Megilat Ruth Redemptive Kindness by Sara Malka Reichman

thank you so much and OU Israel and represent Abby learn's particular treat to go after you because many many years ago when I was young a young single girl I used to follow Lear around and go to her tusum so it's it's a and a treat um saot gives us a very very rare window uh because of its Rich depiction of interactions between people into their relationship in a way that I think we don't see so often elsewhere in tanak and there are two themes that are learn made in terms of their relevance to our times right now uh in sa that I want to focus on tonight one of them is but a very unique brand of that we find in sa and the other one is redemption G and even in a short brief share about saer root we cannot ignore the question the big glaring question question and saer and that is what in the world was going on that night in The Silo was there not a better way to set up this um the medish tells us that rut's name gives us insight into who she was rut she was able to see to penetrate straight through to the words of her mother-in-law rut's Essence was an ability to see deeply into the character of others Nai by her own description we know that she was not no longer a very um young fun happy person to be around she calls herself Mara and yet rut sees the value of this person it's almost uh impossible to to tease apart when we're reading about R and Naomi wait a second is she following Nai because of her attachment to Nai or is she following Nai because of her being drawn into to Judaism but we know that because she sees the depth and value of who Nami is as a person R comes to appreciate that all that naami is is rooted in a Tor lifestyle and and who naami is is the result of the Torah and mitzvot that she has practiced her whole life so rud is able to look at this person who everybody gaws at when she returns to bleim and nobody could believe that this the same aristocratic happy uh person with Good Fortune as she was before and yet root conceit to the core of who she is and the relationships in saer root are all based on this ability to see who the person is it's what enables people to do in a meaningful way so that they know what the person's needs are they can provide the right words that are bombs to the Soul at the right moment uh moving on to boas who definitely shares this trait boas of course takes notice of who rut is realizes that she's so different than everyone else and inquires about her and as a result of him appreciating theed she's done uh he is inspired to take special care of her Beyond whatever his obligations of leet were and to provide for her make sure that she and Nami are provided for with dignity and and definitely beyond their needs uh in order to really understand what's going on with boas the way he views rut and the way we'll see he views even his farm hands we have to look a little closer at what goes on that night in The Silo um the med tells us that when a person is a state in is in a state of fear it acts as that fear acts as a stumbling block in their way and boas is one of the two examples the mid gives as somebody who rather than allowing his fear to trip him up to be a stumbling block for him has B trusts relies in Hashem and therefore he is protected and the metress is referring to This Moment In The Silo it says that it would have been expected reasonable for boas to curse at rud to say what are you doing do you know who I am get out of here the word used in the medish is to curse at her and yet he does the opposite He blesses her and to understand this we need to see it in the context of two other events um there's often spoken about the various events that lead up to uh the unions uh where there is the conception of the progyny who will be the ancestors of the davidic line and and eventually hopefully soon mashia Ben David um these three unions are all what they have in common uh is that they're all shrouded in darkness um different different sorts of Darkness uh Rak my father points out the similarities and the differences first we have lot and his daughters where the confusion and darkness is born of drunkenness and uh L doesn't know what he's doing uh then we have Tamar who when she is um seducing Yehuda is wearing a disguise so he has no idea what he is doing and here we come to Boaz and rut and the Darkness here is the darkness of of night it's the darkness of night and really boas has two options he can run away curse her leave or he can give into the Yahara which is what his two predecessors did but he chooses a third choice and that is he says we're going to leave this pattern of darkness and confusion Le poab we're going to wait till we have the clarity of mourning and specifically he's waiting for the clarity that uh Hala will uh the the light that Hala will shed on the situation he says we're going to find out is there a goel is there a closer goel than me in this situation let's wait and we'll wait till we have the clarity of morning and this is what the m means when it tells us what affords boas this presence of mind at that moment so um again uh also rakha Poco continues and he says that the gumar teaches us that uh there are three things that the ba shata the uh Earthly courts decided which