Shavuot: Remembering Sinai and Foreign Workers

Shavuot is a much neglected holiday. Mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a harvest festival and enjoying equal status with Passover and Sukkot, Shavuot is of shorter duration than her sister festivals and has fewer distinctive rituals; as a result, observance of the holiday has tended to be minimal.

Nonetheless, it is undergoing something of a revival.

Since the destruction of the Second Temple, Shavuot has been identified as the time at which the revelation of the Torah to the Jewish people occurred on Mt. Sinai. With the growth of serious Torah study by Jews, it has become an occasion not only to pray in the synagogue and to read the Biblical account of Moses receiving the law, but also to engage in all-night study sessions of sacred texts.

When Jews gather in their synagogues for Shavuot this year, they will continue these traditions of study, and they will use them to reflect on what transpired at Sinai.

The Biblical account of the revelation at Sinai is a story of such stunning power and drama -- "there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a horn exceeding loud ... and the whole mount quaked greatly" (Exodus 19) -- that even the most detached Jewish worshippers will be drawn to confront the significance of these events. Some will understand them literally and some metaphorically, but many will conclude, after struggling with the text and its commentaries, that in some way they too were at Sinai. They will say, as Jews have been saying for more than 3000 years, that somehow their DNA was present in the crowd.

But they will also confront another subject -- and one of special significance this week.

While the giving of the law at Sinai had implications for all of humankind, it is for the Jews a particularistic event that brought Israel into being; it set in place the terms of the covenant, marrying the Jewish people to God and God to the Jewish people. But the rabbis, with a characteristic sense of balance and of irony, were not content with that message alone, and therefore they mandated that on Shavuot, the Book of Ruth is to be read. The Jews were God's chosen people, but Jewish distinctiveness did not permit indifference to the plight of outsiders who exist on the margins of society.

And who was Ruth? She was a migrant worker and a foreigner. And not just a foreigner, but a Moabite -- and the Moabites were the lowest of the low. Even the Egyptians, who had enslaved the Jews for generations, could eventually marry into the people of Israel; but the Moabites, who had attacked the Jews as they fled Egypt, were forbidden to do so forever (Deuteronomy 23:4-5).

And yet Ruth, a young widow and a member of this despised people, had made her way to Israel, accompanying her impoverished mother-in-law Naomi on her return to the land of her birth. When they arrived in Bethlehem, Naomi did not even introduce her, sensing perhaps the revulsion that her friends and family might feel. But knowing that without her efforts her family would starve, Ruth set out to work. And she expressed a willingness to love Naomi's people, even if her status as a Moabite elicited only contempt.

Ultimately, of course, Ruth was accepted, married a kinsman of Naomi, and was to become the great-grandmother of King David. It seems fitting that this is the story we read the week after the State of Alabama has passed a draconian law that will embitter the lives of foreigners who have come to our shores -- foreigners prepared, like Ruth, to do back-breaking, thankless work, and to confront hatred at every turn. It is true that immigration laws are a complicated topic, but surely we can do better than the current system of punitive laws that needlessly separate families, harass and exploit the vulnerable, and leave hard-working people in a shadowy legal status.

The lesson of Shavuot is that at the very moment when we embrace God, we need to think of the foreigners, the illegal workers, and the migrants -- and embrace them as God has embraced us. Our fellow citizens in Alabama -- and in Georgia and Arizona before them -- see themselves as God-loving, Bible-reading Americans. My suggestion is that they spend some time reading the Book of Ruth.

 

Comments

[Allan Richter]

08:13 PM on 06/08/2011

I do not intend to comment on Eric Yoffie’s political opinion. I do, however, suggest that Judaism not be politicized.

Shavuot is a major holiday, one of the three Pilgrim Festivals (Deut. XVI, 16). It is an agricultural festival.

Foreigners were fully accepted in Israel. (Lev. XIX, 34). Employers were required to treat all workers fairly and pay wages promptly. (Deut. XXIV, 14, 15).

There are various reasons given for its inclusion in the liturgy for Shavuot.

(1) It was meant to affirm the equal validity of the Oral Law. The oral law did not exclude Moabite women. ((b. Yeb. B76).

(2) Ruth came to Israel around the time of the Festival and just as Israel accepted the Torah on Shavuot so did Ruth accept the Torah.

