What you missed…

We had lots of neat discussion tonight.  The best Erev Shavu’ot I’ve had.  We did a review of the Torah portions, a brief Hebrew overview and read Ruth.  There were a few things I searched down as a result of our discussion on the Megillat Ruth.    I’ve listed some them below with what I was able to search out this evening/morning:

Q1 What’s the deal with the “uncovering the feet” in chapter 3?

For this phrase there is a good deal of crazy ideas.  In my opinion, much of them can be disregarded because the end up making Ruth (and Naomi) a woman of not deserving the praise Boaz bestows upon her in chapter 2.  Moreover, Boaz does not interpret Ruth’s action as anything other than something to be praised, for when he discovers her and hears her request he responds with “May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter.  You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.” (v10)  From this, I take the actions of Ruth (by instructions from Naomi) to be as a request for Boaz to marry her.  She was requesting Boaz to marry her and be her kinsman redeemer.

Q2. Was Oved the son of Boaz, or Elimelech?

Deut. 25:5   If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. 6 Then the first son she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel.

So, I take this to mean that the first born son of a “kinsman redeemer” marriage bears the name of the widow’s first husband.  Subsequent sons would be the kinsman’s sons.  So, Oved carried Elimelech’s name.  This seems borne out in the text in 4:16-17 which indicates the son had been born to Naomi.
How then can Oved be considered the son of Boaz by Matthew in his account of Yeshua’s genealogy?  The best answer I could find was that Boaz only fathered one son – Oved.  In this case Oved would inherit both Boaz’s and Elimelech’s property.  This seems in line with Jewish sources (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3444-boaz) which suggest Boaz was 80 years old when he married Ruth, and died the day after his wedding…most unfortunate.  So Oved would inherit both Elimelech and Boaz’s inheritance.

Q3. We mentioned earlier in the evening the תּוֹלְדוֹת (toldot) or generations.  It is also interesting to note that this word is used in Ruth 4:18

Ruth 4:18-22   Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,  Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,  Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,  Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,  Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

What is peculiar is the way it is spelt – תּוֹלְדוֹת.  This form is first found in Genesis 2:4, describing the ‘generations’ of the heavens and earth.  However, after the fall of man, the spelling is changed to exclude the final vav: תּוֹלדֹת.  It seems that the ו is missing until Ruth joins herself to Israel and has a son, the grandfather of King David.  The Midrash Rabbah Exodus 30:3 suggest this shows that the offspring of Ruth  -the Messiah – will undue the curse of mortality invoked by Adam’s sin.

It was a great time tonight.  Thanks to all who participated.