Would You Welcome a Poor Convert Like Ruth?

There is no way to place the biblical Ruth in a box. A convert. A widow. A foreigner. A daughter in law. Every label that one might assign to her places her further and further from the center of the community, and more ingrained in the outskirts of Jewish society.

Yet, we all want to know who she is and what motivated her to make rather bold life decisions. How did a poor Moabite woman convert move up the ranks? All types of questions arise including that of psychology, the narrative of the text, and historical context: What can we learn from our Messianic Matriarch? Can we, or do we, see past the labels to create an inclusive community where those born in the margins need not remain there? The story of Ruth raises issues that are atypical from much of our biblical narrative, and Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth, a new anthology of modern commentaries on Ruth, edited by Stuart Halpern (Yeshiva University Press/Koren Publishers 2019), seeks to answer some of those questions.