In many synagogues, the book of Ruth is read on the second day of Shavuot. There are several reasons for this custom:A) Shavuot is the birthday and yahrtzeit (day of passing) of King David and the book of Ruth records his ancestry. Ruth and her husband Boaz were King David’s great-grandparents.B) The scenes of harvesting, described in the book of Ruth are appropriate to the Festival of Harvest., and C) Ruth was a sincere convert who embraced Judaism with all her heart. On Shavuot all Jews were converts having accepted the Torah and all of its precepts.
To further understand the importance of Ruth in Jewish History, Rabbi Y. Marcus gives a very succinct history: Ruth was a Moabite woman who converted to Judaism and became the great-grandmother to King David. She was a princess, the daughter (or grand-daughter) of King Eglon of Moab. The story takes place in the era of the Judges, culminating with the marriage of Ruth and Boaz in the year 968 BCE. As the story is told in the Book of Ruth and the Midrash, she becomes acquainted with the Jewish religion when she befriends a distinguished and wealthy Jewish family, Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons Machlon and Kilyon, who had moved from Moab to the Land of Israel because of a famine. She grows enamored with Jewish belief and custom and she and her sister Orpah marry Machlon and Kilyon. When Elimelech and the two sons tragically pass away — punishment for abandoning their Israeli brethren in their time of need, and a now impoverished Naomi is heading back to the Land of Israel (where the famine has ended),the two sisters wish to go with her. Naomi begs them to remain in Moab with their regal family and not to follow her to poverty and anonymity. She explains to them that they would have to convert to Judaism and the difficulties that would entail. Orpah indeed turns back, while Ruth persists. In the famous words that have come to epitomize the sentiment of the righteous convert she says to Naomi: “Wherever you go I will go; wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your nation is my nation; and your G-d is my G-d.” In the land of Israel she finds favor in the eyes of Boaz, a great Torah scholar and Jewish leader, who is impressed with her modesty and righteousness. He marries her even though there is opposition to the marriage. The opposition stems from the fact that the Torah says that one should not marry a Moabite (even one who converts). Boaz, however, explains that the Torah speaks only of a Moabite male; it was however permitted to marry a Moabite woman (who had converted). Boaz and Ruth give birth to Oved, who gives birth to Jesse, who gives birth to David, who is the ancestor of Moshiach.
Rav Shlomo Alkabez, in his commentary on Ruth, writes: “This megillah was written to authenticate King David and to publicize the concept that a Moabite woman may marry a Jew. Shmuel wrote this book to preempt any murmuring that might threaten the monarchy of the anointed king (David).”
Rabbi Yissocher Frand explains: “There was indeed controversy as to whether Boaz was permitted to marry Rus. Rus was from Moab. The simple reading of “Neither an Ammonite nor a Moabite shall enter the Congregation of the L-rd” [Devorim 23:4] would seem to preclude her ability to marry Boaz or any other native born Jew for that matter. There was a dispute that raged for generations whether the prohibition included female Moabites or just the males. Boaz made a bold move to demonstrate the permissibility of such a union, even though the closer relative (a man named Tov) refused to enter into such a marriage out of fear that it was prohibited. Shmuel, the prophet who anointed David as King, decided to set the record straight and recorded Boaz’s public decision to marry this woman — in Tanach. This explains, perhaps, why Rus is read on Shavuot. The story of Boaz’s bold decision to marry Rus dramatizes his faith in the veracity of the Oral Tradition. Boaz had faith in the “Halacha of Moshe tracing back to Sinai” that the interpretation of the above cited pasuk in Devorim is “An Ammonite male is forbidden, but not an Ammonite female; a Moabite male is forbidden, but not a Moabite female. ” When a Jew sits down on Shavuot, the holiday marking receipt of the Torah, he is confronted with the question of why Boaz did marry Rus. Why was he so confident that he was allowed to marry her? The answer is that he knew it was permissible because of the Oral Law. Shavuot is not merely the holiday celebrating receipt of the Written Torah. As indicated by the story of Ruth, Shavuot is also the holiday when we celebrate the receipt of and the veracity of the Oral Torah. The issue of the veracity of the Oral Torah was an issue in Talmudic times and it is an issue in modern times as well. When we tell people “the Torah says such and such,” they question us because they cannot find it in the Written Torah. So much of the divisions that we have with our non-observant brethren boil down to this point: Is there an Oral Law or not? On Shavuos, we come to this clear understanding that Torah means the Written Torah PLUS the Oral Torah. There is no better narrative than the Megillah of Ruth to drive home this lesson.”
~Devorah Abenhaim
