{"id":55902,"date":"2019-05-21T22:13:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T19:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55902"},"modified":"2020-04-24T13:53:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T10:53:32","slug":"border-crossings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/border-crossings\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Crossings"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[337],"acf":{"old_id":"55902","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":40752,"related_cahpter":"224","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"As we count up to Shavuot we are excited to share new, exclusive content from a collection of essays: \u201cGleanings: Reflections on Ruth\u201d edited by Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern of YU, published by Maggid\/Koren. We\u2019re grateful to be able to share selected excerpts from a wide array of writers, leading up to Shavuot and the reading of the Megillah.","content":"

The Torah enjoins the Israelites upon their entrance into the Land of Israel to love the stranger thirty-six times\u2026\u201cfor you were a stranger in the land of Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n

This thread of commandment and of memory woven throughout the Torah argues that the memory of displacement, disenfranchisement, and oppression should inspire an attitude of care and concern for those on the margins of society, those without the socioeconomic networks that would protect them in times of need and the family networks that would give emotional and physical protection from the vagaries of life.<\/p>\n

Ruth’s connection to Naomi is inextricable from her willingness to embrace Naomi\u2019s nation and to make her God her own. It is hard to detangle Ruth\u2019s religious motivation from her attachment to Naomi. \u2026the narrative ends with a genealogy which begins with Ruth the Moabite, a stranger with a checkered past, but ends with David the King of Israel and the root of the Messiah. So the foundational narrative of the righteous convert is threaded with kindness and self-sacrifice and transcends blood-lines, allowing for an outsider to be the mother of the nation\u2019s redemption.<\/p>\n

A complicating factor facing the would-be convert lies at the heart of Judaism\u2019s identity as both a national and a religious community. You are born into Judaism and yet Judaism is a set of ideas, beliefs, and most importantly actions.<\/p>\n

Conversion is a fundamental avenue of entry and thus the tribe, where bonds are formed through blood and family and a shared past, paradoxically can always be expanded to include members who do not share any of those tribal bonds.<\/p>\n

The twelfth-century Andalusian-Egyptian polymath Maimonides received a query from a convert who felt that because he could not trace his lineage back to the forefathers of the Jewish people he could not invoke their names in his prayers.<\/p>\n

Maimonides tells Ovadia the convert that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are his fathers because he follows their teachings. Ovadia left his family and home behind in search of religious truth just like Abraham who left behind all that was familiar to follow God\u2019s voice. He writes:<\/p>\n

“Because since you have come under the wings of the Divine Presence, no difference exists between you and us, and all miracles done to us have been done as it were to us and to you\u2026the Creator, may He be extolled, has indeed chosen you and separated you from the nations and given you the Torah.”<\/p>\n

The outsider asks, \u201cCan I ever fully be part of the new community?\u201d The communities where the stranger has sought refuge, however, have to stretch themselves beyond their comfort to let this person in, to see him as one of their own, and to ease their doubts.<\/p>\n

Maimonides upholds Abraham, the first Jew, as the model for the ideal convert with his mixture of personal sacrifice, courage, and devotion to the truth. However, the Rabbis of the Talmud turn to Ruth as their model for the process of conversion\u2026 Not only can outsiders become integral members of the community; perhaps they, like Ruth, can bring with them the unexpected promise of redemption.<\/p>\n

From:\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Ronnie Perelis, “Border Crossings,\u201d in\u00a0Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth<\/em>, Stuart Halpern, ed., Yeshiva University \/ Maggid-Koren, Connecticut and Jerusalem, 2019<\/p>\n

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