In the Book of Ruth, Naomi returns to Yehudah from Moab with nothing. No husband, no sons, no future. She tells the women of Bethlehem to stop calling her Naomi – the pleasant one – and call her Mara, bitter. Her claim to hope is couched between words of hopelessness: I have no future.

But on a threshing floor in the middle of the night, the stories of Ruth and Naomi join in a common destiny.

Ruth goes down, uncovers Boaz’s feet, lies down. Boaz wakes in the dark, startled. In the morning he sends her home before anyone can see her. When she returns, Naomi asks: Who are you? She looks directly at her, knows her voice, has known her for years. The question is not about recognition, but transformation.

What happened on the threshing floor? The rabbis identify it as the place David will designate for the Temple. The story of the girl from Moab and covenantal history intersect there, in the dark.

When Naomi arrives in Bethlehem, she demands a radical, tragic renaming: Do not call me Naomi, Pleasant; call me Mara, Bitter. Referring to her time in Moab, she refers to God by the name the patriarchs knew – El Shaddai, the Almighty, the God of nature and power. But broken on her return, she uses two names against herself in a single, devastating breath: Hashem has testified........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)