King David, the women before him

This is about King David's maternal line and the love of his life.

We get all sorts of Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week pages/stories/summaries/lessons. Some good and some I'd like to rip up. Today was one of those days. Tomorrow starts the Shavuot holiday when we read Megilat Ruth, Scroll of Ruth.

The one I read was so far from the truth. It gave a very censored/re-written version of the text. The truth is that Ruth, following her mother-in-law Naomi's instructions, seduced Boaz. The text is very clear about it. Boaz was one of the relatives of their dead husbands who could return their property or rights, if there was a child.

Now, Ruth wasn't the only woman who seduced a man to become one of the maternal line to David. Tamar seduced her father-in-law Yehuda when he didn't marry her to his third son. Leah, in cahoots with her sister Rachel, slept with Yaakov and married him. Yehuda was one of their sons. Ruth, herself, descended from Lot and his daughters who made him drunk and slept with him in order to get pregnant, since they thought that they were the last people alive on earth.

And, read the text carefully, it was Batsheva who was the aggressor with King David. Their relationship/marriage eventually produced King Solomon who built the Holy Temple.

And this week's parsha included the Sota, a woman accused by her jealous husband of being unfaithful. The magic potion only works against her if her husband was a perfect husband. And then reading the Haftara about the birth of Samson. His mother was alone with the angel, but her husband trusted her and didn't take her to be tested.

Just some food for thought when I really should be cooking for Shavuot or at least washing dishes.