"And her mother-in-law said unto her, 'Where hast thou gleaned today?  And where wroughtest thou?  Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.'  And she shewed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, 'The man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz.'"

Yes, I understood the relevance of the name Boaz and it's place in the First Degree, but I couldn't understand why a woman and her daughter-in-law played any part at all.

As I began my quest for masonic knowledge I found that the reading given in the closing was from The Book of Ruth, Chapter 2, Verse 19.  But it still mystified me.  The message conveyed behind that particular verse escaped me.

The Book of Ruth is the eighth book in The Old Testament of the Christian Bible, and is included in the Jewish written Torah (God's teachings to the Jewish people) as Megillat Ruth.

It focuses on a single theme, 'chessed', a Hebrew word which means kindness, tenderness, a refusal to walk away when times are tough - faithfulness in all its forms.  The English translation would be, I suggest, 'fidelity'.

The main protagonists in the Book are Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi.  Other characters of note are Naomi's husband Elimelech, their sons Chillion and Marlon, Chillion's wife Orpah, and a wealthy landowner named Boaz.  The story is set in and around what we in the 21st century know as Israel, and refers to a period in history of some 3,000-odd years ago.

Some background information may assist your understanding of the laws and social mores existing among the Jewish people at the time of the events described in this narrative - and a great proportion of these still exist:

According to the Torah, a man is permitted to marry more than one wife, but a woman cannot marry more than one man.

As an aside, around 1000 A.D., (2000 years or so after the events in 'Ruth' occurred), Ashkenazic Jewry banned polygamy because of pressure from the predominant Christian culture.  Polygamy continued to be permitted for Sephardic Jews in Islamic lands for many years.  To the present day, Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews continue to practice polygamy.  The modern state of Israel allows only one wife - unless a Jew arrives with others - in which case he can keep the wives he has but cannot legally marry more.

Jewish law stipulates that land-title is held by males.  Naomi's husband Elimelech owned a field.  He died and the title passed to his eldest son Chillion.  He died and the title passed to his younger brother Mahlon.  Mahlon died, and as he had no sons, the title rested in Naomi's hands until redeemed by the nearest male relative to Elimelech.

The Talmud is a codified set of laws governing aspects of behavior for Jews.  It states, in part, that a woman can be 'acquired' as a wife in any one of three ways, including by 'contract'.  In all cases the Talmud specifies that a woman can be acquired only with her consent - and not without it.

How is it that redemption of land becomes tied in with marriage for Jews?  Both of these relationships - land and family - are Man's opportunity to transcend the measure of one's days on earth.  The tragedy of dying childless is not only the missed opportunity to nurture and raise children.  It is also the very real possibility that all that a person has built and created will be lost on the sands of time.

The ancient wise men of Israel established the custom of marrying a childless widow to those inheriting or redeeming a legacy of her dead husband, and this was the matter concerning Boaz.

The opening verses explicitly places the Book of Ruth in the time of the Judges, about 1150 B.C., and concludes with references to the Davidic lineage.  Therefore, one would suppose that the author made a written record of the story after the time of King David.

Ruth may, however, have been told and developed as an oral story for many generations prior, and in that form may be of very ancient origin.  It may even be a parable, and that possibility springs to mind when one reflects upon the meaning of the names of some of the characters in the story.

Elimelech is a powerful name - one associated with royalty - 'My God is King' is one interpretation. Naomi means 'pleasant', and Ruth means 'beloved'.

Whereas the names of the parents and Ruth are 'positive', their sons and Orpah carry names that no parent would think of granting their children.  Mahlon is related to 'disease' and Chillion to 'destruction'.  Considering their untimely deaths, in a foreign land no less, it is reasonable to suggest that these were not their birth-names, but rather names given them posthumously, symbolic of their tragic lives.  Similarly, Orpah means 'she who turns away'.  Keep in mind that Megillah Ruth was not written as a journal; it was composed after the key events in the story transpired.  That being the case, it is not problematic to presume a posthumous 'renaming' of the dead sons.

In the days before the kings of Israel, during a famine, Elimelech, a man who owned a field near Bethlehem in Judah, took his wife Naomi and his sons to Moab, a distance of about 60 miles by the shortest route.

Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons, Chillion and Mahlon.  In time each son married Moabite women.  Chillion married Orpah, and Mahlon married Ruth.  No children issued from either union.

During the next ten years both sons died, and Naomi was left with her two daughters-in-law who lived with and cared for her.

