Lessons in Kindness and Responsibility in Megillat Ruth

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The Book of Ruth is customarily read on Shavuot. Some relate this custom to the fact that the story takes place during the harvest season, which the festival of Shavuot celebrates. Some connect it to the fact that just as Ruth accepted the Torah on Shavuot, so do we. Another opinion is that it is read because Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David, who, according to the Midrash¹, died on Shavuot.

The story of Ruth is a magnificent telling of the effect of our personal decisions and actions on our shared destiny. In it we learn how a former Moabite princess, a marginalized woman from the wrong family, through a series of actions and decisions, ends up becoming the linkage from which David Hamelech descends. Through her, a series of wrongs are fixed and a new era for the Jewish people begins. Megillat Rut is filled with lessons on the effects of our seemingly small personal actions, and on how we should approach our personal relationships from a Torah perspective.

Acts of Kindness²

The story of Ruth takes place in the days of the Shoftim, a time period marked by lawlessness and a lack of central leadership. More specifically for our understanding of Ruth, it was a time when people were focussed on their own needs and lacking in the concept of personal responsibility. Elimelech illustrates this when he leaves his community to go to Moav, attempting to save only himself and his wife and children from the famine in Israel. There his sons marry Moabite women. All three of the men in the family are punished for their actions, defying the law not to settle in Moav and take Moabite wifes. Naomi, now a widow, sets out to return to Israel.

This is where we see the character of Ruth begin to emerge. When encouraged by Naomi to turn back to Moav as she has nothing left to offer her daughters in law, Orpah does. Ruth, however, refuses, stating the famous verses that declare her dedication to Naomi, the Jewish people and Hashem; “Wherever you go, I will go…your people will be my people and your God, my God³. We see here an action of enormous kindness and commitment by Ruth toward Naomi.

On their arrival in Bet Lechem, Ruth does not only speak, she also acts, heading out into the field to ensure her mother in law has food to eat. Her kindness to Naomi results in Boaz – unbeknownst to Ruth, her potential redeemer for a Levirate marriage – noticing her modest behavior, and he ensures she is protected from his workers. When Naomi orchestrates Boaz and Ruth’s meeting, Boaz marries her, and they have a child together, beginning the line that leads to David Hamelech.

Ruth’s and Boaz’s actions of kindness, dedication and responsibility make them eligible to be the forebrings of the kingship of Israel. The Midrash tells us,“Rabbi Ze’eira said: This scroll, (The book of Ruth) does not contain [the laws of] purity or impurity, and not prohibitions or allowances. Why was it written? It is to teach you the extent of the good reward for those who perform kindness⁴.

Women of Moav and The Davidic Dynasty

In reading Ruth, however, we must ask the question of how it is that a daughter of Moav – a nation bent on the destruction of Israel, a nation from which men may not even be allowed to convert – is merited to be the grandmother of the Davidic dynasty? And when we consider the very unseemingly way Ruth’s ancestry was conceived, we are even more perplexed. Moav, after all, is the result of an incestual union between Lot and his oldest daughter⁵.

Rav Solovetchik also asked this question, and provides us with a thought provoking and inspiring answer. It is true, he says, that the roots of Moav are of a primitive and reprehensible nature- the union of a father and daughter- yet the motivation was heroic. Lot’s daughter believed, after the destruction of Sodom, that she, her sister and her father were the only remaining humans in the world. She believed that the future of humankind rested on her shoulders. Rav Solovetchik writes, “What primary quality did Lot’s daughter embody that made her worthy to become the mother of Moav, the mother of Rut, the mother of Mashiach? Instead of giving up, she had the courage to rebuild the world.The plan was reprehensive, but the motivation was noble and heroic.”⁶ Lot’s daughter wanted to save the world, indeed this is one of the jobs of Mashiach, and this trait, of commitment to others, of courage to look ahead, is expressed in Ruth’s personal interactions, in her commitment to Naomi and Am Yisrael and her willingness to leave her previous life behind, to look forward.

Kabbalat HaTorah

As Am Yisrael, we have a long list of important and holy responsibilities. They are laid out for us in the mitzvot in the Torah. Many of these relate to our responsibilities to Hashem. Yet another central and no less important element of being a Torah committed Jew, is our responsibility to one another. Indeed one of the most important verses in the Torah is to love your fellow as you love yourself. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was known to say “Someone else’s material needs are my spiritual responsibility.” This way of thinking is a central part of Torah living. Indeed Ruth meets Boaz while gleaning in his field under the Torah laws that embody this concept- those of leket, peah and shichecha, and at a time where national responsibility and leadership was sorely lacking.

In Megillat Ruth we are shown how the kind actions of one woman lead her from being a marginalized, stranger to the forebearer of Mashiach. Her personal taking of responsibility, both to Hashem – “Your God is my God”- and to her family, leads to a restoration of responsibility by the nations’ leadership in the actions of Boaz. Rabbi Sacks writes, “Shavuot is when we celebrate the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The fact that we read Ruth’s story at this time tells us that society cannot be made by laws alone. It needs something more — the unforced, unlegislated kindness that makes us reach out to the lonely and vulnerable, even if we are lonely and vulnerable ourselves.”⁷ While Megillat Ruth is seemingly a history of just one family, its message and its outcome is one of national significance and destiny.

Dr Yael Zeigler writes, “… Megillat Ruth aspires toward kingship, which is its ultimate goal. This harmonious story anticipates and paves the way for the new harmonious era of monarchy. In its ideal state, the Davidic monarchy is designated to create a just society in which all people receive their due recompense, and conflicts and tensions dissipate or are resolved by the king.”⁸

In a world in which it too often appears that we are lacking in kindness, in feelings of mutual responsibility, and in true leadership, the actions of Ruth and of Boaz are a call to action for us today. The fact that they are recounted on Matan Torah is a reminder of the centrality they should play in Torah-oriented lives.

Jerusalem Talmud, Chagigah, 2:3 ↩︎
The following two paragraphs are based partially on a shiur by Prosser Smadar Rosensweig: https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/955430/Lost-and-Found:-Destiny-in-Megilat-Rut ↩︎
Ruth, Chapter 1, 16-17 ↩︎
Ruth Rabbah 2:14 ↩︎
See Bereishit 19, 31-38 ↩︎
As quoted by Mrs Michal Horowitz: https://www.yutorah.org/sidebar/lecturedata/858379/Bat-Lot-&-Rut-the-Moavite:-When-Destinies-Collide ↩︎
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, In Lifting Others We are Lifted, Covenant and Conversation ↩︎
Dr Yael Zeigler, Israel Koschitzky Torat Har Etzion, Ruth Lesson 38: Actions and Rewards: A Harmonious Story, Part II ↩︎