To the casual obsrever, this blog might appear a tad late, but in fact it's all part of a carefully designed plan to coincide with the rather lovely festival of Shavuot commencing tonight - the feast of weeks, the party of revelation.
I like Shavuot.
I'm gonna stay up all night with lovely people, and soak up some beautiful Torah.
Here's something I prepared earlier on the subject...
Tonight (Sunday night) we start the festival of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and for me, these questions largely define this month…
What does it mean to receive a revelation?
Why does our tradition compare the giving of the Torah to a wedding?
No answers here but a few possible thoughts towards some…
On this festival we read the story of Ruth, one of the shortest, and most beautiful books of the Bible.
It's essentially a love story, and it teaches us that to receive something worth receiving, and to really grow, we must be prepared to go beyond what appears to be in our own narrow self-interest.
The whole story is about this, on so many levels - here's just a few examples…
Ruth is a Moabite woman who insists on staying with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and on taking on her customs, and joining her people, even without knowing the details of what she is accepting on herself. She acts simply out of love and duty, even to the point of discarding her own prospects.
Boaz, the man who finds and weds Ruth, is prepared to risk his own reputation to protect hers – in the touching central scene of the book, he tells her to stay the night in his place, for her sake, even though they have not yet received a legal sanction for their relationship.
This suggests Boaz's chutzpah – one of the meanings of his name - that most Semitic quality of going beyond what is considered respectable to do what we simply must!
Boaz also uses the name of G!d unconventionally to teach people to respect each other's divinity, by the simple but revolutionary step of initiating a custom of saying "G!d is with you" as a greeting –
This was an emergency measure, which he realised was necessary because the same people who were failing to respect or care for the stranger (Ruth!) were in danger of succumbing to hatred and conflict amongst themselves, which is very much the context of this story (see the Judges 19 & 20! And cf the story of Sodom in Genesis 19 – where Ruth's ancestors fled!! All these stories are woven together by key words and images…)
When Ruth gives birth to her and Boaz's son, he is promptly given to Naomi, as if he actually is hers. Ruth herself is notably ego-less throughout the story – there never appears the pronoun meaning "to-her". She only acts for the sake of what is right, not for her own sake.
Through Ruth's loving and noble actions, (and Boaz's) the entire city she was initially ignored by becomes a place of community, of shared growth and learning, that ultimately produces King David, our model not only of leadership but of Malchut – synergy – who's very name means Beloved…
Happy Revelations!
Chag Sameach
Daniel
PS this is based largely on the teachings of Rav Matis Weinberg, available to listen to and read at http://www.thelivingtree.org
1 comment:
Great Blog.
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