The Book of Ruth: This is a blessing?
Here's something that I notice about Megillat Ruth this year.
Chapter 4:
Chapter 4:
"12 and let thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore unto
[ ¶ ]
Um, considering how Peretz came to be born , I can't quite decide whether that was an appropriate wish.
posted by Shira Salamone at 10:29 AM
9 Comments:
Two comments:
1) Boaz actually is of the line of Perez, making me wonder whether the elders' template verse is and may your house be like the house of or whether there are a bunch of teenagers off to the side giggling because the standard wish to be like the house of Perez is being bestowed on an actual descendent of Perez.
2) Notice the other names in the line. In particular you may remember Nachshon ben Amminadab from the Red Sea or from this week's parsha (7:12). The wish is that Boaz be among the leaders of the tribe of Judah.
Argh stupid html.
Boaz actually is of the line of Perez, making me wonder whether the elders' template verse is and may your house be like the house of insert your famous biblical ancestor's name here or whether there are a bunch of teenagers off to the side giggling because the standard wish to be like the house of Perez is being bestowed on an actual descendent of Perez.
In other words, our ancestors politely ignored how Peretz came to be born and just gave him credit for being a descendant of Yehuda/Judah and an ancestor of Boaz. Um, they were open-minded?
"Your house shall be like the house of Rockefeller" - is this a wish for you to be a ruthless oil monopolist, for your descendants to be well off and baalei tzedakah, or something else entirely?
Jewish mystics make a big point of the fact that both the maternal and paternal lines of the moshiach start in degradation (and end in glory, as the Talmud says in Pesachim regarding retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt). The fact that moshiach comes from such degraded beginning show that we all have the chance to redeem ourselves (say the social reformers) or that the redemption process must start with the most broken klipot and work its way up (say the mystics).
Larry offers a nice d'rash, but something happening at the p'shat level may explain this too - Ruth is seeking to fulfill levirate marriage, as was Tamar. It may hve been to Judah's shame, but certainly to Tamar's merit that Perez was born.
As a general rule, I'm not a great fan of mysticism, but even the mystics come up with something good, occasionally.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go smash my brand-new computer to smithereens with a sledgehammer. First, it gave us a royal song and dance about installing Microsoft XP. (I'll upgrade when they get the kinks out of the newest version.) Then, it refused to transfer my files from my old computer via the Internet. Finally, when we tried to go the low-tech route and just upload my files from my ancient external hard drive, the new computer had the unmitigated gall to tell us that it couldn't open the external hard drive. I'm been backing up my files religiously almost every night except Shabbat and Yom Tov for years, and now, when I need the back-up the most, it turns out to be incompatible with the new computer. May I kill this arrogant young thing now, please?
Sigh. Eventually, when my poor husband gets finished writing his accounting finals--which is what he was trying to do all afternoon, between yelps for help from Ms. Hopeless--he'll trying plugging my *new* external hard-drive into my old computer, backing up everything in sight, and seeing whether he can upload the files from the new back-up to the new computer. Wish us luck. I'm not interested in spending several hours of Memorial Day weekend on the phone with Hewlett Packard.
Reform BT, sorry I was busy ranting about my computer problems while you were commenting. :)
"Ruth is seeking to fulfill levirate marriage, as was Tamar. It may hve been to Judah's shame, but certainly to Tamar's merit that Perez was born." True. What's most interesting about both stories is that neither Yehudah nor Boaz volunteered to do the right thing--both had to be backed up against a wall.
Great point with out mysticism there are many things that are hard to understand .... I enjoy reading your deep thinking :)
Anon, thanks.
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