Returning to a Place You've Never Been 2

Then she arose along with her daughters-in-law to return (vatashav) from the fields of Moab, because while in the territory of Moab she had heard that the Lord had paid attention to his people by providing food for them.                                           Ruth 1:6

            The sixth verse of Ruth marks the turning point in the narrative, with Naomi’s decision to return to the Land after a decade full of travail.

            Without question, the “guiding word” of the chapter is the root word “shov” (return) which appears twelve times [verses 6,7,8,10,11,12,15 (twice),16,21,22 (twice)], seven times in connection with Naomi’s return to the Land, the remaining five times in Naomi’s pleas for her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers, their nation and their gods.

            Alshikh demonstrates, based on verse 7, “they went along the road to return (lashuv) to the land of Judah” that not only Naomi returned, but Ruth of Moab, “who had never been to the Land of Israel” as well “returned” to the Holy Land. Alshikh offers a kabbalistic explanation of this anomaly: since Ruth had a connection to the spirit of her late husband, who was from the Land of Judah, it is appropriate to refer to her return.

            The end result of Ruth’s journey to the Land of Judah was redeeming the fields which had belonged to Elimelech and his sons and to “redeem” (= marry) Ruth, the wife of Mahlon, a procedure similar to the levirate marriage. The Torah expresses the purpose of the levirate marriage: “The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel.” [Deuteronomy 25:6]

            Based upon Alshikh’s commentary on Genesis, it is possible to understand the concept of Ruth “returning” to a place to which she had never been. In the Covenant Between the Pieces, God informed Abraham that “the fourth generation will return here.” [Genesis 15:16] However, that generation was born in Egyptian exile and had never been to the Land. So how can God speak of that generation returning?

            Alshikh answers this question thus:

The use of the word “return” hints that the fourth generation, which had never been in the Land of Israel, will have the spiritual quality of realizing that the roots of their souls are in the Land of the Living (the Heavenly Land), which is opposite the earthly Land of Israel. Thus, even those who were born outside the Land, when they come to her are as if returning, as Scripture states: “It shall be said to Zion this man and that man (ish v'ish) were born in her.” [Psalms 87:5]

            Indeed, our Sages understood the verse from Psalms to mean “this man who was born in Zion and this man who yearns to see her.” [Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 75a] One who truly sees himself as having been born spiritually in the Holy Land indeed “returns” to a place he had never been!

            Based upon this insight, we can understand that Ruth the Moabite, when she came to join the nation of Israel, indeed returned to the nation’s spiritual quarry.