Book of Ruth - Megillat Ruth [With Commentary of Rashi Hebrew & English]

The scroll tells the story of the Elimelech family from the tribe of Yehuda, who left their homeland due to starvation and moved to Moab. Not long after, the father of the family, Elimelech, died, and the two sons of the family - Mahlon and Kalion, married two gentile Moabites - Ruth and Orpah. After about ten years, the two sons also died without having children and only the mother of the family, Naomi, and her two brides remain. Since Naomi has nothing left, and after hearing that the famine in Yehuda has ceased, she decides to return to her homeland in mourning, disgraced and poor. She pleads with her brides to let her and be Moabites again. One of her brides, Orpah, is disobedient and returns to her family, but Ruth insists on clinging to it, saying: For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

After returning to Bethlehem, Ruth goes to the fields of Boaz, a famous judge and relative of Elimelech, to gather the remains of crops after the reapers, as the poor of Israel did in those days. Boaz, the owner of the field, notices her and is kind to her to help her and her poor mother-in-law Naomi. After it becomes clear to Naomi that she likes Boaz, she advises Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night, to spend time with him and thus to be his wife. Ruth hears her voice, but at the night meeting, she and Boaz maintain their modesty. In the end, Boaz decides to take her as a wife after she converts and joins the Jewish people. From this relationship, a child was born and followed by the entire lineage of the House of David, as it is written at the end of the scroll: "And Boaz and Ruth had a child Oved. And Oved’s offspring was Yishai. Yishai begat David." There is no doubt that this is a beautiful story that can be a fine film, and yet what makes Ruth so special is that she is an object of admiration and a source of inspiration for constant spiritual progress. Since then, why does  Ruth merit that her story is entered into the holy books of books the Tanach?

The story of Ruth is read on the holiday of Shavuot. This is the day on which the Jewish people received the Torah and the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

There are several explanations for the connection between the brave convert and the Feast of the Giving of the Torah. First and foremost, Ruth’s story is a model for receiving the Torah and a willingness to make the covenant with the Holy One, for all its terms and clauses. At Mount Sinai, the people stood as one man with one heart, and said: "Let us do and be heard." First done and then heard. With the same devotion and devotion, Ruth accepted the Torah, all its rules and details.

Remember, Ruth was a princess of Moab, the daughter of Eglon the king of Moab. She came from a privileged home and experienced a life of material abundance in her homeland. Ruth decided to leave the material world and leave her land, homeland, and her father’s house after her faith in the Creator, just like the first Jew, Abraham Avinu.

On Shavuot, we re-experience the status of Mount Sinai, where the entire people of Israel received the Torah. Shavuot commemorates the acceptance of the Torah by the entire Jewish people, and the Book of Ruth describes the acceptance of the Torah by a single person, through the act of conversion. In its beginning Judaism did not begin as a racial trait and it was not automatically given to everyone. To receive the Torah our ancestors had to sacrifice their old world, habits, passions, and thought patterns to draw closer to the Creator.