Naomi heard that the famine was over in Bethlehem, and she planned to return to Judah.  She told Orpah and Ruth to go back to their own families as they had done enough for her.  Both said, "No, we will go with you."

In those days, the law stipulated that if a woman's husband died and she was childless, the husband's brother married the woman so that the dead husband would have an heir and the woman would have security.

Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters!  Why should you go with me?  Do I have any more sons in my body who might be husbands for you?  Even if I married tonight and bore sons, would you wait for them to grow up?  Should you keep yourself from marriage?  Oh no!  My lot is far more bitter than yours, for the hand of the Lord has struck out against me."

Naomi was obviously convinced that all of the tragedies that befell the family were on account of her sins, even the losses incurred by these loyal 'daughters'.  She was, understandably, reticent to accept any more responsibility for their welfare, especially considering her diminished circumstances back in Bethlehem.

Orpah went back to her family, but Ruth stayed with Naomi, who pleaded with her and said, "See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods.  Go and follow her."

Ruth replied (and this is where the old saying 'wither thou goest' comes from), "Do not entreat me to leave you, or to keep from following you.  Where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if even death part thee and me."

They returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.  Not long after their return Ruth told Naomi that she intended to go and glean in the fields behind the people reaping the crop.

The Torah tells that when we reap, we are not to pick up the stalks that fall, that we must leave them for the poor.  The field that Ruth chose to glean in, purely by chance, was one that belonged to a wealthy man named Boaz.

Boaz came to inspect the progress of his workers, and asked about the maiden gleaning in his fields.  His workers told him that she was the Moabite girl who came back with Naomi.

Old sayings are often the most evocative.  'Alone and lonely, like Ruth amid the alien corn' is one such saying, and there can be little doubt that Ruth felt that way when she began to glean.  But that was all to change.

Boaz went to Ruth and said, "You are welcome to glean in my fields.  Stay here close to my daughters.  Keep your eyes on where they're reaping, and follow them.  I have ordered the men not to bother you.  And when you're thirsty, drink from the jars of water that the men have drawn."

Ruth fell on her face, and bowed herself onto the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, seeing that I am a foreigner?"

Moabites generally, not only the women, were despised by the Israelites.  The women were the traditional corrupters of the Israelite men.  They worshipped a number of gods rather than the one true God.  They were foreigners - people to be despised and viewed with contempt.

"I have been told all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband," Boaz replied, "how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and came to a people you had not known before.  A full reward shall be given to you by HaShem, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

"Let me find favour in your sight, my lord," said Ruth, "for you have comforted me, and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants."

Boaz ensured that Ruth was fed well that day, and told his workers to make sure that they left some extra stalks for her to glean.  In the evening he invited Ruth to return the next day and glean there again, in fact he told her to glean in his fields every day until the finish of the harvest.

Ruth's diligence was exemplary.  Even though she had now been given a favoured position in Boaz' field - and thus had secure tenure for the duration of the harvest season, she did not ease up her work-standard.  Witness the astounding amount of barley that she brought back to Naomi at the end of that first day - a full Ephah of grain.  An Ephah is roughly 35lbs, testimony both to her diligence and to Boaz' kindness.

When Ruth returned home that evening an exchange about where she had gleaned that day took place between her and Naomi.  The Book of Ruth, Chapter 2, verse 19 in the King James version of the Bible records that conversation as follows:  "And her mother-in-law said unto her, 'Where hast thou gleaned today?  And where wroughtest thou?  Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.'  And she shewed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, 'The man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz.'"

Naomi said, "Blessed be the Lord who has not failed in His kindness to the living or to the dead!  This man is related to us!  He is one of our redeeming kinsmen."

A 'redeeming kinsman' was a male relative on a woman's dead husband's side.  You may recall an earlier mention that the usual custom was that the dead husband's brother married the widow.  If no brother was available - or willing - to marry the widow then they simply went out along the family tree in order of descent.

Boaz, in fact, was the son of Elimelech's brother, and Naomi's point was that as a male relative to Elimelech - and thus to Mahlon, Boaz could serve as an heir for Ruth's late husband.

At the end of the harvest Naomi pushed Ruth into a course of action.  "Boaz will be winnowing in the threshing room tonight," she said.  "Bathe, anoint yourself and put on your finest rainment.  Go there and wait in the shadows until he has finished eating and drinking.  He will then go and lie down.  Mark where he lays and when it is quiet go to him.  Uncover his feet and lay down near them.  He will tell you what to do."

