Jeremy Rosen
Ruth
Jeremy Rosen | Ruth | 05.26.22
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Where and how and what. an answer already, you got couple questions, answers. Sing again? Yeah. Do we need the Megillah, Lindy asked. No, you don’t need the Megillah. It was nice to have the text, but I’m going to post the text for you on my screen, so you’ll see it on my screen, if you don’t have it. Uhm. Yup, humming it again, Myra. Don’t know, sometimes it’s classical, sometimes it’s modern, sometimes it’s ha-si-dish.
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No, I’m not a composer. Just made up.
Not yet, next time. And on that note, I think we can get started.
Okay, so everybody, today it is the book of Ruth in preparation for Sjavuot, the festival when we read the Book of Ruth, and the question we will conclude with is, why we read the book of Ruth on Sjavuot. But before we get there, let’s look at the book. So, I’m going to share my screen with you, so that you have the text in Hebrew and English in front of you. Now, I know some people don’t like it, because that shrinks me, but I’m told, you can change your screen in such a way as to make it 50/50. So half the screen will be me, half the screen will be the text. So, here we go. This is, many people think, the oldest book of the Bible, or at least the oldest book, in terms of chronology, and in terms of when it was written, because the language is very, very simple and early Bible, the language of the Torah, not the language, later. So, when it was written is still always, all these books, a matter of speculation. But this is one of the earliest, and it is set at the time of the judges. Moses dies, hands over to Joshua, Joshua dies, hands over to the judges, and the judges were a random group of leaders of tribes. There was no unity. The tribes were divided, fighting amongst themselves. Nobody could get them all to come together. Each judge was a judge, who rose through his or her own tribe. And they were charismatic leaders. Sometimes they were military leaders, sometimes, like Samson, they were great physical men of prowess. And of course there was a famous Deborah who was a judge, and she was a remarkable person in her own right.
So, it seems that at that stage, ironically, women were treated with greater respect, than they seemed to have been treated later on. But because of this, the period of the judges was a period of constant upheaval. The phrase that’s used, “in those days of the judges, "there was no king in Israel. "Everybody did whatever they felt like doing”. And so the book starts off which most people translate as, it was in the days when the judges judged, which seems repetitious. Just say, it was the day of the judges. But actually, the Hebrew allows it to mean, it was in the days when the judges were judged and found to be wanting. there was a famine in the land. There’s always a famine, Abraham’s time, Isaac’s, Jacob’s, always famine in the land, And a man went from Bethlehem in Judah. And this is one of the reasons here, why there is this relationship to the earlier text of the Torah, because is used of the father of Moses, when he went and conceived a child against the orders of Pharaoh. And therefore, normally, is a good statement, that a person is going to do something good, except, this man goes from from Bethlehem in Judah, to live in the plains of Mo-av, which are across the east bank of the river. And he went to live there, he and his wife and his two sons.
Now it’s very interesting, there’s a famine in the land, and previously, Abraham, when there was a famine in the land, went down to Egypt. So did Isaac. So did Jacob. And nobody seems to have considered that to be a bad thing to do. So, why do they say that the person who went to Mo-av, it was a bad thing to do? Now there’s several explanations. Mo-av is one of two tribes that traced their lineage back to Lot, one of them is Ammon from one daughter, the other was from my father. Remember after the Sodom catastrophe, they went up the mountain, Lot and his two daughters, ‘cause his wife had gone, they thought there was nobody left on earth, and so they slept with him to have children. And these were the two children, Ammon and Mo-av, and they were considered relatives of the Israelites. So that, when the Israelites came out of Egypt and were coming up to the land of Canaan, they were going to encounter the Ammonites and the Moabites who lived on the east bank of the river. They lived where Jordan is today. And the Torah specifically says, “when you go up there, leave those two alone, because they’re distant relatives, don’t touch 'em. If you’re going to invade to get on the west bank, don’t deal with them.” As they came out of Egypt, Moses approached them both for help, for permission to come through, for supplies that they would pay for. And both of them said, “no, we are not interested. We might be related once in the past, but not now.”
