Name: Reading Ruth
Start: 2025-11-03T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-03T16:00:00+00:00
Location: 19 The Close, SP1 2EE Salisbury, United Kingdom

Details to book: https://www.sarum.ac.uk/short-courses/reading-ruth/
This short course will serve both as an in-depth reading of Ruth, Chapter 1, but also an introduction to three different approaches to interpreting the text.
In the first session, we will begin with a close textual reading, including insight from the original Biblical Hebrew (no prior knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is required or expected). We will identify the questions that we have about the text, the various lacunae in the narrative, and other pertinent details.
In the second session, we will look at several midrashic (classical rabbinic commentaries) on the text and ask whether they help answer any of our questions or further complicate our understanding of the text.
In the third session, we will turn to a contemporary cultural studies approach to further investigate the text. Looking at visual depictions of parts of chapter 1, we will consider how these images might further shape our understanding of the text.
By the conclusion of the day, we will be able to reflect on how these different approaches to interpreting the text have influenced our own understanding of the text and see whether we are any better able to answer our own questions about this beginning chapter of the Book of Ruth.