A message for Shavuot.
In 2011, under the mentorship of Professor Susan Handelman, an emulated scholar and author, I submitted my MA thesis to Bar Ilan University. Its title: “Performing Ruth: Dramatic Exegesis in Religious Women’s Theater Groups, With an Emphasis on the Character of Naomi.”
I dedicate this updated excerpt from my conclusion of that thesis to those women who do not have biological or adopted children, but who have given tirelessly to others — relatives, students, friends, community members ––who, in their own way, have become their “children.”
Samuel the prophet, to whom the writing of the Megillah (Scroll) of Ruth is ascribed, wrote: “Naomi took the child and held him in her bosom and became his foster mother. And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi!” They named him Oved; he was the father of Yishai, the father of David. [Translation adapted from sefaria.org.il.]
I believe that part of the message in the Megillah of Ruth lies in the fact that Ruth’s son, Oved, is not the flesh and blood of Naomi, yet her neighbors describe him as such. Indeed, biblical teacher and scholar Rabbanit Golda Warhaftig offers that, in the translation, she would add the words “as if” so it would read: “[It is as if] a son is born to Naomi!”
What this indicates is that what we leave behind in this world— what we give to this world— is not just a matter of biology. Naomi is a facilitator; no magic in the world will turn her into the biological mother or grandmother of Oved, who engenders the Davidic line leading to the Messiah.
Like Job, Naomi — by extension — achieves a new family of sorts after tragedy, but they can never replace the loved ones she has lost, just as the Jewish people, after pogroms, the Shoah, or terror, move on with spirit and create new families, but those who they have lost are not forgotten. They will always be backstage; the underpinning of sorrow remains.
What is the role of the mother-facilitator?
The renowned Torah scholar, Nehama Leibowitz, who I was blessed to have as a teacher, in her book, “Studies in Bereshit [Genesis],” cites the Akedat Yitzhak, a commentator who explains the reasons for Eve having two names: Isha [woman] and Chava [Eve], the Isha referring to her ability to “understand and become wise with words of intelligence and kindness” and the Chava referring to her biologically giving “life” (being the “eim kol hai” — “Mother of all Living ”) to children, which the Akedat Yitzhak calls “the lesser of the two roles.” Or, as it says in Sifrei Va-et’hanan, “You are children to the Lord your God” (Devarim 14:1), means that “[Your] students are called [your] children.”
We are all merely facilitators, whether biological, spiritual, intellectual or national. Religious women’s theater [the main theme of my thesis] is mushrooming throughout the world. They have picked up their tambourines, and they won’t be putting them back down.
The message of Naomi is that whether her goal is to facilitate the achieving of personal resolution, tribal resolution, religious resolution or family coexistence, life is extremely imperfect and challenging, and the goal of the individual must be to overcome adversity and sorrow to achieve meaning for himself and for others, whoever those others may be.
A different mother figure would be that of Deborah, who also had no children, but who was called “eim b’Yisrael” (“Mother in Israel”). Her persona was not one of overcoming despair, but of aggressive national action, leadership and victory.
Are today’s mothers of Israel Naomis or are they Deborahs?
Perhaps both. But that is a topic for another day.
The writer is an award-winning journalist and theater director, the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com, and the co-author of biblical operettas on Ruth (“Ruth & Naomi in the Fields of Bethlehem”) and Deborah, among others, for Raise Your Spirits Theatre.