And therefore, the Ammonites and Moabites had a little bit together with the Edomites, who were descendant from Esau, had an ambivalent relationship with the Israeli people, and in addition to that, Mo-av, at a certain stage, allied with Median and went to war with the Israelites. So, these are people who were not well disposed to the Israelites, and yet, this is where this family is going to move during the plague or during the famine. But on the other hand, it shows that there was a lot of flexibility in those days between the tribes. You know, people talk about how terrible Israelites were, for being told to destroy the Canaanites, but they went on living with the Canaanites for hundreds of years, and all these tribes were living with each other, and really, they were almost like a group of Mexican war lords, fighting each other one moment, having an alliance the next moment, then breaking off and fighting again. It was a very, very unstable world in which they lived of constant change and migration. So, Mo-av is actually a place where the Torah says, “I don’t want you to have anything with Moabites, "because they were not hospitable, "they didn’t help you when you came out of Egypt.” And yet, this is where this man is going to live, in Mo-av. in verse two, the name of the man is Elimelech, and Elimelech, god of the king, king’s god, implies he was a serious guy there. And the question is, then why is he going to Mo-av? Why he’s not staying there to help his people?
That’s what a good leader ought to do. But he seems just concerned with himself and his own skin. He had a wife , her name was Naomi, pleasant, she was nice. and he had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, now those are not nice names. Mahlon from sick, you’re a diseased person, Chilion, you’re a failed person. I don’t know if that’s what they meant, when they gave them those names, but those names resonate with negativity, and they were Efratim. Efrat has two meanings. It’s a town, it’s a suburb now, south of Jerusalem, Efrat, but Efrat can also have been wealthy. And you find that word used to describe wealthy people, several times in the Bible. So, we don’t know if this is the place, or the nature of the man. He was a wealthy man, he didn’t want to share his property with the poor people, he wasn’t charity, and off he went with his wife, from Bethlehem in Judah, and they come to Mo-av and that’s where they are living. Verse three, sad, Elimelech dies, the husband of Naomi, and she’s left with the two sons, after the death of the father, it seems in a way. So, when did they get married? They married two Moabite girls. Didn’t seem to be any problem about marrying out in those days Name was one was Orpah, the woman with a neck, a stiff neck, may be a toughie. And the other one was Ruth and Ruth, as a name, Ruth, has two origins, the rabbis discuss, one of them is to do with songs, singing, and she was going to prove to be the great-grandmother of King David and his psalms. And the other is a good, nice pleasant, good human being.
So, they’re 10 years there in Mo-av, although we don’t know when they got married, or how long they were married beforehand. But then, the two of 'em died, Mahlon and Chilion and the woman remained with her two children from her husband. and she and her two daughters-in-law get up, to go back home from Mo-av, 'cause she heard, in Mo-av, God had remembered His people to give them bread. So, the famine is over, they can all go back home. There’s an interesting issue here. When you move, the idea in the ancient world was, that if you moved into a country, you adopted their gods. And so for example, the Bible accepts that non-Jews, the resident alien, will come and live in Israel, and they will be expected, not necessarily to worship the Israeli God, but to abide by Israeli rules. But it does seem that there was some expectation, that if you moved, you adopted the local commandments. Did that mean that Ruth and Elimelech adopted Moabite custom? Well yes, in the sense they were happy for their sons to marry Moabite women, some say princesses, but it’s left very, very fluid. At this moment, there’s no such concept in Judaism, as conversion. This is going to appear many, many years later. So, they’re there together, the other side of the river, when Ruth decides that it is time for her to come home. Now, I want to go back to the story of Judah and Tamar, in the Bible, in Genesis. Judah, the son of Jacob, has three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah, and he finds a nice Canaanite woman by the name of Tamar, to marry them.
At this moment he’s been driven out, and he’s living isolated from everybody else, because of a disagreement over what happened to Joseph. Tamar’s first husband Er, dies, and so she marries the second one, Onan, because it was customary in the ancient world, and we know this from the Hammurabi Code and from others, that if a man dies and he leaves no sons, the next brother has to marry his widow, so that he can then keep the name of the first brother alive, which was important in terms of tribal inheritance, And this term of the next brother marrying the widow, is called come to her, take her on. Another factor of course, was that if you were a widow, you’re in a very weak position. The new family didn’t want you, the old family probably didn’t want you back. You were very, very vulnerable. And therefore, this was considered a way of protecting, both the heritage of the land of the tribe, and protecting the wife. Now, the second one, Onan, died. You’ve heard of Onanism, we don’t know exactly why, but the Torah explains, he didn’t want to have a child and maintain his brother’s name, he felt he was imposed upon. He dies, and so, two of Tamar’s husbands have died and Judah doesn’t want to marry her to the third one, for fear that he will die, that he’ll die too, after all two are dead, maybe the third one. And so he sends her home and says, “look, hang on here, I’ll see about what I can do for you.”
