Akwetey B Amaah

Ny'awo Ruth Akwetey B Amaah

The great-great-grandson of Ruth, Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon), the author of Proverbs, writes in the very last chapter of Proverbs about an Eishet Chayil - Woman of Valor. Today we use Eishet Chayil as an ode to the woman of the household. However, was that what Shlomo thought when he wrote this piece? One possibility is that Shlomo is speaking to his own ideal picture of a Hebrew woman; painting the idealistic picture purely out of his own imagination and thus giving us what he thought was an abstract but perfect, Hebrew woman. Another possibility is that Shlomo while talking about an ideal, has an actual specific person in mind. Perhaps, it could be someone he knew or somebody in Hebrew history that he is using as the ideal prototype. The text suggests that the latter holds true. Suffice it to say that Shlomo is not designing a Hallmark card to what we call the ideal Hebrew woman. King Shlomo was talking about a particular person, his great-great-grandmother Ruth. Making Proverbs the oldest commentary on the book of Ruth. In his usual insightful exposition, Akwetey Amaah reveals this secret as he takes us behind the scenes and between the lines of the Book of Ruth, Ny'awo Ruth - Mother Ruth