This is the written script of a talk that I shared at The Kitchen‘s Shavuot Banquet on May 22, 2018. It is also the first day of a “100 days” practice that I’ve seen many artists do as a way to build their craft.
“Questions”
When I was talking to Rabbi Noa about sharing some Torah tonight , I said, “Ok, but I have more questions than insights!” to which Noa responded, “Great! Teach about questions!”. So, it got real.
Now, for those of you who know me, you may guess that my first step was to ask Google for some help. I typed in “How many questions are there in Torah?”
Error message. Hmm. Apparently there are more questions than syllables in the Torah. So I had to try a different strategy — Because it’s Shavuot, I decided to read the book of Ruth. It’s short. I’d never read it before. I recommend it.
For those of you who have not read the book of Ruth, it played live this morning when a wealthy, hierarchical landowner married a divorced, biracial foreigner.
I heard they might eventually have a great grandson named David.
There are 4 questions in the book of Ruth. The first one is probably the most well known. Ruth is in the fields looking for spare wheat and Boaz, the landowner, is kind and inclusive. She asks him why he is being so kind to her, a poor foreigner. This is a question that many of our fellow Kitchenites teach us through their actions all year young. If you want to learn more about this question, ask Nicole (gesture to audience where Nicole is seated) about the work she is doing in partnership with local immigrant communities.
Questions 2 and 4 are asked by Naomi to Ruth. In summary, they are: “How you doing? Did you find enough wheat?” These questions are the bread and butter of our emotional integrity as a community. Take a moment, now, and look at your neighbor or look across the room for someone you don’t know. As a community, we should ask each other: How are you? Did you eat breakfast? Is everything going ok? These are the questions we need to ask each other before we can even begin to get into the deeper questions of Torah.
Without our well-being and basic emotional needs met, we can not begin to ask the other questions.
And, now we come to Boaz’s question to Ruth when he wakes up, his feet uncovered, and she is unexpectedly there. He is surprised and the Midrash says that Boaz thinks that Ruth is a demon and feels afraid. He is fearful of her presence but instead of calling the authorities or lashing out with violence and aggression, he shows restraint and openness to his own limits of understanding by asking her: “who are you?”
Who are you?
It’s an essential question. The answer to that question could be: I am your neighbor. You could give someone an opportunity to share their pronouns, their chosen way of being. Or in Ruth’s case, she boldly replies: “I am your future wife.”
This is a very romantic way of saying, “I belong here.” What a profound thing to say.
Now, keep in mind, both for the the live Royal wedding this morning and in Ruth’s case, Torah states that were many gatekeepers noticing all the ways that she did not belong. And really, by traditional standards, Ruth did not fit in. So, in fact, saying “I belong here” is so bold and radical that it transforms Boaz’s question ” Who are you?” into ” Who are we?” and, because of Ruth’s answer, we can all ask together: “Who will we become?”
This is the question I leave you here with today. “Who will we become?”
And, just one small hint: Google doesn’t know the answer to that question either.