Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

The Book of Ruth, or Notes on Serendipity

The Book of Ruth, or Notes on Serendipity

And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
—The Book of Ruth, 2:3

As luck would have it,
the first field Ruth found belonged to Boaz.
As luck would have it,
Boaz returned to the field from Bethlehem.
As luck would have it,
the new girl drew his eye and attention.
As luck would have it,
Boaz was Naomi’s kinsman.
As luck would have it,
Boaz was kind.
And, as luck would have it,
their great-grandson would be King.

Erika Dreifus writes prose and poetry in New York. Visit her online and follow her on Twitter @ErikaDreifus, where she blogs about “matters bookish and/or Jewish.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.