commandments and some of the major ones.]
The Master said, ‘If a man desires to become
a proselyte . . . he is to be addressed as follows:
"What reason have you for desiring to become
a proselyte . . ." and he is made acquainted
with some of the minor, and with some of the major
commandments’. What is the reason? —
In order that if he desire to withdraw let him do
so;10 for R. Helbo said: Proselytes are as hard
for Israel [to endure] as a sore,11 because it is
written in Scripture. And the proselyte12 shall
join himself with them, and they shall cleave13
to the house of Jacob.14
‘He18
is not, however, to be persuaded, or dissuaded too
much’. R. Eleazar said: What is the Scriptural
proof? — It is written, And when she saw that
she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left
off speaking unto her.19 ‘We are forbidden’,
she20 told her,21 ‘[to move on the Sabbath
beyond the] Sabbath boundaries’!22 —
‘Whither thou goest’ [the other replied]
‘I will go’.23
‘We
are forbidden private meeting between man and woman’!24
— ‘Where thou lodgest. I will lodge’23
‘We
have been commanded six hundred and thirteen commandments’!
— ‘Thy people shall be my people’.23
‘We
are forbidden idolatry’! — ‘And
thy God my God’.23
‘Four
modes of death25 were entrusted to Beth din’!26
— ‘Where thou diest, will I die’.27
‘Two
graveyards28 were placed at the disposal of the
Beth din’! — ‘And there will I
be buried’.27 Presently she saw that she was
steadfastly minded etc.19
) With
the ablution the proselyte completes his ritual
initiation. Hence it is necessary that at that moment
he shall submit to the ‘yoke of the commandments’.
(5) This
is explained infra.
(6) I.e. — a ritual bath containing no less
than forty se'ah of water.
(7) Though the ablutions of the latter are not in
connection with levitical uncleanness.
(8) The water most come in direct contact with the
bather. Should any foreign matter intervene between
his body and the water the ablution is thereby rendered
invalid.
(9) Although the purpose of these ablutions is not,
like that of the usual ablutions, to qualify for
the eating, or the handling of, levitically clean
things. The ablutions of the proselyte and the slave
are only a part of their initiation ceremonial,
while that of the menstruant has for its object
the woman's permissibility to her husband.
(10) Lit., ‘that if he separates let him separate’.
(11) ,jpx cf. Lev. XIII, 2.
(12) rdv (E.V., ‘stranger’).
(13) ujpxbu of the same rt. as ,jpx (v. supra note
7), ‘they will be like a sure’.
(14) 15a. XIV, 1. Cf. Kid. 70b, Nid. 13a. infra
109b. An influx of proselytes tends to lower the
moral standards of Judaism.
(15) A descendant of Noah, i.e., all idolaters.
(16) The smallest coin.
(17) Hence he is informed of the laws of the yearly
gifts to the poor. On learning of the Israelite's
financial obligations to the causes of charity he
would either resign himself to the inevitable or
withdraw altogether from his intended conversion.
For another interpretation of this dictum, v. ‘A.Z.
Sonc. ed. p. 343.
(18) V. Rashal a.l. Cur. edd. contain in parentheses:
‘And he is informed of the sin of the Forgotten
Sheaf and the Corner’.
(19) Ruth I, 18.
Talmud
- Mas. Yevamoth 48a
For it
was indeed taught. ‘Both a proselyte and a
slave bought from an idolater must make19 a declaration
of acceptance’.20 Thus it follows21 that a
slave bought from an Israelite need not make a declaration
of acceptance.20
19) At
the time of his ablution as proselyte or slave respectively.
(20) Of the observance of the commandments.
(21) Since ‘slave’ is qualified by the
condition of ‘bought from an idolater’.
Talmud - Mas. Bechoroth 30b
If a
heathen is prepared to accept the Torah except one
religious law, we must not receive him [as an Israelite].
R. Jose son of R. Judah says: Even [if the exception
be] one point of the special minutiae of the Scribes’
enactments.
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