NO OF PAGES: 138 SUB CAT I: Commentary SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: This volume in "The Bible of Judaism Library" series opens the door to the reading of a classic text, Ruth Rabbah. The text represents a compilation of exegeses of the biblical Book of Ruth, augmenting and clarifying its meaning. In addition, this volume: - Enables a direct and immediate encounter between the reader and the ancient reader; - Affords access to a religious experience born in the same scripture that today's Judaism and Christianity value as God's word. "In the end," Professor Neusner writes, "Judaism's Messiah was to be a sage, promising not the eschatological forgiveness of sins but the ultimate and entire sanctification of Israel: eternity now, eternity then, with little change from the one time to the other. In that context, the message of Ruth Rabbah proves both classic and fresh, a reworking of the received Torah and a renewal of that Torah: so great is the grace that inheres in the Torah that even an outsider of an enemy nation, and even a woman, takes up the critical place in the drama of the coming of the Messiah."NOTES: SUBTITLE: The Book of Ruth