As we prepare for Shavuot, we will try to learn some lessons from Megilat Ruth.
We read Megilat Ruth every year on Shavuot, and there is actually a very early source of a hint of this concept in the Torah. In Parashat Emor, there is a list of holidays, but right after Shavuot is listed, it talks about cutting the field and leaving over the pieces that fall down, for the poor to collect. This subject doesn’t seem to fit into a list of the holidays.
The Rokeach, a Rishon, explains that this is a hint to the story of Ruth, that occurred at the time of Shavuot. It was at this time of year that Boaz cut the wheat, left the wheat that fell, and Ruth collected it. Eventually they got married.
But the story starts before that, when Avimelech, a man with a very high pedigree (David HaMelech later came from this lineage), who was a leader of the people, left during the time of famine and went to the city of Moav, where his two sons married Moavite women who converted. He was held accountable for abandoning his people in this time, and he and his two sons died, leaving behind his widow Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah.
As the story goes, Naomi tried to convince them not to return to Eretz Israel with her. She told them that even if she had another son for them to remarry, they’d have to wait a long time. (Meaning the main reason, they’d remain with her would be to continue the name of their deceased husbands). As we know, Orpah went back to Moav, and Ruth stayed with Naomi.
At the onset of the story, when we see two beggars coming to the land, and it doesn’t look like much would come from them. But if we fast forward, at the end of Ruth’s life, it describes, in Melachim, that Shelomo Hamelech made a throne for the Em HaMelech- the Mother of the King. This wasn’t actually for his mother, but for his great-great- grandmother Ruth. It says that Shelomo HaMelech made a chair by his throne and the Midrash Zuta explains that it was for Ruth.
Why do we read Megilat Ruth? What’s the lesson? This same Midrash says that it’s to teach us that:
Torah is only given through suffering, and poverty.
When Ruth accepted the Torah, it was not in the most comfortable of situations. She accepted the Torah in tough times. But when we fast forward, we see that when people stick to it and are dedicated, they have a happy ending.
It’s no coincidence that we read this now. As the Gemarah tells us, David HaMelech was born, and died, on Shavuot. So there is a strong connection, between David HaMelech, and Shavuot. We are reading the story of what produced the king. We go back to his great, great, grandmother Ruth, who selflessly followed her mother-in-law. This took a lot of emunah and bitachon on her part. She converted, and went back with her mother-in-law to somehow continue the name of her deceased husband, which was against all odds. The Gemarah and Midrashim tell us that it wasn’t yet known to them then, that a Jewish man was permitted to marry a convert from Moav. The Torah clearly says not to take converts from Moav. Later on, they understood that it meant a male from Moav, not a female. But in Ruth’s time, this wasn’t yet clarified.
If you recall, Boaz said, “Before I marry Ruth and continue the family name, I have to check with the closer kin.” But the closer kin refused to marry Ruth, because he was afraid of her Moavite status. He didn’t think anyone would want to marry his (future) children.
And there were issues; later on, in the times of David, part of his challenge was that people suggested that he didn’t come from good lineage.
So it wasn’t simple. Ruth went against all odds. She was a former princess. She should have just returned to her palace, and forgotten about her Judaism. But she went, with Emunah and Bitachon that Hashem would take care of her. She was selfless, and she merited to become the queen-mother, so to say; the royal woman of the Jewish people.
That’s one of the important lessons to take from the story of Ruth.
Be’Ezrat Hashem, we will continue with more tomorrow.