The great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained the difference between the sort of contracts that flourish in the world of individual choice and covenants that flourish best in those realms that are deeper than individual utility: “A contract is about interests. A covenant is about identity. It is about you and me coming together to form an ‘us.’ That is why contracts benefit, but covenants transform.” (David Brooks. The New York Times. May 18, 2024. A22.)
This modern reader of the Book of Ruth finds a bit of a challenge in one ancient custom. Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read this far. “Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, one party took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the next-of-kin said to Boaz, ‘Acquire it for yourself’, he took off his sandal.” (Ruth 4:7-8)
This kind of contract memorandum strikes one as odd today. I have never taken off my sandal to anybody, nor received same. Nor has a real estate transaction been concluded in this way, recently, to my knowledge.
And of course what went along with this particular sandal-handling was another exchange, one with much wider implications. We first met Ruth with her mother-in-law Naomi in chapter one of her book, in a time of distress and famine. She proclaimed to Naomi that “your people will be my people and your God my God”.
This was more than a contract, it was a covenant. A covenant based in love. Much as were the covenants the people of God made with their Lord.
Keep that in mind as we look at what was happening in this land sale. Boaz, receiving the land, was also claiming and accepting that by acquiring the land he was also acquiring the happy obligation of marrying the daughter-in-law of Naomi, yep, Ruth.
They had already met in the context of the wheat harvest. And he knew what he was doing. Not only was he making a deal for a patch of land, he was entering into the fulfillment of a sacred relationship. Sure, another relative could have taken precedence in the property transfer. But only Boaz and Ruth together with Naomi could fulfill the larger covenantal purpose. The land would remain in the right hands for God’s plan.
For once the property changed hands, Boaz gladly took on the duty and joy of marrying the young widow. This, in those ancient days, was part of the deal. There was a widow to be provided for, an ancestral obligation to fulfill, and with the land came the widow.
“Boaz said, ‘The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.’” (Ruth 4:5) That would be the contractual obligation; what was, on the surface, happening. What was going on, on a deeper spiritual level, was something greater.
“A contract is about interests” - and a relative who had right to the land might well be interested.
“A covenant is about identity” - and Ruth had already pledged her allegiance to the people of Naomi, the people of Israel.
She was making for herself and taking upon herself a new identity: no longer the Moabite widow, she became the wife of a man of Israel.
And she became the mother of redemption for her people, for her great-grandson was David who would be king. And among his descendants would be Jesus. (Matthew 1:1-17)
The relationship between Ruth and her new husband was beyond contractual; it was covenant. It was the formation of a new family, an identity, a redeemed and renewed relationship within the covenant people.
“A covenant is about identity. It is about you and me coming together to form an ‘us’. That is why contracts benefit, but covenants transform.”
And the transformation goes beyond two individuals; it goes to the heart of what it means to become part of the people of redemption, the people of God.
Just as personal relationships can go from contract to covenant, so can those of a people – with each other, and with God. The relationship is not then transactional, but one of mutual self-giving. “Love does not keep account of wrongs but finds its joy in the truth.” (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:5-6)
How then shall we as citizens of a common city and country and cosmos treat each other: not with grudge-keeping but with grace-giving; not as parties to a transaction but as partners in creating common good?
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REFERENCE NOTES:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/trump-liberals-authoritarians.html
“Shavuot is the festival when we celebrate our greatest gift: the Torah, our constitution of liberty under the sovereignty of God, our marriage contract with Heaven itself, written in letters of black fire on white fire, joining the infinity of God with the finitude of humankind in an unbreakable bond of law and love, the scroll Jews carried wherever they went, and that carried them. This is the Torah: the voice of heaven as it is heard on earth, the word that lights up the world.”-- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Koren Sacks Shavuot machzor, Introduction, lxxxi https://rabbisacks.org/quotes/
An edited version of this meditation appeared in the Arizona Daily Star on Sunday May 26th 2024 page E3. https://tucson.com/life-entertainment/local/faith-values/the-difference-between-contracts-and-covenants/article_454b641c-16dd-11ef-ae0a-4b26dc3b1a14.html
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