Ruth's Truth for the New Moon of Kindness

Do you want need some joy? Want to upgrade kindness and generosity? Today is a good day for all those feelings.

A new moon is rising in the night tonight - the moon of joy and generosity. Even during this difficult time for so many of us - this new moon that leads us into spring reminds us to go above and beyond business as usual, to reach beyond the basics, lean into love, try harder, make others feel cared for and hope that we too will be seen, loved, happy and held. It doesn’t have to be so hard..

On the Jewish calendar today is the new moon of Adar - the month that calls on us to increase joy - as much as we can. On the Muslim calendar - today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan - the blessing for this month is Ramadan Kareem - a month of generosity.

What does all this have to do with the Scroll of Ruth - the story we are in the middle of on our Below the Bible Belt journey?

Ruth’s truth is that it’s all about love, and all about being kind and generous.

The story revolves around several themes and has a few agendas but the main message is that by showing up with kindness for each other we move the world in ways that far transcend our little gestures, transform misery into joy, make life better in small and big ways.

Ruth is a young widow who against the odds does not go back to her family home in Moab but sticks to her mother in law as both of them return to Bethlehem to seek the support of the community.

Ruth’s Moabite identity is not just that of a foreigner in the Judah of the time of judges - she is the daughter of enemies. Imagine a refugee, asylum seeker in your land from a nation that’s been suspect and hated for generations?

Yet she says yes - because of love and kindness to Naomi. And the man who will become her hero, Boaz, pays back her kindness with generosity of his own.

Hesed is the word most often used here - sometimes translated as love and sometimes as love that goes beyond the norms.

Ruth the Moabite will become the grandmother of King David - perhaps the whole point of this scroll. Many have pointed out the royal lineage of Israel - leading all the way to the future messianic times - begins with love, and kindness - between two people from foreign nations who were at war for generations. The generosity of spirit that both Ruth and Boaz exhibit becomes the breaker of old wounds and the birth of new bonds.

There’s much more to this short dramatic story - just four chapters long - that we won’t get into here. Were Ruth and Naomi lovers? Queer readers believe that they were. Did Ruth exercise her agency or was she a pawn in a patriarchal system where women are property and she simply learned how to play the game to her advantage, no matter the price?

The layers matter as does the privilege of critical reading and questioning the meaning of this ancient scroll. Yet on this day, as the new moon rises, mid war and in the middle of a terrible time of so much hostile violence against immigrants and asylum seekers, an attack on women’s bodies and on all the ways we want to live and love, it’s important to remember that the generosity that goes beyond borders and norms to see each other’s humanity and love each other as hard as we can even despite long held grudges and hatred -- is right here in the Bible - an essential life lesson, a virtue, a value, the gift of the ancients to our struggling and painful days.

Ramadan kareem - a sacred month of reflection and connection, generosity and hope. Chodesh Tov! A new month of dedication to what matters most, and to taking off the hardened masks that so often wear to reveal the loving humanity and kindness with which we were all born.

May this month bring hope and healing, peace and joy, good news to us all.

Thank you for joining me below the bible belt.

Shabbat Shalom.