June 2015

Dear Friends,

 

Last weekend, Jews around the world celebrated Shavuot, the festival that commemorates the giving of the Torah. I want to share with you some of what I taught last Friday night about the Book of Ruth, the main text we read on Shavuot. The Book of Ruth is one of the great love stories in the Torah, which I believe can teach us about what it means to love and care for our fellow humans.

 

Here’s the story:

 

Tragedy Befalls Naomi

A Jewish woman Naomi and her husband Elimelech face famine in Israel and immigrate to the land of Moab with their two sons. Once she gets there, her husband dies, and she is left with her two sons. After Naomi’s sons marry two Moabite women, Ruth and Orphah, Naomi’s sons die tragically, too. Naomi is left feeling utterly alone, and decides to return to her people in Israel.

 

Ruth Follows Naomi

Before Naomi leaves for Israel, she tells her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orphah they should go home to their families. At first, Ruth and Orphah hesitate. Naomi insists, “Go home to your mothers! I’m too old to find another husband and have more sons for you to marry. Go home!”

 

Naomi is hopeless, and can’t imagine anyone helping her. So Orphah decides to go home. But Ruth refuses. In a speech that has become famous for its kindness and commitment, Ruth says: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

 

Ruth’s Teaching: Our Bonds Run Deeper than Blood or Self-Interest

Ruth insists on coming, and Naomi accepts, shocked. Naomi has assumed that Ruth would care for her only if they were officially related. But Ruth understands that the bonds of love and obligation run deeper than only immediate self-interest.

 

So many of us make Naomi’s assumptions: Your people are your people. My people are my people. If we leave each other alone, there won’t be any problems.

 

And yet, Ruth’s knows that God doesn’t see the world like that. And if God doesn’t see the world like that, Ruth knows she can’t either. Ruth knows that if she loves someone, she cannot let her suffer alone. Ruth knows that if we want a better life, we all need to care for each other.

 

Ruth Becomes the Mother of the Messianic Line

When Ruth goes with Naomi to Israel, there she meets Boaz, who extends his kindness to Moabite Ruth, even though she is not an Israelite. He takes her in and eventually marries her. The end of the Book of Ruth reports that Ruth and Boaz’s great grandchild is David, the great King of Israel and the ancestor of the Messiah.

 

What do we learn from the fact that Ruth, a non-Jew, becomes the mother of the messianic line? I believe the story teaches that redemption comes when we recognize that we belong to each other and to God.  We are redeemed when we realize that that the bond that unites us is deeper than where we come from, what we’ve been through, or what we want in this moment.

 

Invitation: Get to Know People Very Different From You

So, as we move into the summer, I encourage you to consider how you might create opportunities for you and your family to get to know people who come from very different backgrounds from your own, hear their stories, and let yourself share yours.

 

After all, Shavuot is about recommitting ourselves to receiving Torah, sacred teaching, and I believe one of the most sacred teachings is that our own stories are part of God’s holy and unfolding story.

 

Blessing

May we all have the courage to encounter people from very different backgrounds. May we have the openness to listen deeply to their experiences and their challenges. And may we find within us a taste of the love and responsibility Ruth felt, to care for the other to write a new story where we can say to those very different from us: Where you go, I will go. Your people are my people.

 

Warm Regards,

Rabbi Margie