But he didn’t do anything, forgot about her and she was very upset and she therefore had a plan and her plan was to dress up as a prostitute, and when Judah was on the way to go to shear his sheep, she’d offer herself up to him somewhere isolated if anywhere else, and then have sex and maybe she’d conceive and have a child, is what she did. When they came to go, then unfortunately, Judah turned to her and said, “Look, I’m terribly sorry madam, but I don’t have any cash on me.” “Okay,” she said, “not to worry, gimme your stick on your purse and you can come back here and redeem it.” And off he went. The following day, he sends somebody with a sheep to give to her. No sign of her, nobody knows what’s happened, she’s disappeared. Few months later, he hears she’s pregnant, “but she’s supposed to be married to one of my family, this is adultery, bring her out and put her to death.” And as she’s brought out, she says, “Well whoever did this to me, is the person who owns this stick and this wallet.” “Oh,” said Judah, “that must be me. My gosh, you are right. I treated you badly, I apologise, forgive me. Come into the family, be one of us.” And when the children are born, there are twins, Zerah and Perez, two twins. And they are important, because they’re going to recur in this story, as is the whole story of the levirate marriage. Can a brother marry another brother’s widow? Remember Henry VIII, one of his big problems, that he had to turn to Jewish law to see if he could solve, but that’s an episode for another time.
So, she is saying, “now Ruth, look, I’ve got nothing to offer you. I can’t offer you neither a new husband. I can’t offer you security. I dunno what’s going to happen to me. I’ve got nothing. So, what are we going to do?” So in verse seven, it says that they start leaving and they all go on the way to go back to Judah. And Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law, “please girls, go back home to your parents’ home. "That’s where you belong. And may God be kind to you.” And this word, kind is one of the recurring themes of this book. And it’s interesting, because kindness is the one thing the Moabites are not supposed to have. But here she say, “may God be kind to you.” implying that she cares about kindness in the same way. that “you’ve been kind to the dead and to me, you’ve been with me so far and helped me, but now it’s time to go.” In verse nine, “may God give you rest. May you find a husband, each one of you.” They gave each ‘em a kiss, they all had a good weep. And then they say, in verse 10, “no, we want to go with you.” It’s very strange. Why, were they unhappy at home? Had their parents disowned them for marrying a Jew? We don’t know, but they felt they had no home there, it seems.
On the other hand, it doesn’t work out quite that way. And so she says, verse 12, “please go back. "I’m old, I’m not going to get married again. Even if I thought there might be some hope, even if I where with a man tonight and get pregnant and have a son, you’re not going to hang around waiting for him. Surely you’ll be left alone, abandoned.” Verse 13, in the seventh word of verse 13 is you will be abandoned women, you’ll have nothing. You know that now means when a man refuses to give a wife a g-e-t, or when a husband disappears and we don’t know where he is, she’s stuck. And that’s a sympathetic bet. Didn’t do something about it, which they could and they should, sometimes they don’t, but thank God, sometimes they do. she says in verse 15, “please go back to your gods.” So the implication is, they were worshipping her gods when they were in Mo-av. And now she’s saying, “go back to worship your gods, back to your culture, where you’ve come from. You’ve dabbled a bit in our life, but now you should go.” Verse 14 of course, Orpah kisses her and says, “you’re right, I’m going, bye-bye.” But Ruth sticks with her. And again, Ruth says to her “your sister-in-law, sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go back with her.” And Ruth returns with this famous phrase, “don’t push me to leave you, to abandon you wherever you’ll go, I will go, where you live, I will live. Your people are my people, your God is my God. Where you die I will die and I will be buried. So God should do to me and continue to do to me.”
In other words, “by God! Only death will separate us.” What a beautiful thing to say. And these two things, in a sense, raise the issue that will develop later, of conversion. First of all, three times Naomi said, “go back.” And to this day, that has become incorporated in Jewish law. When somebody comes to and wants to convert, three times they have to push 'em away three times, saying, “no, no,” to make sure they’re genuine about it. So, three times she pushes them away. And then finally, what clinches it, is this phrase and this phrase seems to have been the only requirement to become a full member of the Jewish community as it was then, to say, I totally identify, religiously, physically, on every level, which is one of the controversial issues, because nowadays, in our anxiousness and our anxiety to keep people within, we don’t always require in many authorities within the umbrella of Judaism, that they commit themselves totally to our religious way of life. But that’s a different issue for a different time. So when in verse 18, she sees that Ruth is determined, they go off together, the two of them, in verse 19, they get to Bethlehem and everybody buzzes around and says, “wow, look at her. She left here, a wealthy rich woman. Now she’s in rags, the poor thing.” And she said, “don’t call me Naomi anymore. I’m not happy or pleasant. I’m Mara, I’m bitter because of what has happened to me. I left here full, I’ve come back empty. And God, in a sense, has dealt with me, maybe because I, in a way, misbehaved towards God in abandoning the people here.” Although it won’t have been her fault, it’ll be the fault of her husband. And this all happens when they come back from Mo-av at the time of the barley harvest.
