Reading What Isn’t There

She said to her, “All that you say I will do.” Ruth 3:5 NASB

You say – We are concerned when a translated text either adds or eliminates words. After all, this is sacred Scripture. Don’t mess with the text. But there are some cases where “messing with the text” is precisely what has been done, continues to be done and is necessary. In Hebrew, this situation is called keri velo ketiv. It means reading a word that is not written. The book of Ruth contains two examples of this technique. Of course, since the word isn’t written, it doesn’t show up in translation, but a Hebrew reader would know (from tradition) that is should be added when the text is read. One of the two occurrences is in this verse. If we read the text, we would read, “She said to her, ‘All that you say to me I will do.’” We add the word elai (“to me”). Why? The rabbis teach that this spoken addition is needed in order to emphasis that “Ruth is a person who is ready and willing to take herself, the elai, out of the sentence.”[1] Ruth exemplifies the selflessness of hesed. She disappears in her complete commitment to the other. It is quite literally “not about her.”

We have often studied the meaning and role of hesed in God’s community. We usually begin by noting that hesed is strictly untranslatable. It means four things at once. It implies prior relationship; reciprocal obligation, transitive responsibility and deliberate action.[2] But now we have to add something else: hesed is characterized by selflessness. To show hesed is to remove yourself from the equation, to put the whole emphasis of your action on the benevolence of the other, to sacrifice who you are for the sake of the other. Hesed is found in elai, the word that isn’t written.

When we speak about hesed, we often demonstrate what it looks like in action by passing on a favor from one person to the next. But this begs the question, “Why does hesed begin?” Why should anyone actually initiate hesed when the Hebrew concept of hen (grace) on its own is fully capable of acting on behalf of another? Now we have the answer. Hesed is the means by which I am removed from any taint of selfish desire. Showing hen toward another can be accomplished even if my motivation includes some recognition of praise. The noble act does not prevent my name from showing up on the hospital wing. The donation still provides me with tax relief and recognition. But this isn’t true of hesed. I act, but I don’t play a part in the result. I write myself out of the sentence.

Perhaps we need a little reflection on this deeper difference between hen and hesed. Perhaps we are stilling writing our names into the actions. What do you think?

Topical Index: hesed, elai, to me, keri velo ketiv, reading a word not written, Ruth 3:5

[1] Yael Ziegler, Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy, p. 113.

[2] For the development of these ideas, see any number of prior Today’s Word editions on hesed