Ruth, the rabbis, and Jewish peoplehood

Abstract

...In this chapter, I will briefly consider why early rabbinic sources preserve Ruth’s status as a perpetual outsider rather than as an assimilated convert, and I will argue that the rabbinic insistence that Ruth remain a Moabite likely reflects a universalist outlook on the part of the Rabbis. By keeping Ruth a Moabite and yet upholding her position as a pious convert, the Rabbis portray David as descending from both an Israelite and a non-Israelite, which in turn may justify the Rabbis’ vision of a universal messianic rule overseen by the descendants of David’s family. Rabbinic authors of legends about Ruth may have also been aware of her prominent role in early Christian sources, which portray her as either a progenitor of Jesus or as a symbol of the Church. Rather than insisting on Ruth’s Jewishness to counter Christian interpretations, as one might expect, the Rabbis affirm Ruth’s status as a gentile in order to conscientiously paint gentiles into the rabbinic portrait of Israelite tradition and to promote a universalist worldview that presumes an interactive dynamic in which the fate of Israel affects and interacts with the fate of all of humankind. Finally, the rabbinic acclamation of a pious Moabite woman would have served to combat accusations of Jewish insularity that were circulating in the Greco-Roman world. (from Introduction)