Who is Ruth?

The time has come: we are finally learning Ruth! We started off reading through the beginning of Ruth last class, and even at the very beginning, one thing became crystal clear; Ruth is not your average person. First of all, she was a Moabite, and she married a Jewish man. That's unusual, but not exceptional. (It is forbidden  for Jews to marry Moabite men, but not Moabite women, by the way.) Anyway, this was a big deal for her. She left her people and went to live with this small Jewish family. Apparently, they were a powerful and well known Jewish family, but that didn't change anything for her, because it is said that Ruth was from Moabite royalty. Clearly, she saw something very special in these Jews to want to live with them, follow their strange traditions, and abandon her own. She is also on very good terms with her mother in law, Naomi. As weird as that sounds, she is very attached to her in a special way. After Ruth's husband dies and Ruth no longer has a connection to Naomi, she still wants to stay with her and look out for her. Ruth is also drawn to her former husband's family's traditions. She wants to live like Naomi, and become one of her people. She insists multiple times that she will leave Moav with Naomi. She keeps her word, and they both arrive back in the promised land, to Naomi's home town of Beit-Lechem. Ruth had to have an incredible amount of courage and perseverance to go through with this move. This was a totally new land, culture, people, religion, and perhaps language to her, and yet she seems in control and put together throughout this whole ordeal. She is also perfectly willing to work for and take care of Naomi, as well as acting like Naomi is her superior. She makes sure Naomi is taken care of and gets her whatever she needs, even though that is not Ruth's responsibility. She even asks for Naomi's permission to gather grain! From the looks of it, it seems like we are dealing with a very unique and special person here, and I am interested in how things will progress further. Until next time, everyone.