Ruth's Promise - Text Study

Promise as Conversion Pledge

Kol Dodi Dofek, Conversion by Circumcision and Immersion

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

(1) The integration into the fate and into the destiny of the chosen nation/people cannot ‎be ‎separated from the experience of belonging to knesset yisrael as an integrated ‎whole ‎whose historical existence embodies the dual ideas of loving-kindness and holiness. The ‎Covenant ‎of Sinai completed the Covenant of Egypt. Destiny joined fate; together they became a ‎distinct ‎covenantal unit. It is impossible to separate these constituent parts and formulate an ‎outlook that ‎opposes the unity of a nation of loving-kindness to that of a sanctified people. A Jew ‎who ‎participates in the suffering of his nation and its fate, but does not join in its destiny, which ‎is ‎expressed in a life of Torah and mitzvot, destroys the essence of Judaism and injures his ‎own ‎uniqueness. By the same token, a Jew who is observant but does not feel the hurt of the ‎nation, ‎and who attempts to distance himself from Jewish fate, desecrates his Jewishness.‎²⁰

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(3) For this reason, halakhah dictates that a convert who has been circumcised but has not ‎yet ‎immersed himself in a mikveh, or who has immersed himself and has not yet ‎been ‎circumcised, is not fully converted until he does both. Circumcision, which was given to ‎Abraham ‎the Hebrew, the father of Jewish fate, and which was fulfilled in Egypt prior to the ‎offering of the ‎Paschal sacrifice — the symbol of the redemption from Egypt — signifies the fateful ‎otherness of ‎the nation, its necessary isolation and uniqueness. Circumcision is a sign sculpted into ‎the very ‎physical being of the Jew. It is a constant, indelible sign between the God of the Jews and ‎His ‎people, one that cannot be erased. If the Covenant of Fate is not sealed in the flesh, then ‎the ‎singularity of peoplehood is absent and the gentile remains outside the bounds of the ‎Covenant of ‎Egypt.‎

(4) Immersion in a mikveh, in contrast to circumcision, represents the integration of man into his ‎great ‎destiny and his entry into the Covenant of Sinai. The Jews were commanded to ‎immerse ‎themselves prior to the giving of the Torah at Sinai.²¹ Immersion purifies and elevates from ‎the ‎profane to the holy, from life as it is to a life filled with a sublime vision. When the convert ‎emerges ‎from the waters of the mikveh, a new spiritual reality replete with destiny fills him, and ‎he is ‎endowed with the sanctity of the Jew (kedushat yisrael). It is not coincidental that the ‎act ‎of accepting the yoke of the commandments is tied to immersion.²² The entire essence ‎of ‎immersion is the re-creation of the experience of the acceptance of the Torah and the elevation ‎of ‎the people to the status of a holy nation through its freely given commitment to obey God’s ‎word. ‎If the convert is circumcised and does not immerse himself, then the association of man to ‎destiny ‎is missing, and the gentile is fenced off from the Covenant of Sinai and from a ‎halakhic ‎identification with a holy nation.‎

(5) The formula for conversion in the Book of Ruth contains these ‎two aspects, and their essence lies ‎in the four final words of Ruth to Naomi: “Your people shall be ‎my people, and your God my ‎God” (Ruth 1:16, emphasis added).‎

Promise as Personal Declaration

Dr. Yael Ziegler, "Ruth and Conversion"

Ruth and Orpah: Of Kissing and Cleaving

The Ibn Ezra and a small number of midrashim notwithstanding, most exegetes regard the young women as Moavites who have made no commitment to the Jewish nation. And yet, Ruth is adamant about her choice to remain with Naomi. Why? What distinguishes Ruth from Orpah and what are her motivations?

The actual moment of individuation, in which Ruth and Orpah diverge, occurs in Ruth 1:14:[6]

And they lifted up their voices, and they cried again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth cleaved to her.

It is interesting that the women initially distinguish themselves with an action, rather than words. Orpah offers a kiss to her mother-in-law (va-tishak), a perfunctory gesture of farewell,[7] while Ruth cleaves to her (daveka bah). Significantly, a midrash regards these gestures as indicative of the very essence of each woman, labeling each woman according to her action:

R. Isaac said: Said the Holy one blessed be He: Let the sons of the one who kisses (benei ha-neshuka) come and fall in the hands of the sons of the one who cleaves (benei ha-devuka).[8] (Sota 42b)

The verb davak, meaning cleave, is used three more times to modify Ruth in the Megilla, as Boaz graciously instructs Ruth to cleave to his maidens (Ruth 2:8) and she excitedly repeats (Ruth2:21) and accepts (Ruth 2:23) his offer. Boaz’s offer may be considered a reward for Ruth’s behavior vis-Ã -vis Naomi, and a recognition that this verb characterizes Ruth’s persona. Ruth is adevuka, a woman who knows how to fasten herself to another person.

