>> Torah portion

PARTY ON,

'Immodest' Herome

Parshat Naso: Numbers 4:21-7:89;
Judges 13:2-13:25.

T

his week's reading of Naso
describes the sota, the woman
who acts immodestly. At the
very least, she sequesters herself alone
with a man despite the fact that her
husband warned her against seeing
him. She, therefore, undergoes the test
of the bitter waters.
However, during the spring holiday
period, we saw two other women —
great heroines of our people,
Esther (Purim) and Ruth
(Shavuot) — who also
commit immodest acts for
which they are ultimately
praised and through which
salvation and redemption
are brought about. Let us
revisit their stories to see
how they differ from that of
the sota.
Both heroines compro-
mise their modesty and
perhaps even their chastity,
Esther with Ahasuerus in the palace
of the king, and Ruth with Boaz on
the threshing floor in Efrat. Moreover,
both of these outstanding women hail
from gentile countries of exile and one
even from gentile stock: Esther from
Persia and Ruth from Moab.
But here is where the comparisons
end. Although each of these two
women undergoes a profound, existen-
tial change, a switch in direction with
profound ramifications, they part com-
pany in very significant ways.
Esther seems to have been an
assimilating Jewess who was eager to
become the Queen of Persia. She used
her Persian name — from the pagan
goddess Astarte — rather than her
Hebrew name Hadassah; she is taken
for the nighttime beauty contest and
undergoes a 12-month preparatory
beauty treatment without protest. She
even concurs with her cousin Mordecai
not to reveal her national heritage (lest
she be rejected on the grounds that she
is Jewish).
It is only when Mordecai publicly
demonstrates in front of the king's gate
in sackcloth and ashes against Haman's
decree to annihilate the Jews of Persia,
bidding Esther to reveal her Jewishness
to the king, that Esther puts her life
on the line. By doing so, she becomes
one of the greatest penitents of Jewish
history.
The Jews in Shushan gather for three
days of prayer and fasting; Esther per-
suades the king to allow the Jews to
protect themselves during the Persian

pogrom" against them; Haman and
his sons are killed and the Jewish com-
munity survives.
Esther was born of Jewish parents
but married the gentile Ahasuerus.
Ruth was a Moabite, she followed
Naomi to the Land of Israel, chang-
ing geographically and existentially by
converting to Judaism. Her ancestor
Lot had defected from Abraham when
he left Israel and moved to
Sodom, now she repaired
this by becoming a second
Abraham.
In the deepest sense,
Ruth entered Abraham's
"Covenant between the
Parts" (Genesis 15). God
promised Abraham that
he would be an eternal
nation, his seed would
never be destroyed and his
descendants would live in
their homeland, Israel, and
through this nation, "all the families
of the Earth will be blessed" (Genesis
12:1). This is more than the survival
of the Jews in Persia, this is world
redemption.
Hence, Naomi sends Ruth to the
threshing floor to seduce Boaz, to bear
his Jewish seed, just as Tamar, the
widowed daughter-in-law of Naomi's
ancestor Judah, the son of Jacob, had
seduced her father-in-law in order to
bear his seed (Genesis 38).
But Ruth is not satisfied. She under-
stands that Jewish eternity is linked to
two crucial components: Jewish seed in
the Land of Israel. She doesn't consum-
mate their relationship on the thresh-
ing floor; she asks him to "redeem" her,
to buy back Naomi's familial inheri-
tance and to marry her "in accordance
with the law of Moses and Israel" so
that her descendants can be Jews in the
Jewish homeland.
Through their actions, Esther suc-
ceeded in gaining a respite in per-
secution, which is the most we can
hope for in galut (exile). Ruth suc-
ceeded in entering Jewish eternity,
the Abrahamic Covenant, and, due to
her compassionate righteousness and
lovingkindness toward Naomi, she
became the herald of Jewish redemp-
tion. Her journey leads to the day
when the nations of the world will join
the family of Abraham, father of a mul-
titude of nations.

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May 16 • 2013

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