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Editorial
The Editors

The Book of Ruth is a superb piece of story-telling. Most scholars think this literary form first came to birth in Israel and at an early date. Jews read this book once a year at the festival of Shavuot but as far as we know passages from it are not read in the Sunday liturgy of the Churches. One reason for this could be that (in Goethe's words) this is "the most beautiful little whole in the Old Testament" and should be read only in its entirety. In any case this story can bring delight to readers of all generations. We make no apology for choosing it as the focus of this issue of SIDIC. But is it more than an enjoyable piece of literature for us today? Certainly it is.
The setting of the story (the period of the Judges) is a long time away from the end of the second millenium CE, yet certain conditions of life and the ensuing problems are features of today as of yesterday - famine, emigration, immigration, return, poverty. The gap between rich and poor grows wider, the problems of feeding the hungry, overcoming poverty, remain with us. Could the solutions in the book of Ruth also become ours? Ruth, a young widow from a despised foreign people, devotes herself with loyalty, faithfulness and love to her mother-in-law. God does not intervene, "out of the blue" as it were, with miracles, but his presence permeates everything. He acts in this story within the ordinary happenings with a hidden providence, for a definite purpose, which is Redemption. Laments as well as Blessings are addressed to God. The divine action is within and through human beings and particularly the women who, full of initiative, move events towards the redemption of the poor and to the birth of the anointed king David, of whose house, according to the Gospels, Jesus Christ was born.
The response of faith in the midst of hardship which permeates the Book of Ruth is the outcome of the experience of the Exodus in which God had showed himself a Redeemer, and of Sinai when the Covenant was established between God and the people. This is the heritage passed on to Jewish and Christian communities today. The first commandment then as now is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might". The way this is to be done was spelled out in the Law. In the Book of Ruth particular mitzvoth are carried out: the corners of the field are left ungleaned for the poor; it is family relationships that provide for the security and the dignity of the individual. The word "redeemer" in this story is used of human beings who redeem each other: "the wing of God" and the "wing of Boaz" both protect Ruth. What a great ideal for any society!
The article of Elena Giannarelli shows how the Fathers of the Church understood the book of Ruth. It is interesting and instructive to see how the early Christian communities interpreted this text and how they identified the biblical events and personalities with different realities. At the same time we see clearly how the use of allegory as the primary means of understanding the text led to opposing the New and the Old Covenant. The latter was robbed of its own validity, and denigrated in order to highlight the superiority of Christ and the Church. Fortunately there is a different climate and a different hermeneutic today. The article by Benoíï Standaert, a Benedictine monk, strikingly illustrates this. He found Jewish commentary the most enlightening for understanding the Book of Ruth. The "permanent value of the Old Testament... which is not wiped out by the later interpretations of the New" (cf. Nostra Aetate 4, Dei Verbum 14-15) thus becomes clear.
The short article by Moshe Kohn suggests that the main theme of Ruth is hessed and the point of Torah is hessed (loving kindness) and loving kindness will bring about the final redemption.
"The Scroll of Ruth is full of loving kindness and the Torah is full of loving kindness as it is said: «A torah of loving kindness is on her tongue, Prov. 31:26". Lekan Tov on Ruth.