Women's Solidarity • For Shavuot

The Book of Ruth, read on Shavuot, is named after Ruth the Moabite. The book deals primarily with women, whose fates change throughout the story due to their actions and wisdom.

The scroll opens with famine and death. Elimelech, Naomi's husband, dies in Moab, as do her two sons. They leave two childless widows, Ruth and Orpah. The mother-in-law Naomi seeks to return from Moab to her homeland, and her loving daughter-in-law Ruth accompanies her on her journey back to the land of Judah.

The two women are destitute, separated by religious and age differences, but they manage to survive because they know full well that their survival depends on the dominant male society, and that only close cooperation between them can save them from poverty, exploitation, and abuse.

Incidentally, it was only in the 1960s that feminist women began to document the victims of women, which we already read about in the biblical story. It was only through them that women's experiences as victims became part of social awareness.

Ruth and Naomi take the path typical of weak and statusless heroes in folk tales – they understand that only through cunning will they be able to build themselves up. And so, the two women, who are resourceful and enterprising but lack rights, search for the savior man. They cooperate in a miraculous way, without any conflicts, and reveal to each other all their thoughts and actions.

In a patriarchal society, women are required to act according to the social patterns set by men, and therefore Naomi offers Boaz as the man who will redeem both of them. Through him, she will be able to reclaim her property in Bethlehem, and he will also redeem Ruth, her young and apparently attractive daughter-in-law, who is defenseless.

And indeed, the gamble pays off: With the guidance of her experienced mother-in-law, Ruth surprises Boaz at night, at the threshing floor, seduces him, and in effect forces him to marry her. Thus, the socially inferior foreign woman not only gains a husband but also a son, who becomes the father of the most important and significant dynasty in the people of Israel – King David.

The pair of women, who create completeness, are accompanied by a group of supportive and sympathetic women. The group of women backs up, takes an interest, responds, and treats with immense empathy. Only female solidarity, it turns out, allows Ruth and Naomi to overcome the difficulties of life.

If the beginning of the story was one of hardship, then at the end the fate of the two brave women, who guide their steps according to male culture, is reversed, but their hidden feminine voice still manages to emerge. There is a reversal in the fate of Naomi, who returns to her previous status and is allowed to raise her grandson as her own son. Ruth, the junior partner in the team, becomes the mother of the dynasty despite being a Moabite.

The happy ending, typical of folk tales, is intended to confirm, among other things, the existing social order: women have freedom of action within the rigid male framework, which discriminates and demeans them, if they know how to distinguish between positive and negative social values. Tamar, the wife of a prostitute, cheats on her father-in-law, "steals" sperm from him and gives birth, but is not condemned, because women who outsmart men in order to marry, give birth and preserve the family name will succeed. The moral is - the preservation and continuity of the family are the supreme goal and all means are kosher to achieve the goal.

Then as now, women face many difficulties on their path to self-realization. The exclusion and oppression of women are still valid, strong, and present.