The "six barleys" Boaz gives Ruth
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manThe Book of Ruth contains an curious version (3:15): After Ruth has, at her mother-in-law's instigation, spent the night at Boaz's feet, Boaz gives her שֵׁשׁ־שְׂעֹרִים, literally "six barleys", and she returns home. What can "six barleys" mean? Either six measures of barley, which would be an awful lot, too much for her to carry, or just six stalks of barley, which is incredibly miserly.
I heard a cool explanation a year or two ago, in which it was just six stalks of barley that Boaz gives Ruth, which turned out to be a coded measure to Naomi, which she understood but Ruth did not—much the way Naomi sending Ruth to Boaz involved non-verbal messages that Boaz picked up on but passed over Ruth's head. Unfortunately, I do not appear to have this interpretation written down, and can't remember what it is. Googling briefly shows me only the traditional commentators making of it references to thinks Naomi wouldn't have known or been interested in.
Is anyone familiar with this interpretation, who can enlighten me once again?
(And yes, it's a little early for studying Ruth, but I have a tutorial on Shavuos with my conversion student coming up soon, and I'd like to tell him about it.)
I heard a cool explanation a year or two ago, in which it was just six stalks of barley that Boaz gives Ruth, which turned out to be a coded measure to Naomi, which she understood but Ruth did not—much the way Naomi sending Ruth to Boaz involved non-verbal messages that Boaz picked up on but passed over Ruth's head. Unfortunately, I do not appear to have this interpretation written down, and can't remember what it is. Googling briefly shows me only the traditional commentators making of it references to thinks Naomi wouldn't have known or been interested in.
Is anyone familiar with this interpretation, who can enlighten me once again?
(And yes, it's a little early for studying Ruth, but I have a tutorial on Shavuos with my conversion student coming up soon, and I'd like to tell him about it.)
