A Deeper Look at Megilat Ruth by Rabbi Moshe Miller

um yesterday we uh celebrated the 57th anniversary of the unification of yusim and I I'd like to discuss uh the relevance of Boaz the uh hero of millas Rus to that Milestone we're uh of course all very proud there it's yro and Jim and we also especially in this uh exceedingly difficult and tumultuous time we worry about them constantly in the background of that worry lies the terrible divisions that threaten the unity of the Jewish people true our most obvious threat is external but the more pernicious threat is probably the internal threat and I think that Boaz can help Boaz was of course the leader of his generation he recognized the historic greatness of Ruth he married her he became the father of the davidic line and ultimately of the mashiah strangely though the talmud teaches that U boas is not his real name it is a pseudonym for Ian one of the judges of Israel depicted in the saer and that is uh by the way I assume you have a source sheet I'm just going to refer you to the source I'm not just a few a handful of them that I'm going to read so this is Source number one if you're interested in knowing the sources I generally find uh Source sheets to be distracting so although I still make them upon request I uh generally avoid them U here I actually wanted a few of the sources because I want you to see the pukin in the Milla but other than that I'm just going to refer you to the number so this is Source number one that Boaz is Ian and ifan is very briefly mentioned in saim the one noteworthy feature of the life ofan that saer shim shares with us is that he endured unspeakable tragedy he buried all of his children and according to the talmud there were 60 of them yes he was busy that's also in Source number one his life was a wreckage of loss and according to the medish the first time he encountered Rus he was actually returning from one last funeral that of his wife who given the number of children she had it's not surprising that she gave up after 60 but that is uh Source number two the question is why did ifan assume the name boas what is the special significance of that name boas literally means B in him is o o means ferocity vehement Aus so here he is at um his wife's funeral after having buried 60 children so at the very moment that he lost every the last vestage of his former life life every element that might tie him to an old Paradigm ifon was ready to transform he was ready to throw off everything that had defined him and become boas The Fearless One the Ferocious one to prepare the way for the kingdom that he would father he would have to see to it that isroil would escape the tyranny of old paradigms and courageously Embrace something entirely new the importance of his transformation was later immortalized by his great descendant schl saer MIM relates that two pillars stood in front of the heal the sanctuary of the B mikdash one was named yakin and the other was named boas that's Source three yakin means established traditional time honored and that is the very opposite you think about about it for a moment it's the very opposite of boas yakin and boas the established on the one hand the radical on the other hand and these two pillars reflected the recognition that the criter that the creation of the true Kingdom which boas's ultim fathered requires both it is only through the judicious application judicious application ofah and the willingness to innovate it is only through that that time honored values that established values can endure only in the interaction of both the establishment and the radical does the divine presence dwell among yro that is the symbolism of these two pillars in front of the beta mikdash so this man Ian who turned into boas was prepared to ignite a revolution and selected a name that expressed this commitment Boaz is in a very real sense aom de his battle name he entered the Milla prepared for war he was the leader of the society as the chaet that had become insular limited and narrow yro had become a hotbed of bigotry expressed towards the other The Stranger we know this because Naomi and Rus painfully discover when they return to Bas leim and they face the full Fury of the rejection and intolerance that they experienced there they were left to starve as you recall nobody was willing to help them because Ru was the stranger the other and Nomi had abandoned them and was now her protector Boaz realized that with this attitude his Society was doomed condemned to a downward spiral of hatred smallness and an inability to respond to challenge es with Nothing Left to Lose he had lost everything in his life he threw off his old identity and assumed a name that clearly announced his inent his intentions boaz's uh First Act that is actually recorded in millas Rus is described by the following PUK and this you can look at in s vers four he said to them to the Reapers God bless you God is with you I should say and they replied may God bless you now the Milla is a stunning display of brevity contains 85 suim and there isn't an extra word I assure you this PUK though on the surface seems to be the only small talk in the Milla why do we need to hear how boas greeted his field hands and how they responded yet this salutation is noteworthy it's not the standard greeting of Shalom Al instead it involves and this is crucial it involves a rather fast and easy use of the actual name of God because that was his takona that was what he established you don't just say Hashem IM you say the name of God the you say it and in the response the same you don't say hasem you say the name of God and that was key to the enactment and the reason that millas Rus records the salutation is because it is the enactment of a revolutionary new edict by boans and the talmud comments on this this is Source five I'm going to uh translate as a result of a state of emergency a reform was instit Ed that people should greet each other with God's actual name this Innovation is supported by a verse inim that states the very famous P it is a time to act for God they have voided your Torah PK into Hillen very controversial PK and this this PK teaches that there may be states of emergency so extreme that the Sanhedrin the Supreme Court may even decide to violate one principle of the Torah so that we may uphold another this is the gamorra in Bros violate one principle of the Torah in this case using the name