Kabbalah Library

321. “And she said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.’” She said “gone back,” meaning that at first, she was a convert. “And to her gods” means that she had the same God as Naomi, and now she has returned to her first stench and strayed after her idol-worship.

322. But Ruth clung to her. She clung to her faith, as she had taken upon herself while her husband was alive. Ruth’s merit was that although she did not have her husband’s fear on her, she clung to her faith. Nevertheless, Naomi renewed for her the acceptance of the faith as in the beginning, as when she came to convert, and gave her cautions, and she took upon herself all of them.

323. It is written, “And Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, put it on her shoulder, as well as the boy.” Since it is written “to Hagar,” what is “put it on her shoulder”? It teaches that he warned her about the burden of the faith, and to persist with what she had been accustomed to with him in the beginning.

Here it is written, “put it on her shoulder,” and there it is written, “He placed for him there law and justice.” As there it is the burden of the Shechina, so here it is the burden of the Shechina.

324. What did Hagar do? Once she saw herself exiting the authority of Abraham, she returned to her corruption, as it is written, “She went and was lost” after the work of idolatry, and the idol-worship of her father’s home, and it is written, “They are vanity, and the work of errors.”