So, there’s clue number two, as to the relevance of Ruth. Now in chapter two, Naomi had somebody she knew, that’s to say a kind of a relative, distant relative, by the name of Boaz. And Boaz was a strong, wealthy man of Elimelech’s family, but we don’t say exactly what the relationship was. Now that’s just by the by. Ruth, the Moabites, has arrived in this place absolutely penniless. What does a penniless person do, coming into Israel? According to the Torah, everybody has to be offered charity, Jewish or non-Jewish, you’ve got to give 'em charity. And what was the charity? There were two kinds of charities. It was an agricultural society. So, the main charity was, poor people could go into the fields. The owners of the fields always had to leave a corner free, a minimum amount, but as much as they wanted, they had to allow the poor to go behind the reapers and pick up anything they dropped or anything they left behind or abandoned. That was their right that everybody had. That was the main source of charity. There was another issue of charity of lending money for people to set up their own businesses. That’s a different matter. And that’s why the law forbids lending for interest. Because if this is designed for the poor, as opposed to for the rich to buy another building, that meant, you had to consider it as charity rather than an investment. So, she goes to the fields. She actually offers to Naomi to go to the field, in verse two. She says, “please let me go into the fields and gather amongst the sheaves, so that maybe I can bring back something to sustain us and support us.” And she says, “sure my daughter, you pleasure.” But she doesn’t say anything about Boaz, which is strange, knowing that he’s a landowner.
Anyway, verse three, So, she goes to look in the field after the reapers and it so happened by accident She finds the field of Boaz from Elimelech’s family, but she didn’t know, it was pure coincidence, accidental. So, she’s there working in the field, Boaz comes up from Bethlehem where his main house is, and he greets his workers and he says, “God be with you,” has a good relationship with his workers. He’s a good boss and they say to him, “God bless your Boaz, you’re a great boss, we love working for you. You’re a great man.” And then Boaz turns to his foreman or the guy in charge and he says, “who’s that girl over there?” And he replies, “that’s the young woman from Moab."She’s a Moabite woman, she’s not a Jewish woman. She came back with Naomi, from Mo-av, where she was living. And she said, 'please, may I gather and pick up amongst the sheaves, after the reapers?’ and she’s been here from first thing in the morning until now, because obviously, you know you haven’t come first thing in the morning and she’s about to go home, she’s about to go home and she has been resting, taking a break every now and again. But nevertheless she’s been working all day long.”
And Boaz said to Ruth, “My dear, I have heard, and I want you to hear, I have heard what a wonderful person you are. So please, don’t go and collect grain in any other place. I don’t want you to move from here. I want you to stick with my young maidens, close to my girls who are also working in the fields. You just keep your eye on the field, where the reapers are, and you follow them. And I’ve commanded the young men, not to touch you. Don’t mess with this girl. You think she’s going to be easy pickings. Leave her alone, treat her with dignity.” It’s interesting that Boaz has this concern for how his workers treat other people. “I’ve told ‘em to behave. And when you are thirsty, you can come and drink where we have our water supply and you can sort of take it easy.” And she, in verse 10, falls on her face, and bows down to the ground and she says, “why have I found favour in your eyes? Why are you treating me this way? And I’m an alien, I’m a stranger, I come from outside.” And Boaz replied, “no, the reason is not just for the fun of it.” It’s a question of kindness again. Boaz in verse 11 says, “I’ve heard what you’ve done with your mother-in-law. I’ve heard, after your husband died, that you abandoned, you’d left your father and your mother’s home. You left the land where you were born and you came to a people you knew nothing about, yesterday or the day before. So, may God reward you for your kindness, for what you’ve done and may you be rewarded amply by God,"the God you have chosen to come and associate yourself with or to shelter under his wings,” metaphorically speaking.
