Is that all there is? No, there is also Hebrew literature: stories in addition to the law and the prophets of which Ruth is but one – and a significant one at that.
Ruth, we came to understand during our conversation, is read annually at the Jewish festival of Shavuot, a late Spring festival celebrating the ongoing barley and wheat harvests. Shavuot also celebrates the gift of Torah, specifically the first five books of the Bible: the story of Jewish origins, their covenant with God, the moral and religious obligations and civil laws – the very constitution of the Jewish people? Ruth is read in parallel with this celebration of the Law. We wondered: What reasons might there be for including what, at face value, is simply a very well-crafted short story as holy writ and read liturgically every year?
Well, quite a few, we thought!
Chiefly, taking a cue from Isaiah Berlin that moral conflicts are an intrinsic, irremovable element in human life, we came to see the Book of Ruth as a ‘worked example’ of how members of an extended family could cope with difficulty and misfortune and yet remain loyal to the conflicting demands of Torah.
The story tells of famine, of emigration to Moab, of marriage with foreign women, of the death of all three men of the family and all that is implied for the well-being of the remaining women, of Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law, one of whom elects to remain in Moab when Naomi decides to return to her home town, Bethlehem.
Issues of identity and title to a field arise. Sheer survival is an issue. Ruth labours all hours gleaning behind the harvesters and hands over her gleanings to her mother-in-law, having committed herself lifelong to Naomi. Naomi cannot inherit a field owned by her late husband, nor can it be sold on the ‘open market’; it isn’t a free trade area. Naomi forgoes the right to levirate marriage on the grounds that there is little point, her being above child bearing age. In the meantime, Boaz, a well-to-do relative, is manipulating matters in order to help Ruth in her efforts to assist Naomi who, in her turn, encourages Ruth to ‘set her cap’ at Boaz – exactly what is to be understood by Ruth’s night-time visit to Boaz’s bed escaped us as to detail. It certainly seems to challenge the religious expectations of that time – and perhaps of ours! This is not the only challenge to the law as it stood: on the return from the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah set down clear rules as to who was acceptable as a Jew – foreigners were out, but the story of Ruth offers an alternative possibility. Ruth, a Moabite, is vulnerable on this score – marriage to Boaz would overcome such vulnerability. Following the night-time visit, Boaz expresses his willingness to marry Ruth, a willingness which is tied up with the ownership of the field. Boaz acquires the field by a somewhat devious ruse in which he devises a way of discouraging an un-named prior family claimant from exerting his claim.
Following their marriage, Boaz and Ruth produce a son whom they immediately hand over to Naomi who, in effect, becomes the mother of the child – so ensuring her rights and survival. Would this be understood as a form of surrogate pregnancy?
Ruth, a story – apparently owing little to any oral tradition – stands as a ‘worked example’, illustrating that the law might be interpreted in order creatively to sustain Israel at the strategic level of the family. By being celebrated alongside the gift of Torah, annually at Shavuot, the story continues to license such interpretation in the name of ‘coping’. A story of robust kindness overcomes both the barrier of ethnicity and the straitjacket of legalism?
David Lambourn, ordained during the era of 'South Bank Religion' and one-time SOF Membership Secretary, continues to cope playfully.