received the this a stamp of approval from the ba and Shalala from the Heavenly courts and one of them is the idea that a person can greet others with the name of Hashem which we would think would be using hashem's name in vain now the person who instituted that practice was boas the Von teaches us that if you want to really know a person you look at the Torah that they taught us what does it mean that boas taught us that when you greet a person it is not using hashem's name in Vin if you would address them with hashem's name so boas greets his farm hands not the aristocracy not even Nam or root not someone prestigious but his farm Hands by saying Hashem when he comes and he encounters them that say that rot is uh picking up the sheaves of rain he says IM and they respond to him because they've been trained and they say back to boas boas sees the Divine in every single person even in his farm hands and so he is the one who institutes for us the practice of greeting someone with the name of Hashem and this is what affords him that presence of mind that night in The Silo he looks at rut at something that looks like a very questionable at best act but he sees her good intentions he sees the Divinity in her he sees The Godly in her and he sees her motives and so he's able to say he's able to see the Beauty and the in what she's doing and these relationships in saer Brut are Fabrics that are woven from acts ofad but specifically these acts ofad where people could really look and appreciate the other people um right now I think that we're seeing an at least in my lifetime an unprecedented level ofad and I want to return to that idea soon as we we put this theme on hold for a moment something else that there is in common in all these three unions that uh will give forth to the davidic linh is the fact that they're all initiated by women these are encounters between men and women and even though they're in ancient times there are initiated by women what can we learn from that so the Sid teaches us something very interesting he says based on the NAA in safer yahu that says that in the time of mashia is G women will either cause the actions of men or women will initiate the relationship with men he says that this is actually really a metaphor that this is talking about about the one who is always the woman in the relationship with Hashem and that is Kess Israel and he says once upon a time ago right after the there was a group of people called the m and they did not listen to mosha they said you know what we made a mistake not wanting to enter our St we're going to go now we're g to push our way in and we're going to go anyway and mosha R War warns them he says points out that whenever it says teach us this specific time is the it's the exception there's going to be another time where it's going to work ROK says that time is the time the era of mashia in the time of mashia Amel the woman in the relationship is going to initiate before it's the right time before the time is right for mashia is am is going to return and they're going to say Hashem now they're going to push forth like the MIM intended to like they wanted to and they're going to say Hashem it's time for the G it's time for the Redemption now and this is why all of these initiations were initiated all these relationships were initiated by women because they are all foreshadowing the time of mashia the Hilo but then will be something that is M it will be successful the efforts of am they will be successful in the time of mash we've seen this unprecedented level ofed between vastly different groups of society and I really uh seeing it happen here um and just getting to witness what's going on in in Eris I don't see what's going on outside of ER but in Amis and Eris uh is is I think a similar brand ofad that we see in safer root it's people opening their eyes up and seeing uh a and Aura in parts of am that each other that the other parts may have previously dismissed it's looking and seeing that people who we would not have expected possess that Jewish um incredible gura and it's a gura that's exhibiting itself really in the realm of hassad even though that might sound contradictory it's it's a a heroism that's specifically within the realm of doing kindness on on you know in in the micro and on very great levels in the macro for other people and um it is my hope that we're gonna push forth like uh says we can in the time of mashia as as Ru did that night um and and as the other de did the other had bringing forth the progeny that will bring to mashia benid um so I I just uh what I doav for maybe we could all doav for everybody has their own sp out and uh when I doin for all of uh our all of the soldiers and and everybody who were who is uh putting their life on the line right now I say you know Hashem bring them back but don't just bring them back don't just bring us a sweeping Yeshua here for Amy right now at this very moment in time in 2023 let's take it all the way let's do in that this is the ultimate Yeshua let's Davin that this is a moment in time that we can push through as and say Hashem this is it bring us to Yeshua in this war but bring us at this moment the ultimate Redemption and hopefully the that we're all doing will bring and bring to this