(1) In the days when the Judges judged, there was a famine in the land; and a man of Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the country of Moab. (2) The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the country of Moab and remained there.
(3) Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. (4) They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, and they lived there about ten years. (5) Then those two—Mahlon and Chilion—also died; so the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband. (6) She started out with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab; for in the country of Moab she had heard that the Eternal had taken note of His people and given them food. (7) Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living; and they set out on the road back to the land of Judah. (8) But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Turn back, each of you to her mother’s house. May the Eternal deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me! (9) May the Eternal grant that each of you find security in the house of a husband!” And she kissed them farewell. They broke into weeping (10) and said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” (11) But Naomi replied, “Turn back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Have I any more sons in my body who might be husbands for you? (12) Turn back, my daughters, for I am too old to be married. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I were married tonight and I also bore sons, (13) should you wait for them to grow up? Should you on their account debar yourselves from marriage? Oh no, my daughters! My lot is far more bitter than yours, for the hand of the Eternal has struck out against me.” (14) They broke into weeping again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell. But Ruth clung to her. (15) So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Go follow your sister-in-law.”
(16) But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (17) Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.Thus and more may the Eternal do to me-b if anything but death parts me from you.” (18) When [Naomi] saw how determined she was to go with her, she ceased to argue with her.
“Ruth said: Do not entreat me to leave you, to return from following you.” What is “do not entreat me”? She said to her: ‘Do not sin to me, do not impose your reservations upon me.’
“To leave you, to return from following you” – in any case, my intention is to convert. It is preferable through you, and not through another.
When Naomi heard this, she began arranging the laws of converts for her. She said to her: ‘My daughter, it is not the way of Israelite women to go to theaters and circuses of the gentiles.’ [Ruth] said to her: “Where you go, I will go.” [Naomi] said to her: ‘My daughter, it is not the way of Israel to reside in a house where there is no mezuza.’ [Ruth] said to her: “And where you lodge, I will lodge.” “Your people is my people” – these are punishments and prohibitions.” “Your God is my God” – [these are] the rest of the mitzvot.
“Where you die, I will die” – there are the four court-imposed death penalties: Stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling. “And there I will be buried,” these are the two cemeteries designated for the court, one for those stoned and burned, and one for those beheaded and strangled. “So may God do to me, and so may God continue” – [Naomi] said to her: ‘My daughter, amass as many mitzvot and acts of righteousness that you can amass in this world, but in the future “death will separate between you and me.”
And they inform [the potential convert] of the sin of gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and produce in the corner. And they do not overwhelm the convert, and they are not exacting with them. Rabbi Elazar said: What is the verse? As it is written: “And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking with her” (Ruth 1:18).
Naomi said to her: On Shabbat, it is prohibited for us to go beyond the Shabbat limit. “Where you go, I shall go” (Ruth 1:16) It is forbidden for us to be alone with a man. “Where you lodge, I shall lodge” (Ruth 1:16).
We are commanded in six hundred and thirteen commandments. “Your people are my people” (Ruth 1:16). Idolatrous worship is forbidden to us. “Your God is my God” (Ruth 1:16). Four types of capital punishment were handed over to a court: “Where you die, I shall die” (Ruth 1:17). Two burial grounds were handed over to the court: “And there I shall be buried” (Ruth 1:17).
Immediately: “And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded she left off speaking with her” (Ruth 1:18).
(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Eternal; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the Eternal, (5) because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.—
(1) While Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the House of God, a very great crowd of Israelites gathered about him, men, women, and children; the people were weeping bitterly. (2) Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel of the family of Elam spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God by bringing into our homes foreign women from the peoples of the land; but there is still hope for Israel despite this. (3) Now then, let us make a covenant with our God to expel all these women and those who have been born to them, in accordance with the bidding of the Eternal and of all who are concerned over the commandment of our God, and let the Teaching be obeyed. (4) Take action, for the responsibility is yours and we are with you. Act with resolve!”
MISHNA: Ammonite and Moabite are prohibited, and their prohibition is eternal. However, their female counterparts, are permitted immediately.
...ותלכי אל עם אשר לא ידעת תמול שלשם (שם), אמ' לה שאילו באת אצלינו מתמול שלשם לא היינו מקבלין אותך, שעדיין לא נתחדשה הלכה עמוני ולא עמונית מואבי ולא מואבית...
...“And [you] came to a people you had not known yesterday or the day before” (Ruth 2:11) Boaz said to Ruth: “If you had come to us yesterday or the day before we would not have accepted you, since the law of ‘an Ammonite but not an Ammonitess; a Moabite but not a Moabitess’ had not yet been renewed.”
by Prof. Cynthia Chapman
Anthropologists focusing on kinship studies in the last several decades have moved away from the idea that birth into a family establishes one’s kinship with that family for all time. Instead, they have asserted that kinship or “relatedness” is best understood as processual.
Anthropologists Monica Janowski, who conducted fieldwork in Malaysia, asserts that “sex merely initiates a person.” It is the ongoing feeding of a person throughout life that “is vital in the production of a human being.” Relatedness must be “built up through appropriate feeding throughout life.” Similarly, Janet Carsten, who also conducted fieldwork on Malaysia, argues that “It is through living and consuming together in houses that people become complete persons – that is, kin.” “Personhood, relatedness, and feeding,” she argues, “are intimately connected.”
Emphasizing the importance of the shared consumption of “everyday food,” Janowski marks a division between the “core starch” and “fringe” elements of the diet. She notes that the core starch—rice in Malaysia—is grown on one’s own land and produced with significant difficulty through one’s own labor. Janowski suggests that the reason that rice is such a powerful substance in Southeast Asian societies – in her words “rice constructs kinship” – is that rice is a crop that requires “human help to allow it to grow.”
For ancient Israel, the staple starch was bread. Nathan MacDonald, professor of Bible at the University of Cambridge, estimates that “For the typical Israelite, bread or other grain-based foods such as porridge probably contributed over half their calorific intake, with estimates varying between 53 and 75 percent.”...
The book of Ruth is read by Jews on Shavuot, ostensibly because of the wheat harvest connection. As Jews the world over celebrate the festival, they will gather around a table adorned with fresh flowers and greens and enjoy a family feast rich in dairy. As family members tuck into the cheese blintzes, they should realize that through the shared ingesting of the flour-based crepes, they are reaffirming their kinship ties in a way reminiscent of Boaz and Ruth’s simple meal of roasted wheat dipped in sour wine. Can somebody please pass the blintzes?