(3) King David a descendent of Ruth died on Shavuot.

(4) The most logical reason is that it was desired to affirm in the liturgy all three sections of the Hebrew Bible were considered divine, not just the Torah. Ruth is considered the first book in the section of the Bible Ketuvim. (1-4 paraphrased of Isaac Klein - A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice).

[sunshine14]

11:42 AM on 06/08/2011

Sin/ai anyone one who came from the Valley of Sinai was called one who came from the Valley of Sin, sinner. Like those who live in America are called Americans. Does not mean they are sinners as what we call others who break the laws of God either. But that they came from the Valley of Sin/ai. Meaning no disrespect either, I love and pray for all. Like those who came, settled in what is now called,  Judah called themselves Jews, were only 1 Tribe out of the 12 Tribes that entered the Promise Land. All knew where they came from lived, Judah-Jews.
In the Vally of Sin/ai they were never called Jews, but the 12 Tribes of  Israelites-sons of Israel (Jacob)
In the Vally of Sin/ai God gave Moses God's Government Laws, For God would be their KING-Ruler over His chosen People. Like all Kings who are Rulers, their Government has to have Laws for Order. God gave all this HIS Law as their God, their King , their Ruler before all entered what God named also calling it the Promise Land. God's Laws written in the Book of Moses were-
The Ten Commandments
Laws of the Sabbath-
Laws of Percepts-explains guide lines of civil laws
Laws of Statues
Laws of Ordinances
Laws of Blessings (if they obeyed all Laws faithfully)
Laws of 12 Curses  and a list of I WILL do this-if not this is done also (not good either). ( sadly if they did not obey laws)
Laws of 3 only Holy Feasts Days to be fully observed also- Feast of Passover, Feast of Weeks (first fruits harvest) Feast of Booths (second fruits, fall harvest)
God said All theses Laws-  Stand Forever.

[Cindbird]

04:45 AM on 06/08/2011

First, not everyone in the state of Alabama agrees with the law. Many of us tried to get it stopped. I happen to live in Alabama. I am also Buddhist which puts me outside the "God-loving, Bible-reading Americans" you eluded to. This law they passed is stupid and illegal. It will be challenged in the courts if it's not already. I am familiar with the story of Ruth, and it does have a correlation with the laws like this being passed all over the country. But to condemn the people of an entire state, which it feels like you are doing, isn't fair either. There are people here who believe that people who come here aren't the enemy. My mother-in-law was from Rome, Italy. She came as a War Bride in 1945. This country is supposed to be the "Land of the Free" but has become the "Land of the Free, only if we like where you come from". But lumping all of us in with those who support this kind of law makes it harder for those who want to see it changed. Because you say you're from Alabama or Arizona or where ever and people stop listening and assume they know what you think. Please don't add that burden to those fighting to keep these kind of laws off the books.

[sunshine14]

12:05 PM on 06/08/2011

Exodus-Chapter 16 Verse one- The Dessert of Sin-Dessert of Sin/ai Having set out from Elim, the whole Israelite Community came into the Dessert of Sin. What it was called does not mean they were sinners, but called sinners because they Lived in the Valley Dessert of Sin/ai. All were called God's chosen people known as Israelite. Jacob  was the Apple of God's Eye, Jacob had 12 sons, Jacob name was changed to Israel, his 12 sons their families, children, community as a whole were called Israelites. All through OT Testament.
Dueter-Chapter 27-Verse 19-One Law of the Curses-"Cursed be he who violates the rights of the alien, the orphan or the widow And all people shall answer Amen.
Whole Chapter 24 Speaks of aliens rights. God reminding all are aliens living on land not your own. All were slaves, all are aliens also. All have been given to. Do not defraud an alien living among you of his labor $$ either. Oh no. And anyone who defrauds a labor or alien oh my no good either. Abraham himself came from Ur Ethiopia Africa living also as a alien on land not his own. Abraham even says so, when trying to buy a small piece of land to bury his wife in Canan. For aliens were not allowed to own land 6,000 years ago, but Abraham was allowed and paid for his small piece of land for bury facing Mamre where his family also was buried after him. All are aliens living on land not your own where all are roots come from. Interesting. No such things as an illegal in God's eyes. God said The earth is MY footstool.

[Ralph Boyd]

10:22 PM on 06/07/2011

A wise and thoughtful article.