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 | The story of Ruth unfolds against the background of the barley harvest in ancient Judea...
It appears that in biblical times, lineage of a family went through the father. Ruth never officially converted and yet her child was Jewish, as was king David.. When did religion through the mother's lineage, for Jews, begin as in the present time?
Thank you for an excellent presentation that increased my knowledge of our great religion and traditions.
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Esther,
I don't know when the rule from patrilineal to matrilineal lineage changed.
Although it isn't stated in the text, it is implicit that Ruth did convert, either before/during her marriage or sometime after her entreaty to Naomi.
If you look at the Art Scroll version of Ruth, the commentary on pp. 80-81 details the Midrash and other commentaries of the replies that Naomi made to each of Ruth's statements (e.g., My daughter, Jewish girls don't live in a house without a mezuzzah", and Ruth's responses to her.
As stated in the Chabad article above:
Ruth is the paradigm of the ger tzeddek, the "righteous convert" who with great sacrifice forsakes her or his former life and identity to be born anew as a Jew....
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There's no reason to believe that things ever changed. The Talmud records variant opinions on thousands of subjects---there's hardly an issue that doesn't have more than one opinion. However, concerning the law that Jewishness follows your mother there is no dispute. It's hard to imagine that there was any change in the law with no trace of dispute.
If Ruth converted, why is it not mentioned in the text? Quite simply, because the author felt it unnecessary to write that she had to accept to behave like a Jew and immerse in water in order to marry. If I wrote today that you went to Yale and received a doctorate, would I have to write that you wrote a thesis and successfully defended it?
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Great question Ester, I would like to know too! Perhaps a Rabbi, scholar, or
sage, will provide an answer for us.
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im doing a report on ruth and ive learned sooo much about her now she is one of my fav bible characters
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How could the sons of Naomi and Boaz hinself marry Moabite women when the Torah forbids
any Moabite from becoming Jewish for eternity? See Deuteronomy 23:4
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Good question, please see How did Naomi's sons marry non-Jewish Moabite women? 680928
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Did not Boaz have an obligation to Orpah?
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Ruth was a Moabites, a descendant of Lot. as she says to Naomi...your people are my people, your G-d my G-d. she is under the covenant but has been lost in a foreign land, so to speak. she is the sister (bride) under the law. the Mother is called back to her original home to avoid the famine...for no good has come to her in Moab...she has lost everything having left the southern 'blessed' kingdom of Judah away from G-d, and takes the daughter in Law who in her heart must go with her. home is Bethlehem....where a consciousness/ kinsmen (symbolic of the brother/sister of Abraham and Sarah/ Issac and Rebekkah, Solomon in his Song of Songs, the sister bride -- Adam and Eve) Redeemer awaits --Boaz,
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Can Gentiles convert to Judaism today? Could Ruth do so then? Did Ruth convert by her pledge to Naomi, in Ruth 1:16-18, or by her marriage to Boaz, or was she accepted on other grounds such as her ancestor Lot?
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