Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
JOSHUA, JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS (Nevi’im Rishonim) These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. Righteousness and
Kingship [3] Even without treating the story from a literary perspective, one cannot ignore that Megillat Rut has been seen as the perfect short story. The characters play real and fascinating roles, the events follow on each other rapidly and the language whilst sparse and terse, clearly bears witness to the ideas and issues of the story. One example of how the brief language reveals human and spiritual tensions is the difference between Naomi's reactions to approaching Bet Lechem and those of Ruth's. Our text tells us, "So the two of them went" (Ruth 1:19); in contrast we read about Avraham and Yitzchak going to the Akeida, "So they both went together" (B'reishit 22:8). There father and son went together on the same road, spiritually and emotionally, even though it was clear that the father was going in order to sacrifice his son. Here, while the two women were going to the same place, this was only a physical fact without any unity either of purpose or feeling. Naomi was returning to her home town a widow, bereft of her sons and in poverty, while Ruth was a woman coming to a strange land, a convert and of a people of whom the Torah had said "the 10th generation shall not enter the congregation of Hashem for ever" (D'varim 22:4). How could their emotions, hopes and fears be the same? Our interest here is to see how the language clearly delineates the nature of what a convert is actually accepting when he or she joins Judaism, and why many of the dinim of 'giyur' are learnt from the speech of Ruth in her reply to Naomi. Naomi had tried to persuade Ruth to follow Orpah back to Moav, with logical and rational arguments. Ruth's answer of two verses (16-17), remains to this day the classic answer of converts, thus making her the prototype of them all. "Entreat me not to leave you": There is mesirat nefesh, unswerving devotion to the path she chooses irrespective of the hardships and difficulties raised by the arguments against her conversion. This test is made of all converts. "Wherever you go I will go": The recognition that Judaism is a way of walking, halakha, obligatory ways of behavior that covers the whole of life's activities in order to realize G-d's commandment to Abraham: "Walk before Me and be perfect, complete, tamim" (B'reishit 17:1). "Where you lodge I will lodge": There is the Jewish home that is devoted to becoming a house for G-d as Ya'akov saw in his revelation of the ladder reaching to Heaven - "Surely there is G-d in this place, this is no other than the house of G-d". This is the home where the normal vessels and furniture of every day human living are sanctified through kashrut, through pure speech, through Torah study, through taharat hamishpacha and through modest standards of living. Here the very doorposts carry the scroll of G-d's commandments telling those who enter to observe them and those who exit to remember to observe them in the street, the market-place and in leisure. "Your people shall be my people": This precedes Ruth's statement about G-d. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook taught me that from this we can learn that there can be attachment to the Jewish People even before the attachment to G-d. Indeed, we see that it was only after the revelations about the Chosen Abrahamic Nation and its first exile, and their Promised Land with its boundaries clearly spelt out in Parshat Lekh Lekha, that the first mention of a G-d relationship was made (Gen 17:7). Some commentators have deduced that Yitro never became a true convert because while he accepted Hashem, he returned to his own nation of Midyan. However, Ruth's conversion was complete since she showed that she understood and accepted the integration of Nation and Religion that is so intrinsic and special only to Judaism. "Your G-d is my G-d": Some would like to argue perhaps that Judaism's ethical and moral teachings are so noble and so important that they may be taught and practiced without any belief in G-d. However, it is their Divine origin that makes those values different from any that the human mind and intelligence is capable of creating. Furthermore, it is only the acceptance of a G-d implemented reward and punishment that can guarantee human adherence to these ethics and morals. There is also a concept that Judaism is merely a legal system without love, spirituality or religiosity; yet in truth the G-d that Ruth was following is both Our King and Our Father. "Where you die I will die and there I will be buried": Although Judaism is concerned with living there is also a Jewish way of dying and of burial. The dead require us to mourn for them yet such mourning is temporary and limited; "And Avraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her" (B'reishit 23:2); LIVKOTA written with a small kaf, denotes that one should nor weep for the dead excessively (Rashi). There is shiva and kaddish to forestall the rebellion of the mourners against Hashem's decrees, burial rather than cremation to allow the body to return to the earth from which it was created, and the simplicity of the coffins and memorials to underscore the equalization that is death. Above all, there is the concept of pikuach nefesh but also of martyrdom of Kiddush Hashem to demonstrate that sometimes there are values that are more important even than life. One of the reasons we read Ruth on Shavuot is because her revelation parallels our Revelation at Sinai. Through the merits of her Chesed and her wise, clear and powerful acceptance of Judaism, Ruth truly merited the words of the women of Bet Lechem: "To be like Rachel and Leah which two did build the House of Israel". But there was even more to Ruth. She was also the Mother of the House of Kingship: "These are the generations of Judah / Peretz / Nachshon / Boaz / Yishai / David". "Why did David require an ancestress from Moav? Jews are not able to rule over other Jews, since they lack the pride required to enforce kingship; Shaul's rule could not continue because of his great modesty. Ruth, however, gave to David the pride inherited from Moav, that enabled him to rule with Chesed and Justice but also with Kingship" (Shem Mi Shmuel). This is the 75th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
Parshat P'kudei Homepage]
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