of God saying it explicitly in order to uphold another principle what is that principle the gamor sees this greeting as highly significant seeing in it the key to IFS son's transformation into Boaz there was indeed a state of emergency Boaz was deeply aware of the rampant intolerance poisoning yro on full display when Omi and Rus entered Basim for the first time and as I mentioned already were met by complete rejection and were demonized with the power vested in him as chaet and leader of the Sanhedrin he enacted a controversial new practice every Jew must greet his fellow with the words Hashem God is with with you pronouncing the actual name of God boas realized that the only way to save is roel from its crippling insularity and intolerance was to instill belief in the heart of every single Jew in the true value of every other Jew of every is he therefore forced them to say to each other hasem God is with you now to better grasp the resounding importance of this Innovation let's describe a fairly typical contemporary scene visitor a visitor comes to sh he looks different looks strange to us out of place he is the other he's not from un from our kind of Jew he's not the kind of person that we are accustomed to seeing now let's imagine that that visitor is a guest speaker this visitor who looks completely different from an entirely different Camp the people in the in the audience they don't think that God is with him they think God is with them he's viewed as an unwanted Intruder he might very well dress in a fashion to which they are not accustomed perhaps his beard does not look the way they think a beard should look or maybe he is Heaven for fend beardless perhaps he espouses views that do not conform to their way of thinking again they don't think that God is with him but after the innovation of boas they are required to greet him with the words Hashem God is with you articulating I emphasize again can't emphasize it enough articulating the actual name of God what are they going to do are they going to lie while pronouncing the Divine name are they going to say Hashem and not mean it it's really Unthinkable a person would have to be pretty far gone to do that desecrate God's name the God is with you imperative compels you to reexamine the relationship with this visitor it forces you to expand your vision of what yro includes it obliges you to be broad accessible and welcoming although until now you might have been narrow untouched and hostile and the response to this greeting is to declare if you can say that to me and mean it then I can offer you a heartfelt BR God will bless you if God is truly with me then I can present his Bros to you now this reform of boas changes the initial assumption one makes when seeing another person it demands an openness to the presence of God in each and every human being true this edict requires a misuse of the name of God but boas asserted the principle it is time to to act for God even if it requires voiding the Torah the situation among ISRO was so deplorable that The Most Extreme Measures were condoned and certainly the situation today is every bit as deplorable not only here but the world over where no one it would appear is capable any longer of talking to anyone who disagrees with them and it is because of his courageous tolerance and his recognition of the enduring value of every member of isra that Boaz became the father of royalty now listen to this Rus comes to Boaz in his Granary in the middle of the night and flaunting even the most rudimentary standards of modesty she lies down next to him an outrageously Brazen act that is to put it mildly a shocking violation of H migas Rus tells us that her intrusion occurred and this is sour six at midnight those are momentous words as the famous poem in the haod that we just read few short weeks ago that takes its time and refrain from these words recounts The Stroke of Midnight Heralds significant changes in Jewish histor the defeat of so many Arch enemies of Israel who are enumera in this poem and the future Yeshua the future Redemption itself all these momentous events occur at the stroke of midnight these are all transformational occasions Paradigm shifts of historic dimensions and this humble moment in a granary this humble and very private moment in a granary takes takes its place among those hinges of History David H the ultimate product of the Union of Boaz and Rus and the last word in the Milla understood how delicate this moment was and how fragile his existence and his crown were David realized that had this meeting gone differently had Boaz reacted to Russ's advances with shock and indignation as any from person would had he reacted as a kanoi as a zealot had he reacted as an extremist who has no feeling for context or as a fanatic who has no sensitivity to the needs of a particular moment and a unique set of circumstances than he David would never have been born his kingdom would never have emerged and the Messiah destined to come of his house would never have been conceived the midash makes this very point and this is Source s and I translate the verse inim States at midnight I David will arise to thank you God for Your Righteous laws then the midash goes on beyond the PK and says and I thank you also for the kindness that you did for my great grandparents boas and Rus for if Boaz had reacted to Rus with a single curse from where would I have come David Rose every night the talmud tells us at midnight to offer thanks for the life and future granted to him at midnight in The Granary this was boas the ultimate Exemplar of Tolerance and openness and now I'd like to uh move to Rose and I see that I'm exactly halfway through and so we're good Rus was a princess of the nation of moov I didn't give you the source for that but it too is kazal who married into the family of a uh judian nobleman she and her mother-in-law Naomi suffered the loss of their husbands and were reduced to grinding poverty rather than return to her family in the Royal Palace of moav Rus attached herself to Naomi and decided to convert and return with her to Basim Basim in the province of Yehuda now there are a series of PIM in the first peric of migas Rus that trace the development of the relationship between these two women let's take a look at them Source eight in per in it says that and her daughters-in-law they got up and they returned from the fields of Moab he the K she