Ruth and the Sense of Self: Midrash and Difference

(59.) Judges 12:8-10 and Rashi, Radak.

(60.) Yalkut Shimoni, 508; cited in Bachrach, p. 84. Also Ruth Rabbah 6,4.

(61.) Ruth Rabbah 2:14 ("Megillat Ruth lama nichtiva? I'hodia matan s'ch'aran shel gomlei chasadim").

(62.) Many commentators point out that Ruth was herself a Moabite princess, and so becoming the matriarch of the Davidic dynasty does not really raise her social standing, but rather simply restores it to what it originally was. (cf. Judges 3:20; Rashi).

(63.) There is an important religious basis for that statement. Ethics of the Fathers, an early Tanaitic compilation of ethical thought, does not tell us to abnegate ourselves before other people, but only before God (Avot 2:4: "Batel r'tzoncha mipnei r'tzono"). There is an important difference. An action that involves self-abnegation is not Khesed and is certainly not fulfilling God's will: God created all people, and did not create some who, by virtue of certain characteristics, are fated to render themselves nothing.

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