She said, “I found favour in your eyes, you’re so nice, "you have comforted me. I felt terrible. I felt unwanted, alien, distant.” And so this idea of of comfort, as well as , these human feelings are being stressed here as being the most important thing. “You’ve spoken to the heart of your maid servant.” We came this once before in the story of Shechem, when Shechem had raped Dina. And then he spoke to her heart to try to win her over. And of course you know, then the famous comfort my people, God says to the prophet, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort the Jerusalemites. “So, you’ve comforted me. But,” she says, “don’t think you’ll take advantage of me.” That’s one way of looking at it. And the other way of looking at it’s, she could say, “I really don’t even deserve to be one of your maidservants.” and Boaz continues and he says “More than this, when it comes to feeding time, you can approach close and eat from the bread that we have and you can dip your bread in the vinegar that we have and you can” And she went and she sat down beside the reapers, and when he did, he handed her out a whole lot of grain and arranged for them to give grain until she had finished, and satisfied and left over. And she got up and she went on gathering. And Boaz commanded his men, “listen, I want you to accidentally drop a little bit of stuff for her before and whatever you do, I don’t want you to embarrass her.” Don’t make somebody feel you are being charitable. Don’t make somebody feel that they in some way, due to you something that is not. Just, it’s feelings, feelings, feelings, “and in addition, drop some extra bits down in front of her and let her gather them up and don’t tell her off. Don’t say anything.”
So, she works in the field until evening. She ga-reth everything she had. It’s an which is pounds and pounds of grain, more than anybody would normally have. And she brought it up and she took it to her mother-in-law, everything she’d gathered and they had plenty. And the mother-in-law, verse 19, says to her, “a for where the heck have you been? "What happened to you? "Blessed God "the kindness he has done to the dead, "as well as to the living, "by giving you so much provisions. "Where did you get it from?” And she said, when she told 'em it was Boaz, she’s “interesting, he’s a distant relative of ours. "He is our goel.” Now this is another biblical term, goel, redeemer. If you’re a Christian, you’ll know that redeemer has theological connotations. The Lord does my Redeemer, he redeems me from sin. And you have such an idea mentioned, that God redeems us from sin in the Book of Psalms. But nevertheless, the term goel means something different to a redeemer. It means purely the fact that a relative of somebody who had lost a field or lost tribal property, there was an obligation on the relatives to redeem that property, to buy it back, so that it remains in the family, and to give that person a chance to recover his career or his life or his livelihood. 'cause in those days in a famine, you might lose everything. So, there was always an obligation of a relative to be a redeemer, goel.
The term is also used here in terms of redeeming the wife, but that’s not the biblical term. The biblical term really just refers to the field. There is a biblical law about the about marrying the next of kin, but this goel is really the person who has to set us back on our feet commercially, financially. But Naomi has another thought in the back of her mind. “Maybe I could get the two of them together.” So she is, if you like, the first the first marriage advisor that we have in the Bible. So, she says, “he is our redeemer” and verse 21, she says, “not only that, "but he even told me to stay with the workers "and stay with 'em to the end of the harvest "and to stick around,” “O-ho,” said Naomi, “you have done very well, "very well to have found his field "and to be with him and go nowhere else.” And so, she went on gathering with Boaz until the end of the barley harvest and she returned home. Chapter three. “So,” Naomi says, “I’ve got a solution to our problems "and I want to suggest it to you. "Boaz, verse two, who we know, "you were with his young women and with him, "tonight, he’s going to go down to the threshing floor "to gather up and to prepare all the stuff he’s gathered "and they’re going to have a huge big party, "huge big celebration. "So, now I want you, "go to the bath, have a cleanup, "put some deodorant and some perfume on. "Put on your best clothes, go down to the threshing floor, "but do so without letting anybody know. "Sneak in and wait until he is finished to eat and drink. "And then, when he lies down, "notice where it is that he is lying down. "And I want you to sneak up to him "in the middle of the night, "lift up his blanket and get into bed with him "and he’ll tell you what to do.” very weird.
She’s not explaining very much. She’s telling me to get into bed with him and he’ll tell you what to do and what’s she doing? Telling her to act like a loose woman? Getting into bed with a man without any ring beforehand, without any engagement, sounds very wise. But remember, in those days, having sex with somebody was marriage. There’s no way out of it. That was it. That was how they got married. So, basically she’s saying, “I want you to see if you can get him to marry you.” And Ruth said, “look, no, "whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do. "That’s what you think I should do, I will do.” So, Boaz in verse 70, ate and he drank, and he was happy, in a good mood, and he went to lie down at the end of the threshing floor and she came quietly, she lifted up his sheets and she got into bed with him. And in the middle of the night, in verse eight, he wakes up and he trembles. It says, there’s a woman next to him lying in his bed. “who the hell are you, "whatcha trying to do to me here?” The Talmud says, what a man. any other normal man who find a woman in his bed and he would have his way with her, but not him. He was a controlled, moral, religious, spiritual, wonderful leader. She says, “I’m Ruth, I’m your maidservant. "I do whatever you like, "spread your blanket over me. "because you are the redeemer.” And she’s including her in this redemption process. and he says, “you are a wonderful person, bless you to God.”
