Project Ruth
Providing resources to expand opportunities for women during Shavout.
Thanks to a very generous gift from the Koschitzky family in honor of Sarah Edery Delorde, on the occasion of the bat mitzvah of her great granddaughter, Karen Aouizerat, Jofa offers tools to make it easy to lead a Megillat Ruth reading in your community.
The Megillat Ruth App enables you to learn how to leyn (chant) right from your web browser, smartphone, or iPad. Now you can download the app, for your iPhone/iPad or Android device, and you’re on your way.
The Megillat Ruth app boasts the following features:
- The entire Megillat Ruth text with translation
- On-Demand Audio: With a simple click or touch of any verse, the corresponding Hebrew with proper trope is chanted by a woman, while the corresponding text is highlighted.
- Tikkun View: With a simple click or touch, you can choose whether you want to see the Hebrew as vowelized text, or as it appears in the Megillah, with crowns and without vowels.
With many thanks to Rabbanit Bracha Jaffe, who made a recording that is deliberate and precise, to serve as a learning tool for anyone interested in chanting Ruth for the first time.
Women Reading Megillat Ruth on Shavuot
Women may leyn Megillat Ruth. Since many congregations read Ruth from a printed book and not a parchment Megillah scroll, it is easier to read than Megillat Esther, and it is also considerably shorter. We encourage you to organize or participate in a women’s or partnership Megillat Ruth leyning during Shavuot, with the help of Jofa’s resources.
Resources
This Shavuot Edition of the Jofa Journal features several articles for Shavuot, including:
Making Our Own Miracles, by Carol Kaufman Newman
The Revelation at Mount Sinai: Creation, Exodus, and Faith, by Rachel Friedman
A Courageous Proposal: The First Heter Agunah in America, by Rabbi Adam Mintz
The Human Element in the Commandments: The Effect of Changing Community Norms on Halakhic Decisions, by Rabbi Daniel Sperber
Welcoming Converts to the Jewish People, by Rabbi Marc D. Angel
Levirate Marriage: The Limits of the Law, by Professor Martin Lockshin
For Men Only? Gendered Language in the Aseret Ha-Dibrot, by Rachel Furst
Addressing the Women First, by Dr. Yael Levine
Naomi “Call me Bitter,” by Kathryn Hellerstein
Distance and Intimacy at Mount Sinai, by Dr. Erica Brown
Perhaps the Last Yibbum in History, by Jonathan Sallah Snowbell
Miriam’s Lessons From Matan Torah, by Sandra E. Rapoport and Shera Aranoff Tuchman
One Act of Kindness Can Change the World, by Allyson Gronowitz
Whither Thou Goest…, by Carol Spanbock
Ruth Book Club
Learn How to Leyn
Nusach Ashkenaz
Nusach Anglica
Lucy Weiniger used Nusach Anglia after her Bat Mitzvah on Shavuot 5774, and the track was recorded at Jewish Care’s KC Shasha Centre after Shavuot: