Girls in Trouble is an indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah by musician, writer and Torah teacher, Alicia Jo Rabins. The Girls in Trouble Curriculum links these musical midrashim with their source texts, Alicia's notes, and other artistic interpretations, inviting teachers, students, and individual learners on a journey through the world of women in Torah. We hope you enjoy this concise version of the Ruth unit. To download the full unit, including teacher's notes, please visit www.girlsintroublemusic.com.
Behind the Music: Notes from singer/songwriter Alicia Jo Rabins
This song focuses on a young woman's astonishing self-transformation, and how her story might inspire us to make courageous decisions in our own lives.
In the course of her story, Ruth reinvents herself almost entirely: moving far from home, rethinking her relationships, and shifting her spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices. It would be easy to read this list of changes in Ruth’s life and assume that she is bold and fearless. But Ruth also seems vulnerable and complicated as she repeatedly risks failure, heartbreak, rejection, censure.
Through her bold choices, Ruth transforms her life. What bold risks might we take in our own lives? What unimagined future might lie ahead of us if we are brave enough to leave the familiar and set out for parts unknown?
The Story of Ruth: A Summary
(If you have time to read the entire Book of Ruth, which is four chapters long, we encourage you to do so!)
During the time of the Judges when there was a famine, an Israelite family from Bethlehem – Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion – emigrated to the nearby country of Moab. Elimelech died, and the sons married two
Moabite women: Mahlon married Ruth and Chilion married Orpah.
After about ten years, the two sons of Naomi also died in Moab (Ruth 1:4). Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem. She told her daughters-in-law to return to their own mothers, and remarry. Orpah reluctantly left; however, Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may God do to me if anything but death parts me from you” (1:16–17).
The two women returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, and in order to support her mother-in-law and herself, Ruth went to the fields to glean. As it happened, the field she went to belonged to a man named Boaz, who was kind to her because he had heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Ruth told Naomi of Boaz’s kindness, and she gleaned in his field through the remainder of the barley and wheat harvest.
Boaz was a close relative of Naomi’s husband’s family. He was therefore obliged by the Levirate law to marry Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, in order to carry on his family’s inheritance. Naomi sent Ruth to the threshing floor at night and told her to go where he slept, and “uncover his feet [which some commentators consider a Biblical euphemism for private parts], and lie down; and he will tell you what are to do” (3:4).
That night, Boaz “ate and drank and his heart was in a cheerful mood” (3:7). After he lay down on the threshing floor, Ruth did as Naomi had instructed her. Boaz, startled, turned to see that a woman lay at his feet. When asked who she was, she replied: “I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread your robe over your handmaid, for you are a redeeming kinsman” (3:9). Boaz blessed her and agreed to do all that was required, and he noted that, “all the elders of my town know what a fine woman you are” (3:11). He then acknowledged that he was a close relative, but that there was one who was closer. Boaz told Ruth to stay with him for the night, and promised that in the morning he would offer the closer relative the opportunity to redeem her, and that if the relative refused, Boaz himself would marry Ruth. Ruth remained “at his feet” until she returned into the city in the morning, before anyone else woke up.
Early that morning, Boaz discussed the issue with the other male relative, Ploni Almoni (“so-and-so”), before the town elders. The other male relative was unwilling to jeopardize the inheritance of his own estate by marrying Ruth, and so relinquished his right of redemption, thus allowing Boaz to marry Ruth. They finalized the agreement by the nearer kinsman, Ploni Almoni, taking off his shoe and handing it over to Boaz (4:7–18). Boaz and Ruth were married in the presence of the town elders and “all the people at the gate,” and had a son named Oved: who is “the father of Jesse, the father of David” (4:13–17). Later, Boaz died, and Ruth and Naomi raised Oved together.
Questions for Discussion:
1. What problems or questions do you find in the story?
2. What is your favorite moment in this story?
3. How would you describe Ruth's character?
SONG LYRICS
SEPARATE HISTORIES
a song in Ruth's voice, by Alicia Jo Rabins/Girls in Trouble
Sometimes the road chooses you
And not the other way around
I don’t know how but I just knew
You would lead me to sacred ground
I was living in a place but it was time for me to leave
I’d lost all of my faith but I was ready to believe
In the middle of the night
I went and lay down by your feet
I knew that if the time was right you would welcome me
I crept away before the break of day
By then I knew that you would come to me
And all the people in the gate
And all the elders they will say
We are the witnesses today to this covenant you make
Generations pass generations come
And now our separate histories are one
Questions:
1. What emotions does this song evoke for you?
2. Do any personal experiences from your life come to mind when you hear this song? How does your story relate to Ruth's?
3. Is your interpretation of Ruth's motives and character similar to the way she is portrayed in this song, or different? How?
For more songs and study guides about women in Torah, as well as upcoming performances, come visit us at www.girlsintroublemusic.com.