Again, this word again, keeps on coming back again. “This kindness, this last kindness "of being prepared to marry me, "is even greater than anything beforehand. "You could have chosen any young man, "you’re a beautiful woman. "You could have a young man. "I’m not a young man anymore. "you could have chosen "a rich guy for money, "you could have chosen a poor guy for looks. "You could have done whatever you want. "And now my daughter,” in verse 11, “don’t be worried, I’m going to do what you’re asking me to do "because I know everybody knows your” Here’s where is first mentioned, “you’re a very special woman, "a remarkable, remarkable woman. "And here’s the problem,” he says, “it’s true that I happen to be a redeemer. "That’s correct. "But there’s a redeemer who’s closer than me "and he gets the first choice. "He’s got to go first.” So here, you have the idea of the redeemer of the land and the redeemer of the person, the idea of the And he has to do things in the proper way, by going to court. So he says in 13, “stay here the night, "till the morning. "If he redeems you, tough, he will. "I can’t do anything about it. "And if he doesn’t want redeem you, "I will do it by God. "So just lie down, sleep if you can.” I’m sure she didn’t, “until the morning.” She lay at his feet until early in the morning. “And before anybody could recognise me, before anybody we know,” she went out. But Boaz said , you know, “don’t want anybody to say that a woman came here tonight.”
So, he obviously knew that people were looking, or that he was frightened that people were looking, either way, he said, “I don’t want you to tell anybody, if you saw anything. "You didn’t see anything. "Meanwhile” he said, “bring me your scarf, "your cover, your shawl "and I will give you something to take home.” And he gives a which is not quite as much he had before, but enough for her to carry back into town, to give to her mother-in-law. In verse 16, she comes back to the mother-in-law, she says and so, the mother says, “who are you?” She’s not asking, who are you? She’s asking what status is, “have you got a married name now?” And sure, she told her the whole story. and she said, “look, in addition he gave us "as a present,” it’s a kind of a token of commitment. “I don’t want you to go back, empty handed, "to your mother-in-law. "You’ve got to bring her something "and this might take some time. "So here’s some more good news.” And he said, So, Naomi said to her, “look, clearly we can’t do anything. "We’ve got to wait until we know how this is going to work "out and I’m sure that he, being a good man, "will try and deal with it as expeditiously as possible.”
So, we come to chapter four. Boaz goes up to the gate, he sits in the gate. The gates, the entrance of the city, that was the forum or the law courts of those days, because you wanted to check anybody coming into the town, to see if they were legitimate or not. You had to give 'em a passport or a document or a, let’s say passe, whatever it is. And so, that’s where everybody gathered and where everybody passed by. So, it was the main area of the town, the gates of the city. So, he goes to the gates of the city and he sits there, waiting for the redeemer to come by. It’s small little villages, towns, they were not very big, and he knew the redeemer passed to go out to his fields, or to go to work, whatever it is, the one he spoke about. And when he saw him, he said, “come and sit here.” The phrase means, whoever you are, anonymous, it’s not a nice way of calling somebody, but obviously for whatever reason, he didn’t want to mention his name. And he said, “okay, I’ll come and sit down. "You got business to deal with. "Let’s deal with the business.” So, and he took 10 men. First mention here, apart from other hints elsewhere, of 10, meaning either a tribe, you do have it earlier in the administration in the Torah, of the elders, officers in front of thousands, hundreds and tens. So, 10 is the lowest unit, but it’s also the unit of the court, and it’s become the unit of the to this very day. He gets 10 people of the elders, and he says, “come and sit here.” And they sat down. Which also shows elders does not necessarily mean old men, but it means responsible people in the community. Verse three, and he turns to the redeem and he says, “look, "there’s a part of land, property, "that belonged to our, our relative, Elimelech, "and Naomi sold it.”
