THE TRUE HEROINE OF PURIM

 

BOAZ AND HIS GYPSY WIFE,

LEONARD COHEN AND RUTH DECONSTRUCTED

 

Opening of the Book of Ruth, from the Tripartite Machzor, c. 1322.

This is a deconstruction analysis of Leonard Cohen’s song “where is my Gypsy wife tonight” and how the song may apply to the Megillah Ruth.

By deconstruction I mean it is an attempt to expose the song’s hidden internal assumptions. Putting it another way: where was Leonard Cohen going with it? What is he saying about the story of Ruth?

 

First of all, I enjoy Leonard Cohen’s music. Until now I have never delved deeply into the lyrics or his messages. Even so, Leonard’s music touches me.

Here is a link to “Where Is My Gypsy Wife Tonight”:

https://youtu.be/b-Pxn28BHvU?si=TnCNGPSgvRzrf9Q6

It is a dark song that speaks about a husband’s humiliation, hopelessness and bitterness when his love has been betrayed

Very recently, I was listening to the music, and the words “threshing floor” caught my attention. They seemed so out of place, so incongruous. Where was Leonard Cohen coming from? The only place that I ever heard the term used is in the Tanach where it is used many times and is called a גֹּרֶן.

For example:

Jacob is eulogized by family at the גֹּ֣רֶן הָֽאָטָ֗ד , the threshing floor of Atad before being buried at Machpelah (Genesis 50:10)

While transporting the Ark King David came to a threshing floor called גֹּ֣רֶן נָכ֑וֹן where a tragic accident took place (2Samuel 6:6).

And most notedly, in the Book of Ruth where Boaz and Ruth were became lovers and soon after marry. (Ruth 3:10).

Turning to the Book of Ruth:

The story begins in Moab on the road to Bethlehem. The year is about 1100 BCE at the time of the Judges before the establishment of a monarchy. Bethlehem is in Judea. There had been a famine there but now it is over and it is a time of prosperity.

Naomi is a widow. She had been living in Moab for about ten years when she lost her husband, Elimelech and their two sons. Naomi has decided to return from Moab along with her two widowed Moabite daughters in laws. They are named Orpah and Ruth.

Naiomi is destitute. Without her husband or sons, she has no visible means of support. There is nothing for her in Moab. Her plan is to return to the village of her dead husband’s people, the Ephratites. Once there she may have a chance of finding security and livelihood.

Naomi appeals to her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers.

They refuse and want to return with Naiomi to her people. Naomi objects, saying:

1:13 - No, my daughters, for it is much more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.

כִּי־יָֽצְאָ֥ה בִ֖י יַד־יְהֹוָֽה

1:21 - I went away full, and Hashem has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi (pleasant), seeing that Hashem has testified against me, and the Almighty has dealt harshly with me?"

אֲנִי֙ מְלֵאָ֣ה הָלַ֔כְתִּי וְרֵיקָ֖ם הֱשִׁיבַ֣נִי יְהֹוָ֑ה לָ֣מָּה תִקְרֶ֤אנָה לִּי֙ נָֽעֳמִ֔י וַֽיהֹוָה֙ עָ֣נָה בִ֔י וְשַׁדַּ֖י הֵֽרַע לִֽי:

After much back and forth, Orpah heeds Naomi’s advice and decides to go back to her Moabite family.  In contrast, Ruth decides to roll the dice with her mother-in-law and the two woman head to Bethlehem.

1:22 - So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the fields of Moab-and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

וַתָּ֣שָׁב נָֽעֳמִ֗י וְר֨וּת הַמּֽוֹאֲבִיָּ֤ה כַלָּתָהּ֙ עִמָּ֔הּ הַשָּׁ֖בָה מִשְּׂדֵ֣י מוֹאָ֑ב וְהֵ֗מָּה בָּ֚אוּ בֵּ֣ית לֶ֔חֶם בִּתְחִלַּ֖ת קְצִ֥יר שְׂעֹרִֽים:

Now we come to Boaz. He was a relative of Naiomi’s husband Elimelech. Boaz is described as אִ֚ישׁ גִּבּ֣וֹר חַ֔יִל, a mighty man of valor, perhaps a military man. It is interesting to note that Boaz’s great grandchild, David, had these same characteristics.

Caveat: 

If you accept that David inherited his “mighty Man of valor” characteristics from Boaz, then you have to ask yourself what might he have inherited from Ruth, a Moabitess?

Consider a possibility:

 Lot’s daughters arrived at an erroneous conclusion that their father was the last living man on earth. They got him drunk and were intimate with him. Desperate people do desperate things.

Returning to the Megillah:

Ruth goes out to glean grain in a field that happens to belong to Boaz. He invites Ruth to continue to glean in his field along with the other women. He likes Ruth and looks after her. Ruth continues gleaning until the barley and wheat harvests are completed. Naiomi knows that Boaz will be seeing to the winnowing of barley at night in his threshing floor.

Desperate people do desperate things: Implicit in this phrase is that desperation can lead to impulsive or extreme behaviors. 

Naiomi commands Ruth:

3:3 - And you shall bathe and anoint yourself and put on your clothes and go down to the threshing-floor; do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.

3:4 - And it shall be when he lies down, that you shall observe the place where he lies, and you shall come and uncover his feet and lie down there, and he will tell you what you must do."

The re is a controversy as to the meaning of “uncovering his feet”:

The term could mean showing your availability for marriage or it is a euphemism for Boaz’s genitals. In any event, they do spend the night together.

Boaz says to ruth at 3:10 - And he said, "May you be blessed by Hashem, my daughter; your latest act of kindness is greater than the first, not to follow the young men, whether poor or rich.

There is an implication that Boaz is not young. In fact there is Midrash saying that he was 80 years old.

We know enough about Boaz, Ruth and Naiomi from Megillah Let’s return to Leonard Cohen and his song. He is bitter: In my mind an old man dazzled by a much younger woman who he marries, only to be forsaken.

Consider the lyrics.

“And where, where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight
I've heard all the wild reports, they can't be right
But whose head is this she's dancing with on the threshing floor
whose darkness deepens in her arms a little more”

 

A ghost climbs on the table in a bridal negligee
She says, "My body is the light, my body is the way"
I raise my arm against it all and I catch the bride's bouquet

And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

It is sad, reminiscent of Kenny Roger’s “Oh, Ruby, Don't take your love to town”.

https://youtu.be/XyBKwnqoHEg?si=WRVV3kfpmW0BBP2I

In the concluding stanza, Leonard Cohen returns to Tanach, alluding to Noach but without a hope of reconciliation:

And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?
Too early for the rainbow, too early for the dove
These are the final days, this is the darkness, this is the flood
And there is no man or woman who can't be touched
But you who come between them will be judged

And where, where is my Gypsy wife tonight?

Leonard Cohen did not go far enough. He missed the boat. He wallows in self-pity. The Prophet Hosea however, faced with a similar situation gives us an answer to the Gypsy Wife.

Hosea uses his personal life as a metaphor to describe the fractured relationship between Hashem and us. It may be a foretelling of the fate that was to befall a divisive Jewish people in the soon years to come.  

Hosea learns that his wife (in the role of Israel) is an adulteress, a prostitute.  As a symbol of Israel’s estrangement from Hashem, Hosea names one of their children Lo-ruchamah, which translates as "not pitied", and another as Lo-ammi, which translates as "not my people". By the time you get through chapter 3 these children as well as the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are redeemed.

Hosea’s solves the problem by not wallowing in self-pity as does Leonard Cohen. Hosea corrals his wayward wife and then shows her love in the form of kindness and mercy.

It is a positive message of reconciliation.