she is the primary mover the Kal her daughters-in-law are appendages they are dependent on her she is the decision maker they're coming along for the ride Rus and orpa are her followers in the next verse the next PUK and it's the next Source number nine what I don't need an extra 10 minutes I just need the time that was allotted to me yes so look at source nine now and in this PK it says she left the place where she was which seems to be a ridiculous statement she certainly didn't leave the place where she wasn't but if you want to understand that and most anything else about millas Rus there's this wonderful safer that you can buy at pomerance called Rising Moon or if you prefer Hebrew it's the Hebrew as well anyway had to get in the commercial plug somehow um it says yeah now it says that her two daughters-in-law were with her it's not as it was in the previous he two separate entities now they're with her their status has been elevated as a result of their traveling with her and of their commitment to join her and once this occurs the very next word says puts all three of them together in the same verb they have now become United and finally we come to the next Source number 10 and it says there they are indeed one the two of them went together if you're wondering whyem is written in the masculine form well I think I already mentioned what you could do about that um so now they're completely one they're equal but the PK says something very instructive they were one until they got to Bas what happens when they got to Bas let's look at uh the next source number 11 a shocking transformation takes place the says there's a tension in this verse they've become separated again now she's still with her but she's back to being r moav and she's the one returning from the field of moav of course you may also be asking yourself what do you mean she's returning from the field of Moab she was never in yudah before there are there are several other uh indications that the hash is referring to her but or in the previous took him that we just saw but again if you're wondering about that already told you I don't know how many more times I can get that in but we'll see try to set a record so Naomi returned and with her Ruth ravia her daughter-in-law who returned from the fields of Mo and one of the indications by the way in response to your question is that it says V already that returned the first two words of the P so the is assumed to refer to Rus and of course the question is how did she return she had never been there but in any event Rus is no longer the equal of Naomi she is once again rusia Rus of the degraded nation of moov a nation that refused Hospitality to the Jewish people refused kindness to us on our way to the promised land and Who as a result is forever banned from marrying born Jews that is Source 12 yet in these words who returned from the fields of moov the talmud yusi offers a moving interpretation of this seemingly demeaning description of Rus thei says and here it's a it's worth looking just for a moment at source 13 the comment of the is of she is the first to come back from the fields of Mo even as the city of Basim turns away in disgust United in their Rejection it is as if a Heavenly voice utters these words who returns from the field of moov offering the perspective of History though at the time things CLE would not have seemed Bleaker to Rus the Heavenly voice as it were declares aha so this is what we have been waiting for the first one has arrived let's examine that comment Russ's Saga actually began as you know long before her birth with the falling out between aam and his nephew L they're falling out and of course L became the great-grandfather of Rus they're falling out culminated in A's demand which is Source 14 which I'd also like to read a says to Lo the whole land lies before you all I ask is he parade separate from me leave me and if you go to the right I'll go to the left you go to the left I'll go to the right we cannot live near each other he parade notice the word he parade L as we know chose to reside in sedom a place that is notorious for its insularity and utter rejection of kindness and relationships no guests allowed in sedom on pain of death this separation this he parade this breakdown of relationship and the creation of what uh I like to call an island mentality why because of auk which is the next source says in Source 15 in describing the dispersion of the Nations After the flood it says may from there all of theim the islands the island nations they developed from this dispersion the ultimate dispersed Place separate place is an island and um so it's in the sense of this P that a tells lot he parade separate from me become an island I don't want to have anything to do with you and uh this was we know precisely the mentality of sadome and of course this audience is uh uh of a certain age to remember the great uh lyrics of Paul Simon's famous song I am a rock I am an island in which he says I've built walls a fortress deep and mighty that none may penetrate and a rock feels no pain and an island never cries Island mentality the islands of the sea and this is what a tells lot heed and again the great English poet we all know from High School John Dunn famously countered sentiments such as these by writing no man is an island entire on to itself separation and Detachment not relating leads to sterility literally and figurative an inability to be creative literally and figuratively that's why in Hebrew a sterile animal is called a parid a mule so a rosant coming back together between the families of aam and lot begins with the Declaration that Rus makes to Naomi a declaration that has rings down through the eons a declaration that is still used in the ceremony that creates the ultimate relationship the marriage ceremony in many cultures Source 16 till death do us part only death will cause us to part to be nead to be separated and this is why our sages refer to Rus as remarkably a pra a pra is a little bird a bird who has returned to its nest the gamorra records a conversation between God and Moshe in which God explains why the two Nations moav and Ammon descended from the incestuous union between lot and his daughters after the destruction of stone why they may never be attacked God said you Moshe think they should be attacked and destroyed but I have other ideas this is Source 17 God said to him I you and I are