We didn’t hear about Naomi selling it before, but apparently she sold it. So in a way, she must have inherited the right of her husband and her sons, which in itself is an interesting feature of the time. But she only sold it because she couldn’t afford to maintain it. She needed the money, she returned, but it has to be redeemed. So Boaz says, “I said to myself, look, "I will reveal your ear. "I’ll open your eyes, open your ears, give me your ears. "I will tell you buy this field, "redeem it "in front of all these people here as witnesses "and the "and the elders of my people. "If you want to redeem it, redeem it. "if you don’t "tell me and I will know because "you are the only other one. "I’m after you, and if you don’t, I will.” And he says, “okay, fair enough, "I’m happy to redeem, to buy the field back.” But Boaz then comes back and says in verse five, “listen, "when you buy this field from Naomi and take it over "and from Ruth the Moabites, "she’s also part of this inheritance. "It’s also partly her property too. "She is "She is the wife of the dead person "and it’s gone through that line, but women can inherit, "then you’ve got to deal with her.” That means you’re going to have to redeem her and marry her “to maintain the name of the dead person through her child.” This custom of except in the Torah, this custom of the levirate marriage only applies to the next brother. It doesn’t apply to anybody else. Is this an earlier reference to the Hammurabi code? Is it an additional custom that developed after the Torah?
But it’s not the Torah’s custom, which again raises the question of, did this happen before or after or how? But it certainly is clear from the fact that there is a charitable law mentioned in the Torah, that this is post Torah, in which case, why have they now added on this extra rule? You think rabbis now add on extra rules all the time. Clearly they seem to do that even in those days. Anyway, at that moment in verse six, the goel, the redeemer says, “look, I’m sorry, "I simply can’t do this. "I can’t redeem because this will ruin my inheritance.” What does that mean? “Ruin my inheritance?” It could mean one of two things. It could either mean, “I don’t want to divide up my inheritance. "If I marry her, "then they’ll have to share with my inheritance. "I’ve got a bigger inheritance. "I don’t want to share it with my children from my other wives and so forth.” Or it could mean, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to marry a Moabite woman ”'cause a Moabite woman wouldn’t be good for my family tree. “I’m concerned not with the person, "I’m more concerned with status and background.” Could be either one of those two. Either way he says, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to.” The custom in Israel in those days, all exchanging or any kind of transaction, didn’t have documents the way we have nowadays. You would either lift up bodily, hand over to the other person, or you went through a process known in the Talmud, as of changing, exchanging something. And one thing’s they did was to exchange or take off a shoe as a symbol of this transaction. And so, this idea of taking off a shoe as a symbol of transaction, was how they sealed the deal.
Many years later, in Jewish law, those brothers who did not want to marry the dead brother’s wife, could release her, and she could also refuse. And this process of releasing was called literally means, to take off the responsibility. It was considered to be a negative thing, to relinquish your responsibility to do the right thing. And so, the expression was And also, not only taking off responsibility, could mean, taking off a shoe. And to this day, when one goes through this ceremony, of of not wanting to go through with this, marrying the widow of the son who died, there is a ceremony which involves taking off a shoe. And the only example of that use is in this ceremony of It’s not used for any other transaction in Judaism. It’s the only one. And why it still is, is a question that nobody can satisfy, create an answer other than simply it is removing. And there’s another part of it, which doesn’t sound very nice. You have to spit on the floor, because spitting is a way of showing you have abandoned me, you’ve refused to do the right thing by me, horrible man, I got to show this. And it’s, I’ll say a quick ceremony, it takes place, but it’s one of the few things that most Jews know absolutely nothing about, and thank God they don’t, for various reasons.
So, this is what happens. In verse eight, the goel says to Boaz, “you buy it,” he took off his shoe and Boaz turns around to everybody. He says, “you are a witness to this day, "that I’ve acquired from Elimelech "and from Mahlon and Chilion and from Naomi and from Ruth,” again mentions, “I’ve acquired this from Ruth, the Moabites, "who is the wife of Mahlon. inherited from him. "I am marrying her too, "to keep the name of his family alive. "So, I’m doing it as a Torah says to do this, "even though the Torah says, it doesn’t apply to me ”'cause I’m not a brother. “So, I want you to know, "the name will not disappear from our family, "from our heritage, from the gates.” And all the people and the guests, in verse 11 turn around and they say, “we witness, we agree.” They then turn around and they give her a blessing and they say, “may God give you this wife. "And may she be like Rachel and Leah, "who both built up huge dynasties in Israel. "You’ll be a great woman in Efrata.” So, Ef-ra-te is the town “and everybody will know what a wonderful person you are "in "And may your house be like the house of Perez, "who was born to Tamar from Judah,” the story I told you right at the beginning of Judah, of Tamar with Er and Onan. “And so, you should be like that, "the founder of a great dynasty. "And may you succeed for everybody.”
