Shavuot and shalom bayit

The holiday of Shavuot marks several events. It marked the start of the harvest and it’s also the time that the Torah was offered to the Jewish people and unanimously accepted.

One of the most beautiful and unique moments in our history is that instance when we all answered a question with one opinion and one voice. We all committed ourselves to Torah.

In many instances, the revelation at Sinai and the acceptance of the Torah is likened to a marriage ceremony. We stood at Sinai as a bride stands under her chupah with her groom. The Torah was offered as the marriage contract, and we accepted it, just as a bride is offered her ketubah and must accept. She walks around her groom seven times to weave their souls together, and the name of this holiday is Shavuot, which means “weeks,” units of seven days. There are many parallels that build the image of a union of intimacy and legal bond, which constitutes both a marriage and the Jewish covenant with God.

But there’s also a beautiful subtlety that exists within the texts we read, as well as an often-forgotten detail of Jewish history.

During the holiday of Shavuot, we read the book of Ruth. It’s the story of a daring and compassionate Moabite woman named Ruth who bonds with her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi, and ultimately becomes the first official convert to Judaism. Through the story of Ruth, the rabbis will subsequently build a formalized model of conversion.

An interesting theme also weaves through the text of Ruth concerning the women’s loss of the men in their lives and the unusual circumstances that bring about a union between Ruth and Naomi’s distant relative by marriage, Boaz. The fact that Ruth comes from the nation of Moab,  along with many parallel and unusual words in the text, subtly leads us back to the book of Genesis and the origins of the nation of Moab. These origins lie within the story of Sodom and the family of Lot.

Lot is Abraham’s nephew and the family’s adopted son. He is raised by Abraham and Sarah and later chooses to leave the family and establish himself in Sodom. We meet him again when God sends angels to destroy Sodom and save Lot and his family. Only Lot and two of his daughters survive and are living secluded within a cave. The daughters, believing that the world has been destroyed and that there are no men left, decide to do something that’s unfathomable. They intoxicate their father and lie with him so as to continue the human race. Each becomes pregnant and delivers a boy, one named Ammon and one named Moab.

At the conclusion of all these events, Abraham moves away, and the sages conclude that Abraham distances himself from his son, Lot, and the family splits up as a result of these women.

Ruth is a descendant of the nation of Moab, the nation that began within that cave. We are aware that we read the book of Ruth on Shavuot, because it’s the moment when every Jew accepts Torah, whether they’re a Jew by birth or a Jew by choice, and Ruth gives us the model of a Jew by choice. But there is also the subtlety of family images that wind through Shavuot – the “marriage” of the Jewish people and God, as well as the bonding of Ruth and Naomi and the unusual circumstances of the marriage of Ruth and Boaz.

The text informs us that Ruth, the Moabite woman, will ultimately give us the Davidic line. King David will come from Ruth’s grandchild, and we are struck by the irony that the line of David, the messianic line, results from what happened in that cave.

But the historic detail that’s often missed is that a descendant of Ammon, the other son from the cave, will likewise play a crucial role. Naamah, the Ammonite, will marry King Solomon, David’s son, and it’s through that marriage that the messianic line will continue. It’s hardly a coincidence that two women, each descendants of the daughters of Lot, are crucial to the Jewish messianic legacy.

By bringing these female descendants back into the narrative of Jewish history, the original family of Abraham, Sarah and their son, Lot, are finally reconciled. The value of shalom bayit, peace within our home, is such a core value in Judaism that we are subtly taught that no family rift should ever be left unhealed, that peace and reconciliation must be achieved even if it takes generations.

At Shavuot, we celebrate the commitment to marriage, Torah and Jewish unity, and by remembering Ruth and Naamah, we understand how important peace is to bond these elements together.

As the midrash says: “The Holy One said: since Israel has learned to hate strife and love peace, so that they are now encamped as a single camp, the time has come for Me to give them My Torah.”