What does it mean to be a devuka? This word appears frequently in the context of man’s relationship with God (Devarim 4:4, 10:20, 11:22, 30:20; Yehoshua 22:5, 23:8; Yirmiyahu 13:11). While the verb davak nowhere else appears to describe the relationship between two named individuals, it is employed to portray the relationship between a man and his wife.[9] Taken together, these examples suggest that this rare verb connotes an all-encompassing connection, a relationship in which one party embraces the totality of the other, utterly and completely. There is something illogical in this type of relationship, in which one’s own ego, one’s I-awareness, is subsumed by one’s concern for the other. This description accurately depicts Ruth’s relationship with Naomi, in which her decision to remain with her mother-in-law seems to undermine her own self-interest.

Indeed, Ruth proffers no reason for her choice to go to Bethlehem, rather than to return to her own family. She simply declares her resolute and unequivocal decision to remain steadfastly loyal to Naomi for the remainder of her life (Ruth 1:17): “Only death shall separate between me and you.” Ruth’s speech is firm and compelling; she counters each attempt that Naomi made in her bid to dissuade her...

This speech leaves little doubt that Ruth intends to stay with Naomi at any cost. But the narrative never actually explains why.

The simplest explanation is that Ruth genuinely loves Naomi. She does not wish to leave her because she cannot bear to do so. Ruth’s love for Naomi attains important results; Ruth is the reason that Naomi does not suffer the same erasure that threatened her sons and husband. It is through Ruth that Naomi obtains continuity.

In contrast:

Pledge as Culmination of History

Dr. Yael Ziegler, "The Roots of Megillat Ruth: Lot and Avraham"

Like many biblical stories, the origins of Megillat Ruth derive from the book of Bereishit. Lot, the ancestor of Orpah and Ruth, makes a historic decision to part company with his uncle Avraham and live among the evil people of Sedom. That decision returns full circle in the book of Ruth, as Ruth the Moavite, a descendant of Lot, decides to return to the Jewish nation.

Lot and Avraham

At the beginning of their story, Lot and Avraham are united in purpose and in action. Following God’s directive to leave their homeland, they journey to the land of Canaan together....

[T]he idyllic relationship between Avraham and Lot comes to an abrupt close.... Avraham turns to Lot and suggests that they go their separate ways. Lot agrees. Lot, however, veers from Avraham’s proposed suggestion that he go left (north) or right (south) and instead chooses to go straight to the cities of the Kikar (the Plain), namely Sedom. The very next passage casts doubt upon Lot’s decision by describing the people of Sedom as “evil and very sinful to the Lord.” Later, Bereishit 19 elaborates on Sedom’s sinfulness, depicting the Sedomites as sexually immoral in their demand to rape Lot’s guests. Yechezkel 16:49 offers another perspective, calling attention to the miserly behavior of the Sedomites, who had plenty of bread and the tranquility of satiation, yet did not support the poor and the needy...

The best means of determining the appropriateness of Lot’s decision is to examine his portrayal later in the narrative. Immediately prior to the destruction of Sedom, the Torah illustrates Lot’s commitment to the ideals of chesed embodied by Avraham. In fact, Lot hosts the strangers who arrive in Sedom (Bereishit 19) in a nearly identical manner as Avraham, who hosted the same strangers in the previous narrative...

It appears that despite his change of location, Lot has not assimilated into the culture of the cities of Sedom and Amora. Indeed, his kindness and generosity, presumably learned from Avraham, alienate him from the people of Sedom... And yet, Lot’s decision to live among the people of Sedom means that his fate is inextricably tied to theirs. The very first story following the separation of Lot and Avraham tells us of Lot’s capture during a war between Sedom and her allies and four foreign powers (Bereishit 14). This story seems intent on demonstrating that Lot is a victim of the environment he selected. ... Avraham makes the opposite choice of Lot. By deliberately and consciously holding himself separate from the inhabitants of Canaan, Avraham isolates his fate from theirs...

The Consequences of Lot’s Behavior

... Lot pays a high price for his choice to live amongst the people of Sedom, one that will eventually, perhaps inevitably, lead to his downfall. The consequences of Lot’s behavior manifest themselves in two areas: chesed and sexual morality.

Chesed

Because Lot lives in Sedom, even his well-intentioned act of kindness is sullied. The story of Lot hosting his guests turns from an act of kindness into a catastrophe filled with horror. The people of the city surround Lot's home, demanding that he throw his guests into the street to be raped by the townspeople. And Lot, searching for a solution, distorts the righteousness which he has displayed toward these men by offering to toss his daughters to the townspeople as a replacement for his guests. In doing so, he perverts the very trait of kindness which motivated him to save the men!

Lot’s personal righteousness is distorted by the corrupt environment in which he has situated himself. Lot invariably finds himself in a situation in which he is forced to act like the people of Sedom, even against his will.

Ultimately, the Torah prohibits Lots' descendants, Ammon and Moav, from marrying into the Jewish nation because of their stinginess:

No Ammonite or Moavite shall come into the community of God… because of the matter in which they did not greet you with bread and water on your journey out of Egypt. (Devarim 23:4-5)

Lot's descendants become the diametrical opposite of generous hosts. In their failure to do chesed, Lot’s descendants become the spiritual heirs of Sedom.

