Best Mother in Law Ever: Naomi

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

The United States has had many War Brides as new immigrants to the USA.  During WWII, our soldiers brought back many.  How many of these young ladies would have decided to remain with their mother- in- laws if their husbands had suddenly passed way?  Would they have been happy to have left their family and native homeland and live the rest of their lives with their new mother-in-laws in a new land?  

Precise totals are hard to determine, but between the years 1942 and 1952, about one million American soldiers married foreign women from 50 different countries. As many as 100,000 war brides were British, 150,000 to 200,000 hailed from continental Europe, and another 16,000 came from Australia and New Zealand. There were brides from non-Allied countries, too. Military estimates indicate that 50,000 to 100,000 servicemen wed women from countries of the Far East, including Japan, and immigration records show that by 1950, 14,175 German brides of American servicemen had entered the United States.

It’s easy to imagine that young men experiencing lengthy deployments overseas would turn to available females for companionship. But what made so many foreign women enter relationships with American soldiers when their families and communities often disapproved of such unions? Their decisions often came down to proximity, opportunity, and generosity, or some combination of the three.

Over 3,000 years ago, Ruth had to decide what to do when her husband, Mahlon, an Israelite, died.  She was a Moabite, and remained with her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi and was to live in Bethlehem.                                   

Actually both sons of Naomi had died leaving two Moabite widows.  Orpah, wife of the 2nd son,  Chillion, decided to part from Naomi and Ruth.  They had all been living together for about 10 years in Moab.  Ruth's statement to Naomi has been remembered:  "

Where you go, I will go.  Where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people are my people, and your G-d is my G-d;  where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  Thus may Hashem do to me, and so may He do more, if anything but death separates me from you."

 Moab, a mountainous kingdom,  was directly East of Judah with the Dead Sea separating the two kingdoms.  Today, Moab has become Southern Transjordan. now just called Jordan. 

Moab was bound by the Heshbon River in the North, the Zered River in South, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to the West, and the Syrian Desert on the East.

Ruth gleaning in the field belonging to Boaz, helping Naomi. 

This has been going on for the past 6,000 years of personally taking wheat and grinding it into flour to make bread.  

Moabites were known to be kindred to the Israelites;  distant cousins.  They were traditionally descended from Lot, the nephew of Abraham.  So were the Ammonites, for that matter.  (Gen.19:37).  

Their language was akin to biblical Hebrew, so at that time they Mahlon and Ruth were speaking the very same language.  

This was the patriarchal era, and so they had settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim-people living at time of Abraham in Transjordania, moving near Jerusalem in the "Valley of Rephaim".   (or Emim Deut 2:10-11). (Gen. 14-5) 

Going back further to the actual Exodus period, part of this territory came under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon, but after his defeat by the Israelites, was occupied by them, and became an object of contention between Israel, Moab, and Ammon.  

Originally divided into small tribes, the Moabites united into a single kingdom, and it was their 2nd ruler, Balak, who summoned Balaam to curse the Israelites in the biblical history.  Under their King Eglon, the Moabites extended their territory to the Jericho region until Eglon was killed by Judge Ehud of Israel who was a Benjaminite.  Ehud saved Israel from the oppression of Eglon.  (Judg.3)                                 

Ruth and Naomi gleaning Boaz's field.  In those days, instead of going to the supermarket together, they really had to work for the wheat to grind into flour to make bread.  

As impoverished women in that ancient culture, Naomi and Ruth had few options for earning a living. That explains why Ruth sought to glean in the fields of Judah (2:1–2). According to the Mosaic law, when the Israelites harvested crops from their fields, they were to leave some plants at the edges and some of the gleanings, the bits of grain that the harvesters would drop or otherwise miss as they went through the fields. The purpose for this legislation was so that the poor and the sojourners traveling through the land could eat from what was left in the fields (Lev. 19:9–10).

Ruth set out and “happened” to come upon the portion of a field where Boaz, a “worthy man,” grew his crops (Ruth 2:1–3). One commentator notes that “worthy man” means something close to our conception of a knight—a valiant, generous individual inclined to protect the defenseless. And of course, in the view of Scripture, nothing ever occurs by happenstance (Prov. 16:33). "When the lot is cast in the lap, its entire judgment has been decided by Hashem (G-d)."

