The Book of Ruth, at four chapters, is the smallest of the books in the third of the three sections into which the Tanach, the Hebrew Scriptures, is divided. This last section, entitled Ketuvim—Writings—includes such books as Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Daniel. The Book of Ruth is part of a subsection of the Ketuvim called the Five Scrolls (Megilot), each of which has a special connection with the Jewish calendar cycle as observed among many different Jewish communities. The Book of Ruth is associated with the holiday of Shavuot, being read in many synagogues publicly and in others as part of private devotions, during the course of the holiday.
The book begins by describing how a man, his wife, and his two sons leave Israel during a time of famine and take up temporary residence in the neighboring land of Moab. The man, Elimelech, dies; and shortly after taking Moabite wives, the two sons die too, confirming the meaning of their strangely prophetic names which convey meanings of erasure (Machlon) and annihilation (Chilion). The two young widows, Orpah and Ruth, are left with their distraught mother-in-law Naomi, who now, having nothing, decides to return to her native land.
The two daughters-in-law do not want to part, but Naomi, bitter of spirit, tells them she can provide them nothing, and that they should stay in their own homeland and try to start again. Orpah, weeping, kisses Naomi and leaves, but Ruth will not part. She tells Naomi, “Wherever you will go, I will go . . . your people will be my people, and your G-d my G-d” (Ruth 1:16). This devotion to Naomi parallels Abraham’s turning point, when he followed G-d’s challenge away from his land, from his birthplace, and from his father’s house to go where G-d asked. Yet here, the feeling is smaller and entirely human—no divine voice is heard, save in the love that one person expresses to another and the selfless humility that cleared its path.
There was little future, seemingly, for these two women. Neither had a man’s protection, so crucial in the economic and social life of the day. Naomi feels fully the desperate straits they are in—even though there was a buzz of excitement at her returning home, she dashes it with cold water, telling the women who had come to greet her, “Do not call me Naomi [a name meaning ‘pleasant’], but rather call me Mara [bitter]. . . . I left full and G-d has brought me back empty” (Ibid., v. 20–21).
Ruth is not dragged under by the bitterness but seeks a solution to their immediate problem of survival. With Naomi’s consent, she goes off to a field to glean behind the grain harvesters, who are obeying the Torah’s command to leave forgotten grain and gleanings for the poor to gather. Without foreknowledge, she goes to the field of Boaz, a wealthy man and kin to Naomi’s deceased husband.
Boaz’ character is shown as he greets the harvest workers with a respectful blessing. We see it further when he notices Ruth’s diligent work and takes her under his protection. He takes several steps to make life easier for her without ever crossing the bounds of her dignity. She returns to an incredulous Naomi with a generous harvest, and explains to her how Boaz had made this possible. Naomi directs Ruth to always stay with Boaz’ field, and she does so until the end of the barley and wheat harvest seasons.
Naomi now offers Ruth the most generous thing she has to give—she impels her to establish her own life, a home where she can be happy. She sees that Boaz has already protected her and it is to him that she directs her to go. Following Naomi’s instruction, Ruth follows Boaz to the place where he lay down to sleep in the fields, and quietly lay down at his feet. When Boaz awakes, he is startled that there is a woman at his feet. Ruth identifies herself, and asks for him, as a kinsman, to marry her.
Boaz is deeply moved that Ruth came to him instead of to some young man, and blesses her for her kindness. He tells her that someone else in the clan would by right have precedence in marrying her, but he will go and attend to the matter and publicly get the man’s waiver.
Boaz did as he said, pressing the kinsman in the public gate area before all the townsfolk to either take on the kinsman’s responsibility to Ruth or relinquish his right. Excusing himself as being unable to accept that responsibility, the kinsman removed his shoe in a formal public act that transferred his rights to Boaz.
The witnessing town approved of the act and blessed both Boaz and Ruth. They were married and Ruth bore a son, whom Naomi loved and helped to raise, achieving happiness again and security in her old age. The women of the town bless her and her family.
The book concludes with a brief genealogy, which follows the line of Boaz back to Perets, the son of Tamar and Judah, and then forward to the son he had with Ruth, Obed, their grandson Jesse, and their great-grandson, King David.
This conclusion strikes deep resonances. Judah’s connection to Tamar seemed highly irregular. The narrative in Genesis tells how Tamar’s first two husbands, both sons of Judah, died because of their sins, and how Judah did not want to let his third son marry her, as was the custom. Tamar resorted to ruse, dressed as a prostitute and attracted the attention of the recently widowed Judah. She conceived twins from that one meeting, one of whom was the Perets mentioned here in the Ruth text.
Genesis tells how Judah, finding his daughter-in-law pregnant, apparently illicitly, commanded that she be put to death. Tamar replied only by sending to Judah the items he had left with her as collateral for payment for her services, asking only if he recognized them. This crucial moment was the beginning of Judah’s redemption, turning from a man who acted on impulse whose actions caused grave harm to a humbled baal teshuvah (penitent) who freely recognized his own shortcomings and set a course of action to restore things to their right order. His own relation now with Tamar stood as licit, and the line of Judah and of the kings of Israel would all stem from Tamar’s initiative and Judah’s act of teshuvah (repentance).
So, too, with Ruth, there was the extraordinary initiative of a woman—and if we include Naomi, of two women. There was also the marrying of kin and there was also, perhaps more important, an apparent grave irregularity.
For the Torah commands that no Moabite may ever enter the congregation of Israel—which means, to be able to marry a Jew, even if he were to convert. A child of such a union would inherit the disqualification of his Moabite parent; certainly, no such child could be of royal lineage.
But here, too, something was revealed that had not been known before. With Judah and Tamar, what was revealed was the power of Tamar’s resolute faith and of what it sparked—Judah’s teshuvah. Here, the resolute, quiet power of Ruth’s faith sparked a new revelation in the Torah itself. The Midrash (Rut Rabah 4:1) tells us that it was Boaz “who was swift as a leopard to clarify that the law really means one may not marry a Moabite man, but one may marry a Moabite woman.”
The significance of this is momentous. This revelation in Torah paved the way for nothing less than the Mashiach, the Messiah. In the place of greatest darkness—the famine, the flight to Moab, the deaths of husband and children, the life of poverty, and worst of all, a seemingly illicit relationship that could not contribute to the Jewish future—a great light was revealed. What had seemed impossible barriers melted away. From another place, from outside, came the redemption.
“Rav Huna said: It is written For G-d has appointed me another seed [Genesis 4:25]—that is, seed from a place that is other. And this is none other than the Mashiach!” (Rut Rabah 8:1)
May he speedily be revealed!
