{"id":56520,"date":"2019-06-01T23:22:23","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T20:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56520"},"modified":"2020-04-24T14:00:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T11:00:20","slug":"davids-ancestry-and-the-meaning-of-ruth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/davids-ancestry-and-the-meaning-of-ruth\/","title":{"rendered":"David\u2019s Ancestry and the Meaning of Ruth"},"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":"56520","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56521,"related_cahpter":"231","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":"

Can the book of Ruth be identified with one theme? Should it? R. Zeira says: \u201cThis scroll contains neither impurity nor purity, nei\u00adther stringency nor leniency, and why was it written? It is to teach you the reward of those who act with loving-kindness\u201d (Ruth Rabba 2:15).<\/p>\n

Offhand, there seems to be no compelling reason to reduce a bib\u00adlical book to one idea. It is almost as if R. Zeira is attempting to forestall attempts to harness Ruth to some other overarching idea.<\/p>\n

One theme, however, is impossible not to notice. The book ends with the genealogy of Boaz extending to David. It would not have been surprising had one of the midrashic rabbis proposed that the purpose of Ruth was to supply the lineage of David. Some later writers have gone further and concentrated on the paradoxical elements in David\u2019s family history, namely his being descended from Ruth the Moabite con\u00advert, whereby the greatest sanctity emerges, in a mystical fashion, from the blending of the aristocratic house of Judah and the seed of Moab. R. Zeira\u2019s stress on the everyday morality of the book sounds almost like a counterpoint to the mystical, royal-centered alternative.<\/p>\n

I submit that both the genealogical prestige of David as the king to be and the possible objection to him on genea\u00adlogical grounds are underplayed rather than overplayed in the biblical corpus overall and in Ruth particularly.<\/p>\n

How then does the Book of Ruth help us think about David and his origins?<\/p>\n

My response is that Ruth comments on David\u2019s line, going back to Ruth, precisely by presenting her marriage within the framework of an idyllic, decidedly non-polemic story. The reader cannot avoid the nega\u00adtive connotations of Elimelech\u2019s abandonment of the Land of Israel for Moab. The reader is made very much aware of Ruth\u2019s sacrifice in cleav\u00ading to her mother-in-law and embracing a new national and religious identity, and we are told about the economic hardships that meet her as an isolated newcomer in Bethlehem. Once Boaz becomes committed to Ruth\u2019s welfare, we are reminded of the various difficulties that may block her marriage to him.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, the last verses, taking us from Judah through Boaz and Ruth to David, are too signifi\u00adcant and climactic to be marginalized. On the other hand, as noted, the text carefully avoids addressing the genealogical issues in a polemical context, or even making their exact nature explicit. This is precisely what we would expect if the purpose was to recognize the unusual nature of David\u2019s origins without in any way making them the subject of overt gossip and scandalmongering. Hence the delicacy with which the dia\u00adlogue is carried on underlines the mood of loving-kindness that R. Zeira found characteristic of this biblical book.<\/p>\n

From: \u201cDavid\u2019s Ancestry and the Meaning of Ruth\u201d in Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth<\/em>, Stuart Halpern, ed., Yeshiva University \/ Maggid-Koren, Connecticut and Jerusalem, 2019<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55486,"id":55486,"title":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","filename":"judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/struggles-storytelling-and-salvation\/judges-ruth-gleanings3\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55288,"date":"2019-05-14 13:26:00","modified":"2019-05-14 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