My husband Milton and I will lead a Midrash writing group based on The Book of Ruth, the Hebrew Bible’s shortest book, actually a short story. In ancient times, rabbis wrote elaborations on biblical lines as if they were writing prompts. Midrashim, from the Hebrew root “daras” meaning “expound, ”are imaginative extensions of biblical texts that fill in whatever the author senses can be added to extract deeper meanings. Often, Midrashim take the form of giving speech or utterance to biblical characters whose behaviors, actions, or words raise unanswered questions. The Midrashic process lives on today as writers and speakers continue to elaborate on biblical sources in poems, narratives, songs, and sermons that illustrate the text’s vitality and universality.

Traditionally The Book of Ruth is read to mark the revelation on Mount Sinai — Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the entire five books known as Torah. What lines in The Book of Ruth encode messages for today’s world? Can writing Midrashim about Ruth bring any revelation to us?

We began with the main characters.

Ruth is a Moabite woman, born into a dark-skinned, pagan tribe that warred against Israel. She marries the son of Naomi, an Israelite who fled to Moab with her family to escape famine in Bethlehem.  The strong bond that develops between Ruth and Naomi, despite their wide, religious and ethnic differences, gives rise to some of Hebrew scripture’s most memorable lines. Instead of Ruth’s returning to Moab as Naomi implores after both of their husbands tragically die, Ruth utters her famous devotional vow to Naomi: “For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people; and your God, my God.” These lines invite Midrashic elaboration, because Naomi, now crestfallen and bereft, intends to return to Bethlehem where Ruth would inevitably become a stranger, a poverty-stricken, childless widow. Why then does Ruth place sisterhood with Naomi as her highest priority?

To answer this provocative question, Milton wrote a Midrash in Ruth’s voice, offering the writing group an example, if required:

Another question arises.

If this bond between the two women is so palpable, why would Naomi send Ruth away? Is Naomi’s dismissal of Ruth a rejection? Naomi says:

Turn back . . . Why should you go with me? Have I any more sons in my body who
might be husband for you? Turn back . . . for I am too old to be married . . . Even if I 
were married tonight and I also bore sons, should you wait for them to grow up?
Should you on their account debar yourself from marriage?

Why did Naomi assume Ruth would choose marriage to a Moabite husband over continuity of their deeply felt sisterhood?  Naomi’s lines warranted extrapolation in Midrash. I composed a Midrash of Naomi’s reflections:

But Ruth’s determination to accompany Naomi to Bethlehem underscores the depth of her commitment.

She says to Naomi, “Where you die, I will die; and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the Lord do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”

When Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem, the unexpected occurs. Ruth marries her deceased husband’s relative, the well-to-do farm owner Boaz, following the charitable Israelite custom of levirate marriage. The custom allows a widow to gain security and protection from another member of the family. When Ruth marries Boaz, their child Obed is hailed by Bethlehem’s women in another line worthy of Midrashim: “A son is born to Naomi.” Why to Naomi, and not to Ruth? We are told that “Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom.”

Ultimately, Obed became the grandfather of Israelite King David. Ruth, the Moabite, is the vehicle of Jewish continuity! Does her child belong to her alone? Is ownership, even of children, a human invention? Do God’s words in Exodus, “The whole earth is mine,” apply to children too? Are children God’s harbingers of hope that diverse peoples can find peace? 

Our final Midrash is in Naomi’s voice, the revelation she proclaims at the miracle of Obed’s birth: