RUTH (June/July 2011)

Classes at Congregation Eitz Chayim
The book of Ruth poses hard questions about the relationship between humanity and God, and between one human and another.  Like Job, Naomi agonizes over being abandoned by God, even afflicted by God.  How can this be?  What does it mean that God can afflict human beings?  Why should it be so?  A consideration of issues of identity (both loss and change), redemption, affliction by YHWH, the role of women in transforming society, love between women, Naomi as a Jobian figure, the significance of the book of Ruth in the biblical narrative, the place of both Ruth and Boaz in the genealogy of King David