When Did Ruth Convert, And Why Does It Matter?

(9) "They married Moabite women (Ruth 1:4)": The tannaim taught in the name of Rabbi Meir: they did not convert them, nor did they immerse them, nor had the new halakhah "Ammonite but not Ammonitess, Moabite but not Moabitess" been made, nor did they go unpunished on their account....

The baraita continues: And they inform him of the sin of neglecting the mitzva to allow the poor to take gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and produce in the corner of one’s field. And they do not overwhelm him with threats, and they are not exacting with him about the details of the mitzvot. Rabbi Elazar said: What is the verse from which this ruling is derived? As it is written: “And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking with her” (Ruth 1:18). Naomi said to her: On Shabbat, it is prohibited for us to go beyond the Shabbat limit. Ruth responded: “Where you go, I shall go” (Ruth 1:16), and no further. Naomi said to her: It is forbidden for us to be alone together with a man with whom it is forbidden to engage in relations. Ruth responded: “Where you lodge, I shall lodge” (Ruth 1:16), and in the same manner. Naomi said to her: We are commanded to observe six hundred and thirteen mitzvot. Ruth responded: “Your people are my people” (Ruth 1:16). Naomi said to her: Idolatrous worship is forbidden to us. Ruth responded: “Your God is my God” (Ruth 1:16). Naomi said to her: Four types of capital punishment were handed over to a court with which to punish those who transgress the mitzvot. Ruth responded: “Where you die, I shall die” (Ruth 1:17). Naomi said to her: Two burial grounds were handed over to the court, one for those executed for more severe crimes and another for those executed for less severe crimes. Ruth responded: “And there I shall be buried” (Ruth 1:17). Immediately following this dialogue, the verse states: “And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded she left off speaking with her” (Ruth 1:18).

"[Naomi replied: ....] Because I am too old to have a husband" (Ruth 1:12) If I should marry him and bear sons, you could marry them, for they would not be forbidden to you and you would not be forbidden to them due to [the prohibition against marrying] the wife of an older brother who died before he was born, since she [the widow] does not require a levirate marriage. [This is] because Machlon and Chilyon were not halakhically married to [Ruth and Orpah], because they were gentiles and had not converted, and now they were coming to convert. As it is stated, “We will return with you to your people” (Ruth 1:10): from now on, we will become one people.

"God will deal kindly with you (Ruth 1:8)" . Rabbi Chanina son of Ada says, "he will deal" is what is written, "as you dealt with the dead" when you were occupied with their shrouds, "and with me" when they renounced their ketubot. Rabbi Zeira says: "This book [of Ruth] does not have anything in it concerned with impurity or purity nor what is forbidden and what is permitted. So why is it written? To teach us the greatness of the reward for acts of lovingkindness."

...And it is impossible that Machlon and Kilyon would have married [Ruth and Orpah] unless they had converted, and [the later verse is] a witness: "[your sister-in-law has returned] to her people and to her gods" (Ruth 1:13).

R. Pedat asked the son of R. Yosi Ish Socho: When Ruth converted, why was she not given a new name? He said to him: So I have heard – she had another name, and when she married Machlon, they called her Ruth, and she went up from there under that name. Because when she married Machlon, she converted not long after. He said to him: But does it not say afterwards, “Where you lodge, I shall lodge... and your God shall be my God” (Ruth 1:16)? Naomi gave her many warnings, as it is taught, and she accepted all of them. And if she converted earlier, why is there all of this [interchange]? He said to him: God forbid that Machlon would marry her if she were a gentile! But when she married, she converted and she remained Jewish out of fear of her husband, she and Orpah in this matter. When their husbands died, Orpah returned to her corruption and Ruth remained for her [own] reason. As it is written, "see, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods" (Ruth 1:15), [and earlier] "But Ruth clung to her" (Ruth 1:14). When her husband died, Ruth cleaved to the Torah of her own will.

The text specifies "Ruth the Moabitess [the wife of Machlon]" (Ruth 4:10) in order [for Boaz] to say: [she may convert] from being a Moabitess, because she is a woman. And about the union, lest [Ploni] say that Ruth could not have been not halakhically married to Machlon, so that there was no justification for levirate marriage, know that in truth when I said... "the wife of the deceased" (Ruth 4:5) it was not in a promiscuous fashion, but merely referred to her marriage with Machlon as if to angelic matrimony, because there is no foreigner at this gate: the soul of Machlon comes in this matter, and also Kilyon, and they call her "wife of the deceased" forever and ever, because still after his death she is called his wife.... And she herself was the older daughter of Lot, and she was reincarnated at this time in order to come and receive the reward for the deed she did in the name of heaven. Since as a result of returning again her spirit was elevated in holiness, it is no wonder that Mahlon's soul clung to her.