And so, Boaz takes Ruth and she is his wife. He comes into her, she becomes pregnant, she has a son. And all the women gather around, sounds a bit like a Greek chorus, all the old yentas gather round, and they say to Naomi, This is where the first expression comes from. “Praise the Lord "that God did not hold back from you a redeemer, "that he provided you with a redeemer "and the name will keep on going in Israel. "And not only that, "you have somebody now who will look after you "and will take care of you in your old age, "because your daughter-in-law who you love, "she is better to you than seven sons.” Interesting. That’s another thing that comes up. There’s another story, the mother of Samuel who is so frightened, so upset, unhappy that she couldn’t have children. And again, her husband says to her, “am I not better to you than seven sons?” And the straight answer is, no. For a woman who can’t have children, that is such a fundamental problem, that it’s not much comfort to say that. But she’s saying, “you are now in this wonderful position.” And so, Naomi takes the child and she puts it to her breast. So, obviously she still had milk and she was still a fit woman and she was the nanny, she became the mother. My English translation says, foster mother. is used anywhere else as a nurse. As a nurse, so, that’s interesting. And so, all the elders gather around and they say, “yippee, a child has been born to Naomi.” And they call his name O-ved. They name him. Who are the O-ved is the father of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David.
So, he is the grandpa of King David. And it comes from this Moabites woman, as indeed, all came from Tamar. So you have this theme here, of, it doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters who you are. And then, little genealogy. And so, this is the story of Perez. Perez, he was a child who was born to Tamar. He gives birth to Hezron Hezron gives birth to Ram, Ram gives birth to Amminadav, Amminadav gives birth to Nahshon, the guy who jumped first into the sea, crossing the Red Sea, Nahshon gave birth to Salmon, Salmon gave birth to Boaz, Boaz gave birth to O-ved, O-ved gave birth to I-shai, I-shai gave birth to David. End of the story. Now, what are we to derive from this? First of all, the idea of and kindness is so important, that this is what should define the Jewish people and differentiate them from from anybody else. That this human relationship matters more than anything else. There is a law and we have to abide by the law. But over and above the law, the spirit of the law and the spirit of Judaism is love and kindness and concern and looking after people and being charitable and helping those who are not as well off as you are. So, that is principle number one. And principle number two here, is, how do we find a way of combining the two? And this is basically what is all about. is when we celebrate, giving of the 10 commandments, which is our constitution.
But our constitution is dependent on, our being good people. If we’re not good people, what’s the point of a constitution? And being a good people, means caring about other people. And this constitution, a constitution that we accepted, 'cause we were born into it. If it’s accepted by somebody who was not born into it, like Ruth, what a wonderful thing, how supportive we should be, how honoured we should be, that somebody chooses to join the Jewish people and become part of them. This is an absolute fundamental message. And even though in our day and age, it’s become difficult for a whole lot of historical reasons, historical reasons, we must understand, the persecution and so forth and so on. And the fact that now we are losing so many, we want to preserve what we have, times have changed, but look at this book and you see clearly, what the spirit of Judaism really was. And that’s why this is so important. And whether the word is or mercy or , whether it is through , helping other people, this is the crucial message of the book of Ruth. And this is why I think it’s such a wonderful, magnificent story. And so, I’ll now turn to any questions and answers, to see what we have.
Q&A and Comments
My cousins, Sheldon and says, ah, Sheldon and Charlotte How lovely. So, I didn’t know that Marcus’s Wendy Fielding’s daughter got married. This is wonderful. Thanks for the news, Marion. When you speak to them, tell 'em I’m so glad they told me. And please, we should get in touch.
Q: Do we know why Boaz wasn’t married already? A: It seems strange, he was well off. Rosalind, well, that’s true. It doesn’t tell us anything here. The rabbis say “yes, he had seven daughters and he married them all off and his wife had died and that’s why he was free.” But they do mention that, so clearly they thought it was a problem.
Thank you, Lindy and Naomi in Toronto. “I love you, Rose,” is a sweet Israeli film about levirate marriage. Yes. Ruth, I’m so grateful for my late father for naming me, Ruth. Lovely story. Great.
They could do more than one wife in those days. Yes they could. The ban on having more than one wife didn’t come until the first millennium, when in the Ashkenazi world forbade it, for Ashkenazium and the Su-fi-dum never had a ban, and they only stopped having one, when the State of Israel was established in '48.
Thank you everybody. Philip Ladovski thank you very much and see you again sometime.
Bye.