Ruth רות

The story takes place «in the days when the judges judged», the darkest stretch of that era. Elimelech leaves Beit Lechem for Moav because of famine; he and both his sons die there, and Naomi returns home a widow and childless. One daughter-in-law stays behind; the other, Ruth, speaks the words that became the formula of joining the people: «where you go I will go… your people are my people and your God my God».

In Beit Lechem Ruth gleans in Boaz's field, under the law that leaves the corner and the forgotten sheaf to the poor, and the whole book turns on voluntary kindness. The sages say it was written «to teach the reward of chesed».

It ends in a genealogy: Ruth is David's great-grandmother, so the royal line descends from a foreigner. It is read on Shavuot.