Source Text
6. "Your nation is my nation" refers to abandoning my idolatry.
7. "And your God is my God" is to pay the reward of my deeds.
Reader
Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) Reader
Read Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) in source order, passage by passage, with the close English translation where available and the original source text for checking.
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Contents on This Page
Source Text
1. And [Ruth] said: "Do not beseech me" She (Ruth) said to her (Naomi) "do not sin toward me, and do not withhold your misfortunes away from me (to have me) leave and turn away from you. Regardless my intention is to convert, but it is not better (that my conversion be) at your hands and not at the hands of another." When Naomi heard [this], she began to present the laws of converts.
She (Naomi) said to her (Ruth), "My daughter, it isn't the way Israel to go to theaters and to places of amusement, but rather to synagogues and houses of study. And it is not the way of Israel to go more than two thousand cubits (from civiliation) on Shabbat." She (Ruth) said to her (Naomi) "Wherever you go I will go." (Ruth said to Naomi) "And it is not the way of Israel to live in a house that doesn't have a Mezuzah." She (Ruth) said to her (Naomi) "Wherever you lie I will lie."
Source Text
2. "Your nation is my nation" refers to punishments and warnings.
3. "And your God is my God" (refers to) to abandon my idolatry.
4. An alternative explanation: "Where you go I will go" refers to the Tent of Testimony, to Gilgal, to Shilo, to Nov, to Givon (all locations where the Tabernacle was), and to the permanent Temple (in Jerusalem).
5. "Where you lie I will lie" means "I shall lodge by my sacrifices." (Soncino: Deuteronomy 16:7 was interpreted to require that one must lodge in Jerusalem the night of the Festivals after the Festival offering had been made).