not on the same wavelength here we're not on the same page you think they should be destroyed but I know I have these two pre Birds the same word PR to bring out from R from Ammon and mo R andun and now with the arrival of Ren B the talmi tells us that this announcement is made that the first of the two Pros has come back Rus is the one who will be able to repair the breach the Pud between Abraham and his nephew when Rus enters Bim she's not arriving for the first time although she had never been in Yuda before she is truly and accurately called hash she is in a very real sense returning and by returning she Bridges the centuries of separation and estrangement between these two families and that estrangement must be repaired for the following reason there is a deeper meaning of the identification of Rus as a moav in the last verse or the almost last verse of the first chapter you see Russ originally followed Naomi intending to become Jewish like Naomi she fancied herself an ERI she had rejected her own Roots but upon experiencing her reception in B she realized her error she realized that she never would become one of the people of Yehuda what's more she did not want to Simply become one of them it was not enough for her to become yel she had to assimilate moov into yro she was to channel everything L had achieved and all of his descendant experiences to create an entirely New World View for Israel and so allow its next stage of development into the birth of David at the moment she enters bleim Rus returns not as an anxious convert worried about her ability to fit in instead she returns as a confident moav determined to integrate Moab into Israel she provides the missing pieces that are necessary to complete Jewish royalty that cannot be overemphasized there is no malus roal without her there is no malus bavid without her there is no Mia without her and what she brings from Moab none of it would have been possible without her and ultimately without sidone from whence she came and the verse the pilim says this this Source 18 an incredible incredible medish I'll just uh read the last few words the says into I have found my servant David and the medish asks HEI where did I find him and the one word answer is sedom I found him in sedom there a remarkable halic decision of the konish that bears on this P it had become common practice in his time for people to append the epithet Yim may his name be blotted out when speaking of uh Kim Pates or MIM informers and liberally to other people with whom they who they didn't like the K is ruled that it was forbidden to use this term yak on what grounds astonishing sensitivity of a historically great POS on the grounds that the man's wife might require yum one day and yum Demands a stated in the posk in dorim Source 19 that the name of the deceased be not blotted out from Israel yum by the way is the underpinning of the entire melosos every relationship in every principal character in The Milla is a result of yum Boaz Rus and David and this is the that is invoked to say you can't say the pasan you can't say it's an inspiring Insight the reason for appending this epithet yakimo to the names of people is that you have decided that they're beyond hope so blot out his name but hope is never lost hope is the best thing the medish declares again I repeat mid AI where mome could any place be more hopeless more degenerate more debased and decadent could any place be further from God than sedom yet it and specifically it is the birthplace of the Lion of mashiach no person or place is ever Beyond hope hope is never lost upon seeing the stoike behavior of Bas leim Rus realizes that she must enter as a moav otherwise what would become of all the experiences background history and genetics that had formed her now as she's entering she Embraces her Roots because she has grasped that those roots represent the contribution that she and only she can make to ISRO now at first Rus made the error frequently made by gim and Bal cha she thought that the only way to succeed as a member of ISRO was to lose everything that she was and had been in order to become something that she was not she felt that to gain acceptance she had to reject her own past and declare it meaningless because after all she hadn't been religious this is a terrible mistake and to our Everlasting benefit Rus realizes it and it is for this reason that the BAM mikdash itself the greatest achievement of the descendants of Rus David and schlomo the center of sanctity in the entire world is forever known as AEL moov the lion of God who comes from moov PM B and this is this idea is enshrined if you will in the introduction to the Z you must know that the B mikash is arel Mo without moov you don't have David you don't have mashiach you don't have the B mikdash you have nothing so rather than making a doomed to failure attempt to be what she was not R realizes that there are things that will never develop from within yro things these things must be imported and therefore the gamorra teaches in the final source and I translate God exiled yel among the Nations so that they would ingather converts as the Novi HOSA says and I will sow them among the lands this is comparable to a farmer who SWS grain does he not expect to harvest a great deal more than he SWS Rus now understands that if ISRO is to embody what creation is meant to achieve it must include the entire of humanity there must be room for the assimilation of converts she realizes that she can offer something that Naomi cannot the purpose of Gus is to bring the world to Israel the convert is not to leave their World Behind therefore in the PK at the end of the first peric it is Rus of moov who has returned from the fields of moov and it is as the moabite who has returned that she makes her enduring contribution she is now in dependent of Naomi having grown fully into her own identity and history and so the talmud jushi Heralds the sense of Eternity that surrounds Rus returned to Bas Isel waited for centuries for this moment at last there is a person who understands and that person Rus has finally arrived maybe we all Merit the courage of Boaz and Rus to see as they did what might yet emerge from every member of Israel born Jew or convert and may God grant our leaders the wisdom to know how to temper our dedication to the time honored and traditional to the past with innovations that guarantee a glorious future amen good