         Ruth meets Boaz in his field

The author is encouraging us to look beneath the explicit details of the account to see the hand of G-d’s providence. G-d brought Ruth to encounter Boaz, and as the story unfolds we will see why that was. It is an amazing story of two widows, young and old, living together with virtually no money, having to glean a field to acquire wheat to work with in order to have bread to eat and to be the ancestors of the King of their land, Israel.                                  

              David who had killed Goliath with a slingshot was used to killing wolves who preyed on his sheep.

Israel wasn't a nation until King Saul's day, and David, the descendant, had been Saul's armor-bearer at age 25. It was quite a feat for the shepherd that he had been. David was the best friend of Saul's son, Jonathan.   David had been an outstanding teen-ager by killing Goliath, the Philistine giant from Gath in a single combat.  That certainly was something on his resume.   

David conquered Moab, but Ruth lived way before that period.  Ruth's story was of a daughter-in-law living with her mother-in-law, Naomi in Bethlehem.  Naomi realized that Ruth was a young woman, and connected her to her kinsman, Boaz, a fairly wealthy man with property.  It was a good match, and so they married.  

Naomi at this time was a widow.  She had been married to Elimelech.  They had taken their sons, Mahlon and Chilion out of their home town, Bethlehem, and had gone to live in  Moab during a period of famine in Bethlehem.  Several years later, her husband and then her  sons, Mahlon and Chilion  died, either all 3 in battle or in some sort of disease.   That's when she took Ruth with her on her return to Bethlehem.  

"The Bible presents Naomi as the wife of Elimelech, who is related to Boaz. The midrash supplies additional genealogical details about Naomi and her family. According to the BT (Bava Batra 91a), Elimelech, Salmon (Boaz’s father), the anonymous redeemer, and Naomi’s father were brothers, all the sons of Nahshon son of Amminadab (who is explicitly mentioned at the end of the Book of Ruth as Salmon’s father). In other words, Elimelech was not only Naomi’s husband, but also her uncle and the uncle of Boaz. According to other exegetical sources, Elimelech was Boaz’s brother (Ruth Rabbah 6:6) or cousin (Ruth Zuta 2:1)."

As we see, Boaz, a relative, was close to her.  She must have had other relatives as well still living in Bethlehem. Ruth then met Boaz through Naomi and they married.   

Ruth and Boaz had a son, Obed. (Chronicles I 2:12) In the Hebrew Bible, Obed (Hebrew: עוֹבֵד, 'Ōḇēḏ, "worshipper") was a son of Boaz and Ruth, the father of Jesse, and the grandfather of David. 

Obed was the father of Jesse.  Jesse married Ithra's daughter and had 7 sons.  David was the youngest of them. Ruth was the great grandmother of King David, and Naomi would have been David's great great grandmother.  David's father was an Israelite and his mother was a Moabite.  About 50% of his genes came from his father and about 50% from his mother.

 David became the King of Israel and reigned from 1000 to 960 BCE. and of course was born in Bethlehem.  I do believe he is still more famous than his famous son, King Solomon.  David was special.  (Dah-veed, Melech Yisrael, khi, khi, vik eye ay-noo) David Melech Yisrael is a Jewish song about David, an important king of ancient Israel. Its lyrics are simple and consist of only five words which are repeated many times.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AQHUP5VQcE  It's fitting that we can sing about David since he was so musical, himself, playing the harp-like instrument for King Saul and singing to him to ease Saul's pain.  

Jews believe that a Messiah will come (different concept from Christian messiah).  The Jewish Messiah will be a human leader, but a descendant of David who would break the alien yoke on the Jews and establish a golden age.  After 70 CE's destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, , an ingathering of Israel would take place under the scion of David's house who would be the Lord's anointed.  General Bar Kokhba was acclaimed the Messiah in the year 131 CE, but turned out to incorrect.  He had almost filled the bill, but things went from bad to worse.  Christians are waiting for Jesus to return but Jews continue to wait.  I note that it's 217 more years till the Jewish year of 6,000.  That should be a noteworthy year.  Right now, things are bad enough in the world.  Can it get worse and need the Messiah to come and save the planet?  

Resource

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/naomi-midrash-and-aggadah

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obed_(biblical_figure)#:~:text=In%20the%20Hebrew%20Bible%2C%20Obed,and%20the%20Gospel%20of%20Luke.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8vLjPctrcU  wheat to bread

http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/war-brides/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amminadab#:~:text=History,Israelite%20exile%20in%20Ancient%20Egypt.