Ruth obviously acquiesced, and, after Boaz had - in the words of the Bible - 'eaten and drunk and gone to lay down with a merry heart' Ruth went softly to him, uncovered his feet and lay down near them.

The Bible tells us that Boaz was startled by something at midnight and found a woman lying at his feet.  "Who are you," he said.

Naomi had planned out a night of intimacy for Ruth, leaving it to Boaz to decide the direction that the events of the evening would take.  This is the point where Ruth becomes active - in her typically modest and subtle manner.

She answered that she was Ruth, his maidservant.  "Spread your skirt over your maidservant, for you are a redeeming kinsman," she implored.

This request by Ruth is so strongly reminiscent of Boaz' commendation of her fidelity to Naomi on the first day in his field: "a full reward shall be given to you by HaShem, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."  Ruth is gently alluding to Boaz' skirt as wings, and as soon as she identified herself, she immediately moved the direction of their interaction towards Boaz as a protector by saying 'for you are a redeemer.'

Boaz said, "Blessed be of the Lord!  Your latest deed of kindness is greater than the first, in that you have not turned to younger men whether poor or rich.  Have no fear.  I will do whatever you ask, for all the elders of my town know what a fine, virtuous woman you are.  But while it's true that I am a redeeming kinsman, there is another who is closer than I.  Stay the night, but let it not be known that you came to me.  In the morning, if he will act as redeemer, let him.  But if he does not, I will be a redeemer for you."

Boaz knew that Ruth would have been aware of the law - that the purchase of a dead relative's land would include the ritual purchase of a childless widow to be the wife of the redeemer.  He, correctly, perceives this decision of Ruth - choosing to cleave to him, an older relative of her late husband over younger men - as even greater in its depth of fidelity to Naomi.

A young woman who stays with her aging mother-in-law, following her to another land and a foreign people - even accepting their God - can always walk away.  Once she is married, however, she is in that situation until events out of her control release her.

Ruth was willing to go one step further than she had before - to marry for Naomi's sake and thus give her security.  It was this act of total self-sacrifice that impressed Boaz so deeply, but before he could redeem the land - and take Ruth as his wife - he must give precedence to the 'first redeemer' who was a closer kinsman to Elimelech.

Ruth lay at his feet until the morning, and rose before one could know another.

Later that morning Boaz went to the gate of the city and found the man who was the closer relative to Ruth's late husband.  He got the elders to stand as witnesses.  Boaz explained about the land, saying to the kinsman, "Naomi, who has returned from the country of Moab, is selling a parcel of land, which was our relative Elimelech's."

"So," Boaz said, "if you are willing to redeem the land, redeem it.  But if you are not, then tell me.  You are first in line to redeem it, and I come next after you."

The kinsman said, "I am willing to redeem the land."

Boaz said to him "When you acquire the property from Naomi, you must also marry Ruth, the widow, so that her late husband's name will be perpetuated."

The relative obviously had a change of heart, saying "Then I cannot redeem it for myself.  You take over my right of redemption."

Verse 7, 8, and 9 - together with part of verse 11 - of Ruth, Chapter 4 in the King James version of the Bible explain the events that occurred.

Verse 7 states:  'Now this was the manner in antient times concerning redeeming and concerning changing for to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his neighbour, and this was a testimony in Israel.'

Verse 8 states:  'Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee.  So he drew off his shoe.'

Verse 9 states:  'And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people.  Ye are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that was Chillion's and Mahlon's of the hand of Naomi.'

Verse 10 states:  'Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.'

Verse 11 states, in part:  'And all the people that were in the gates, and the elders, said "We are witnesses.'"

There is no doubt that Ruth was acquired by contract, and that contract was the general one existing at the time - the obligation of the nearest willing male relative to redeem family land - and his shouldering of all the responsibilities that entailed.

They a son whose name was Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David - Israel's first and greatest king, its supreme religious poet and author of the Book of Psalms.

So, Brethren, I submit to you that the allegory in The Book of Ruth is the value of fidelity.

There it was, staring me in the face each time I watched it happen.  Immediately the Chaplain repeated the passage from the Book of Ruth the IPM would close the VSL and say "Brethren, nothing more remains but, according to antient custom, to lock up our secrets in a safe and sacred repository, uniting in word and act, Fidelity.  Fidelity.  Fidelity.  And may God preserve the Craft."

The 'safe and sacred repository', Brethren, is our hearts, and our act when we perform the gestures accompanying those most important words implies that we are enshrining the value of fidelity therein.