How can we use the biblical Ruth to empower young women?

The biblical Ruth, about whom we read on Shavuot, can serve as a prototype for female agency. Ruth is the queen of agency. She conducts her life from a position of freedom, deliberately makes her plans, and doesn’t let anyone block her way.

Ruth’s determination and assertiveness create a new future for herself and the Jewish people. When her world crashes after her family becomes penniless and her husband dies, she wastes no time and decides to join her mother-in-law, Naomi. She knows she must choose life in order to go on living.

The Book of Ruth also tells us, “She saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her” (Ruth, 1:18). With initiative, boldness and resilience, Ruth chooses to connect and join, to become part of the collective of Am Yisrael, the people of Israel.

When she hears that Naomi has a relative, “a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth” (ibid, 2:1) who owns fields of wheat and barley, she sees this as a window of opportunity. Perhaps it will allow her to put poverty and hunger behind her. Perhaps she can fulfill the mission of building the kingdom.

Ruth goes out to the fields, focused on her target, hoping that “him in whose sight I shall find grace” (ibid, 2:2). Openly, she declares she wants to find favor in his eyes. When she comes to the fields she looks around and quickly reads the map, and looks for those in control, the ones with power.

In that chauvinistic, hierarchic world, she decides to follow the gleaners. When Boaz arrives, he notices her immediately and asks, “Whose damsel is this?” (ibid, 2:5). A young man replies that Ruth is a Moabite woman who came with Naomi from the fields in Moab. Boaz is immediately attracted to her, and wants to ensure that he won’t lose her. He has also identified an opportunity, and tells her not to go to elsewhere, but to stay with his young female workers.

With her feminine intuition, Ruth knows her mission to get Boaz attracted to her has succeeded. But to be on the safe side, she fine-tunes the point and asks him, “Why have I found grace in thine eyes... seeing I am a stranger?” (ibid, 2:10).

Boaz confirms that he likes her because of her gracious behavior toward her mother-inlaw. Boaz’s “politically correct answer” sounds a bit self-righteous, and could have made Ruth suspicious. She needs to be sure her task is completed and she can take the next step forward.

She remarks, “Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens” (ibid, 2:13).

THIS IS a critical point in the dynamic and the interaction between them. Ruth needs to be completely sure that after the first romantic days, Boaz won’t treat her as just “one of the servants.” She’s no fool. She’s gently educating Boaz and explicitly saying how she wants him to behave toward her in the future, once romance is established.

She is setting out the guidelines upfront, demanding a relationship of respect toward her, even when the first masculine enthusiasm has died down.

Thrilled, Ruth goes home. With her mother-in-law’s female intuition, Naomi knows that something is up, and asks Ruth what happened.

Ruth tells her that Boaz said she should stay with the men. “He said unto me also, ‘Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest’” (ibid, 2:21). Naomi thinks that it’s basically unreasonable, and that Ruth is fantasizing because of her

Moabite cultural mentality.

With compassion and respect, Naomi takes her through a spiritual-educational process. She does not humiliate her, just disregards her words. She recommends that Ruth stay with Boaz’s women workers, and Ruth seems to obediently do just that.

“So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest” (ibid, 2:23).

At this stage of the plot, Boaz, Naomi and Ruth conduct an unspoken discussion of boundaries. They are arranging their reciprocal relationships, setting clear boundaries, and defining their expectations from each other.

Naomi grasps the inherent romantic potential in that relationship. She suggest going to the fields, and indeed, “She went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her” (ibid 3:6). Ruth seems to agree with Naomi’s affectionate words, but in fact she is actually planning her own scenario. She goes to the field, lies in wait for Boaz, and wins his heart. And after that stormy night, they marry, Boaz dies and Ruth bears his son.

Throughout the entire story, Ruth demonstrates resourcefulness, initiative and agency. She has fulfilled her dream, become a mother, and performed her mission with amazing spiritual powers. Although she seems to be obeying her mother-in-law, she plans her steps carefully, structuring them to match the exact way she wants the scenario to develop, always in absolute control of events.

Ruth is known as the founding mother of the kingdom of the Jewish people. She’s also the founder of Jewish female agency. She’s opinionated, target-focused, and achieves her goals. She is a feminist role model with unusual self-awareness. She shares her achievements with Naomi, allowing her to feel that she’s “in charge.”

But it is Ruth who chooses and shapes the way she reaches her goal. The foundations of Ruth’s story and the impressive way she functions can help construct an intervention program for young women’s agency.

Generally speaking, women are not born with agency but have to learn how to gain it. Several factors are needed for agency: socialization, defining role-models, and practical instructions on how to implement change.

The writer holds the UNESCO Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace, and heads The Sal Van Gelder Center for Holocaust Research & Instruction at Bar-Ilan University’s Churgin School of Education.