Wow, it had been ages since I have used this website! For the last blog as a freshman, a student in Mrs. Perls class, and for my last blog hopefully ever, I wanted to dedicate it to the first part of Megillat Ruth. Seriously, Ruth, she is the bomb. On the other hand, while learning the beginning of Ruth in depth, I decided I am not the biggest fan of her mother in law, Noami.
Okay, I get she experienced hardships and she really did suffer, but she was so pessimistic and even displayed it to others too. I know it is difficult to move on from such difficult hardships that she had faced but that should not have been a reason for why she was so mean to Ruth. It would be one thing if she was full of sorrow and was sad, but she showed it when she was with others too.
After Noami's two sons and her husband had passed away, she told her daughter in-laws to return back to the land that they came from. After Orpah did, Ruth refused to leave her. Ruth then promised to be there for Noami for her whole life and she committed everything that she had. In response, Noami was silent. It almost seems to me that she was annoyed with Ruth or something. If someone would dedicate their whole life to you so you would not be alone wouldn't you do a little more than just give them the silent treatment?
After Noami and Ruth went to Israel, she was the talk of the town. The reason why Noami was the subject of conversation because she left for a while then came back a whole new person. Noami yelled at everyone to call her " the bitter one." I think these two stories give a little bit of insight on how much she suffered and how angry she was. Maybe if she would have made an effort to change the dealing process with her trauma, she would have found a more meaningful light and could have found peace, instead of suffering and taking it out on others.
With that, it has been a great year. Thanks for everything!
It does seem like she ended up focusing on something else in the end of Rut. Her mood brightens up when she hears that Boaz is still in town. Instead of focusing on the negative, she works to continue the name of her dead husband and sons. It seems that Rut spread some of her positive attitude to Naomi.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Rena, I don't like Naomi very much. It seems like she would fit right in with all of the characters of Kohelet, who were also always complaining all the time. She also reminds me of Yerushalayim in Eicha, who blamed G-d for everything and failed to see that her misfortune was her own fault. Perhaps if Naomi had reflected on her own actions instead of contributing all of her bad experiences to G-d, she would have found a better way to deal with her hardships.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you as well, Rena. Naomi seems to adopt a "defeatist" and somewhat dismal perspective and attitude towards life. Shani, that's an interesting idea you posed. Now that you mentioned it, Naomi really does remind me of Yerushalayim. Nice connection. However, what differentiates Yerushalayim and Naomi is that Naomi never chose to realize and accept responsibility for her actions, and couldn't really begin the healing process correctly, like Yershalayim eventually did.
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