The Book of Ruth: Gleanings from Many Corners with Jessica Greenbaum

This is a 2-session class held on April 21 and 28, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. (ET) on Zoom.

These two evenings will pair our close reading of (the speedy) Book of Ruth with diverse, contemporary poems that reflect, refract, expand or argue with the messages and themes of the text. Ruth’s compressed plot begins in famine and moves to a time and place where excess harvest is left in the field's corners for gleaners. In between comes some famous lines transmitted from ancestor to ancestor, and food for thought about women in Tanach, and the universality of immigration, vulnerability of “the stranger,” deeds of loving kindness, deliberate family, and the forces of ill and good fortune--and of creation. 

How do the poems’ craft and content conspire toward beauty and power in themselves? How do poems bring ancient text closer to our lived experience? How does the human condition show itself in each?…