With violence and injustice in the headlines, where can we turn?

“And it was in the days of the judging of the judges…” (Ruth 1:1)

The opening words of the Book of Ruth seem merely to tell us that these events took place when the judges judged, sometime between the initial settlement of the land and the establishment of the monarchy. The Talmud reads the words more literally:

Rabbi Yochanan said:…A generation that judges its judges.  [A judge] would say to [someone]: remove the splinter from between your eyes; he would say to [the judge]: remove the beam from between your eyes. He would say to him: Your silver has become dross; he would say to him: your wine is diluted with water. (Bava Batra 16b, citing Isaiah 1:22)

Rabbi Yochanan describes a society whose judges are so corrupt that they lack any moral authority, reimagining a verse in Isaiah as a dialogue in which judge and defendant accuse each other of dishonest business practices. In the next verse, Isaiah continues to rebuke Judah and Jerusalem:

Your officers are wayward and friends of thieves, all loving corruption and pursuing bribes; they do not judge the orphan, and the widow’s claim does not come before them. (Isaiah 1:23)

In the time of Isaiah, corruption went hand in hand with injustice. Where a favorable judgement depended on bribes, an impoverished widow or orphan was unlikely to get a fair hearing, or any hearing. It seems implicit in Rabbi Yochanan’s statement that the situation at the time of Naomi and Ruth was similar.

Another talmudic statement places the events more precisely within the period of the judges:

Raba bar Rav Huna said in the name of Rav: Ibzan is Boaz (Bava Batra 91a)

Rabbinic commentaries often identify biblical figures with each other. In this case, Ibzan is one of the more obscure judges (Judges 12:9–11). He lived in Bethlehem and judged Israel for seven years.

If Boaz is Ibzan, then Naomi’s family likely left the land of Israel during the time of his immediate predecessor, Jephthah (Yiftah) – a judge who started out as the leader of a band of raiders, sacrificed his only daughter in fulfilment of an imprudent vow, and led the massacre of thousands of men of the tribe of Ephraim by members his own clan of Gilead, from the tribe of Manasseh (see Judges 11–12). Society in the time of the judges was not only corrupt; it could also be violent and cruel.

…And there was famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. (Ruth 1:1)

The Talmud (Bava Batra 91a) indicates that the family were important and wealthy and Rashi (Ruth 1:1) goes on to explain that they left not because they personally were hungry, but because they resented the constant pressure to support those who were. On that reading, they themselves manifested the indifference to the poor and disadvantaged that characterizes a corrupt society.

Elimelech and Naomi and their sons took the extraordinary step of moving to Moab, a pagan nation in a pagan world, in an era where Diaspora Jewish communities did not exist. We have seen that they left a society characterized by corruption, violence, and flawed leadership. But in leaving, they severed their ties completely with their people. Elimelech and his sons died in Moab.

Naomi chose to return to Bethlehem, and her daughter-in-law Ruth insisted on accompanying her. They were two widows, one a Moabite foreigner, and their prospects did not seem very hopeful.

Upon their return, though, the two women encountered some of the best of a Torah-based society, even one that “judges its judges.” The mitzvah to leave produce that is unharvested, dropped, or forgotten in the field (see Leviticus 23:22) was practiced, and Ruth was able to support herself and her mother-in-law by gleaning in the fields. God was acknowledged constantly, even in the briefest conversations (see Ruth 2:4).

Some of this is no doubt due to Boaz’s personal righteousness, especially if he was in fact the primary judge at the time they returned. But some of it is the nature of a society that strives to keep Torah and does not always succeed. Generosity and kindness existed – and had always existed – alongside corruption and injustice. A deep consciousness of God manifested itself – and had always manifested itself – even where idolatry had not been wiped out. Some Israelites were suspicious of foreigners, but Boaz, on meeting Ruth in the fields, blesses her: “May your reward be complete from the Lord, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to shelter” (Ruth 2:12).

The Book of Ruth ends with the birth of Ruth’s son, Obed, “…he is the father of Jesse (Yishai) the father of David” (Ruth 4:17). What seemed like merely the redemption of a family ultimately gave rise to King David and a monarchy that, although never perfect, would end the chaos of the period of the judges.

Our society (as in the times of Naomi and of Isaiah) remains impossibly complex. Corruption, violence, injustice, and inequality are never out of the headlines. But fairness, peacebuilding, and generosity are here as well (although perhaps less frequently in the headlines).

The name Obed (Oved) means to work or to serve. Following in the footsteps of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, our task is not to run away from a difficult and discouraging situation but to work to improve it, through kindness, welcoming the stranger, pursuing justice, and serving God.