I like this reading; many thanks! The Book of Ruth stresses acceptance as a major theme, absolutely. And there's more: Ruth is choosing to value her relationship with her mother in law, not casting her off as an old woman of no further use because she has lost all her male relatives and is past menopause. So, infertility and the imminent extinction of the family is a theme. Age is a theme. Valuing wise older women and family and established love relationships over the restless search for new ones is a theme. Ruth chooses matriarchy over a return to familiar paternal control among her own people. She commits her life to strangers, to her mother-in-law's unselfish love, and to her G-d. "Whither thou goest, I will go." It is an extraordinary moment, worthy of a holiday in and of itself. Then and there Ruth accepts the Torah — and makes possible King David! A git yontif ale!
I like this reading; many thanks! The Book of Ruth stresses acceptance as a major theme, absolutely. And there's more: Ruth is choosing to value her relationship with her mother in law, not casting her off as an old woman of no further use because she has lost all her male relatives and is past menopause. So, infertility and the imminent extinction of the family is a theme. Age is a theme. Valuing wise older women and family and established love relationships over the restless search for new ones is a theme. Ruth chooses matriarchy over a return to familiar paternal control among her own people. She commits her life to strangers, to her mother-in-law's unselfish love, and to her G-d. "Whither thou goest, I will go." It is an extraordinary moment, worthy of a holiday in and of itself. Then and there Ruth accepts the Torah — and makes possible King David! A git yontif ale!