LIFE OF RUTH

Life of Ruth

Life of Ruth

Ruth has come to exemplify the epitome of kindness and consideration-khesed, the epithet used to describe her actions most often in the pages of the Book of Ruth, is best translated as (loving) kindness and consideration. This term is doubly striking, considering both her nation of origin and the community to which she journeys. As noted before, Ruth's roots lie in a nation whose male ancestor chooses to live in Sodom, a city that distinguished itself most by its inhospitability to strangers. It is significant that one of the stories through which the Talmud chooses to highlight Sodomite cruelty to strangers focuses not just on the refusal to host and feed hungry wayfarers, but also concerns the specifics of their treatment. The final act of barbarity would occur when ostensibly offering them lodging for the night: strangers deemed too tall for the chosen bed would have their legs cut off, while the limbs of short wayfarers would be forcibly stretched.

It is no accident that the citizens of Sodom reveal their homicidal cruelty in their inability to accept difference for, as we will see, the ability to integrate difference into the national texture is the lesson that Ruth teaches the Judean society of her time. It is this experience and understanding that enables her to found the royal Judean dynasty.

It is possible to argue that Lot's choice of urban residence should not by itself reflect negatively on the moral character of his descendants: after all, the Biblical text testifies to his own solicitous consideration for the two strangers who come to his door. Nevertheless, the Biblical text also reveals how Lot's excessive solicitude for his guests collapses into moral disorder, as he unhesitatingly offers his own daughters to the townspeople of Sodom for their own pleasure in return for allowing his guests to remain unmolested. The climate of Sodom seems to provoke a moral degeneration in Lot to the extent that paradoxically, he fetishizes his own hospitality towards his guests, valuing their comfort over the moral integrity of his own daughters. Seen in that light, it is no wonder that in the caves outside of Zoar, his daughters similarly do not allow their father to retain control of his own body and moral autonomy. Ultimately, the story of Lot proves that both extremes-the utter lack of lovingkindness, as well as the undifferentiated practice of generosity-lead to moral indifference.

Viewed in that light, Ruth's Moabite origins serve not to morally disadvantage her implicit and explicit critique of the Judean society of her time. On the contrary, they privilege her moral standpoint. This is because Ruth's position as multiple outsider-as a Moabite married to a Jew, lacking a secure place either in her native society or in Israelite society; as a widow in a world dominated by patriarchy-may render Ruth temporarily mute, but paradoxically, it sharpens the acuity of her (moral) vision. Ruth's journey on the road and her consequent liminality enable Ruth to see the deficiencies ...