Sexual Morality

Lot’s choice to integrate into the culture of Sedom results in a second failure. After the destruction causes Lot and his daughters to flee to the mountains, Lot’s daughters get their father drunk and commit incest with him. They do not do so because they are perverse or deviant, but because they sincerely believe that the human race has been destroyed and that it is up to them to repopulate the world (Bereishit 19:31). Lot himself is described as committing the act without any knowledge of it, so that when he woke up he did not know what he had done.

Once again, Lot himself is not consciously behaving like the people of Sedom. In fact, their initial indecent proposal to rape Lot’s guests had prompted a cry of protest from Lot. Nevertheless, Lot again has become the victim of circumstances that do not reflect on his personal virtue, but are instead the result of his fateful choice to live in Sedom.

Ultimately, Lot’s choice affects his descendants in this arena as well. The women of the Moavite nation, born of an incestuous union between Lot and his elder daughter, become known for their promiscuity, seducing the Jewish nation in the desert (Bamidbar 25).

...[In contrast,] it is largely due to Avraham’s decisions that the Jewish nation is characterized in the Bible and in rabbinic sources by its attention to kindness and sexual morality. The very essence of this definition as a Jewish nation hinges, in a very real sense, on Avraham’s choice to remain separate.

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The Path of Lot and the Path of Avraham

In the opening chapter of the book of Ruth, Ruth and Orpah are compelled to choose between the path of Avraham and the path of Lot. These Moavite women, descendants of Lot, must decide whether to return to Moav or to turn their back on their previous lifestyle and go to Bethlehem with Naomi.

Orpah

Initially, Orpah and Ruth speak in one voice, insisting that they will accompany Naomi to Bethlehem. Eventually, Naomi’s argument that her Moavite daughters-in-law will be unable to find a husband and start a new family in Bethlehem convinces Orpah to return to Moav.

Orpah’s choice, following Naomi’s strenuous attempts, appears to be a legitimate, even a reasonable, one. Therefore, it is somewhat unexpected that rabbinic sources sharply criticize Orpah for her actions...

Orpah’s decision to return to live in Moav, the spiritual heir of Sodom, sets her on the path of her ancestor Lot. Like Lot, Orpah’s choice to return to a depraved surrounding, a society steeped in cruelty and immorality, determines her future and that of her descendants. By portraying Orpah as a person who turns her back on her unfortunate mother-in-law and lives a life of shameless immorality, the midrashim draw a parallel between Orpah and Lot. Even if their personal behavior is above reproach, the fact that each of them assimilates into a cruel and promiscuous society has far-reaching ramifications; they and their descendants are doomed to perpetuate the values of the society in which they reside.

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Ruth: The Tikkun for Lot

In addition to the far-reaching ramifications that Ruth’s choice has for her own definition and that of her descendants, Ruth’s choice represents a historic correction, or tikkun, of Lot’s fateful separation from Avraham. In fact, Boaz implicitly recognizes the nature of Ruth’s choice in his words:

And Boaz answered and he said to her, “It has surely been told to me all that you have done with your mother-in-law after your husband died, and you left your father (avikh) and your mother and the land of your birthplace (eretz moladteikh).” (Ruth2:11)

By using words reminiscent of God’s command to Avraham in Bereishit 12:1, “Go from your land (artzekha), your birthplace (moladetkha) and the house of your father (beit avikha),” Boaz acknowledges that Ruth’s decision to accompany Naomi is a return to the path of Avraham, which Ruth’s ancestor Lot chose to abandon...

Finally, it is noteworthy that the keyword of the first chapter in Megillat Ruth is the verb “to return” (shuv), which appears twelve times. Naturally, this word modifies Naomi, whose return to Bethlehem lies at the core of the chapter, but it also is used to describe Orpah’s return to Moav. Oddly, however, the word also appears to describe Ruth’s actions:

And Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moavite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the fields of Moav. (Ruth 1:22)

Ruth’s “return” to Bethlehem makes little sense in the narrow context of Megillat Ruth. She has come from Moav and abandoned her homeland to join Naomi in Israel. Nevertheless, in a broader context, Ruth’s journey to Bethlehem is indeed a “return;” it represents the closing of the circle begun with Lot’s abandonment of Avraham in Bereishit 13. That event leads to the creation of the nations of Ammon and Moav, the spiritual heirs of Sedom, who are steeped in cruelty and immorality. Lot’s descendant, Ruth, returns to the path of Avraham and becomes a paradigm of chesed and modesty. In doing so, she acquires the tools and the authority to serve as a role model capable of guiding the people back to the path of Avraham during the chaotic period of the Judges.

Ruth is not simply a personal role model for this movement away from the path of Lot and back to the path of Avraham. She accomplishes much more that that. Ruth, in fact, produces the Davidic dynasty, which becomes the vehicle for the nation's return to the path of Avraham. Indeed, Megillat Ruth leads the Jewish nation at the time of the Judges back to its original path and restores chesed and morality to the Jewish nation.