|
|
|
|
|
Jewish World Review / May 18, 1999 / 3 Sivan, 5759
By Erica Meyer Rauzin
NO MATTER HOW MUCH I read about Shauvous (and having a column due
does make one read), I am repeatedly drawn to the well known moment when
Ruth, the converted Jew from Moab, persists in going to Israel with Naomi,
her impoverished, embittered, mother-in-law. The more Naomi tells her not to
come, the more she insists.
Or did she also persist, in some small measure, because she heard
Naomi’s internal voice saying softly, “Stay with me,” while her external
voice said firmly, “Go away.” I think -- because of Ruth’s kindness, her
signature attribute -- she heard Naomi’s inner voice.
This happens to all of us, in smaller measure.
When my oldest daughter says, “I don’t care,” I know she cares. This
has been true since she learned how to talk, and she’s15 now. Whenever she
gets frustrated or exasperated or fed up, she mutters, “I don’t care.” To me,
she might as well be waving a red flag emblazoned with the words, “I CARE, I
CARE.”
Even if we’ve agreed that I’ll take a cab if I land late, or that the
weather is too foul for him to come out, or that it is more logical for him
to stay home or keep plugging away at the office, he still comes to the
airport. Bless him.
He knows I am sincere when I tell him he doesn’t have to come get me,
but he also knows what I want in my heart. I like to be met, to be welcomed
and gathered in when I come back home. He understands, beyond logic. He
understands in the same way I know that the child shouting, “I don’t care,”
cares.
Ruth was a prophetess, a wise woman with deep insights, the ancestor
of King David; she had to be a lot better at this than we are.
My Chumash (Bible) teacher warns me often (because I have this tendency to
pursue tangents) that it can be misleading and risky to craft one’s
independent interpretations of these things, so let me hasten to cite a
better authority. “The Book of Legends” (Sefer Ha-Aggadah), which lists
legends from Talmud and Midrash, says of Naomi’s sons, “And they took them
wives of the daughters of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name
of the other Ruth. Orpah, because she turned her back (oref) on her
mother-in-law, and Ruth, because she understood (raatah) her mother-in-law’s
true wish.”
Ruth’s kind deed was to hear Naomi’s inner voice. Her reward was to
become the ancestor of David, and eventually, the messiah. Her journey
teaches us many things this Shavuous; one of them is that kindness isn’t all
that complicated. Listening will do just fine, especially if you understand
what you
The Inner Voice
Naomi discourages Ruth’s conversion three time, although some
scholars say Ruth had long since converted, upon her marriage to Naomi’s son.
Naomi manages to convince Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah, to go home, by
persuading her that her kindnesses will be remembered but that there is no
future for her in Israel. Ruth still persists. Did she persist because of her
devotion to Judaism or to her husband’s mother? Did she persist because she
believed that her future did, indeed, depend on her going forward, not
backward?
When I return from an out of town trip, I generally tell my husband,
“You don’t have to come to the airport. I’ll take a taxi. I don’t mind.” He
always comes to the airport.
The Book of Ruth is connected to Shavuous, the holiday marking the
giving of the Torah, because Ruth accepted Torah, with all its , complexity
and beauty and tough requirements, voluntarily -- as did the Jewish people.
But Ruth matters for another reason, cited in the same reference book:
“...The scroll of Ruth tell us nothing of the laws of cleanness or
uncleanness, of what is prohibited or what is permitted. Why then was it
written? To teach you how great is the reward of those who do deeds of
kindness.”
JWR contributor Erica Meyer Rauzin writes about the contemporary Jewish condition.
