Megilat Rut (Pt II) | Rabbi Shai Finkelstein

But I will uh try to do something that I did in Shul uh and expand on it. So uh I don't think anyone heard it yet uh but I'll expand on it and try to compare meat root to meat est and I'll also I'll present you my theory. Uh if you don't like it, too bad for you. Uh so hopefully you'll like it. No, no. And um but first we'll just say that is sponsored in memory by the veral families uh in memory of obviously of their parents. So I would suggest that um you know what let's start from the beginning. If I would ask you why do we read and no social everything uh if I would ask you why do we readil on you will come with at least five answers right? Okay, let's start with the first one. David. Oh, David is mentioned at the end. According to our tradition, David was born on Shabot and died on Shabot. Okay, very good. One second. The Gmorrah says, why do we have we don't have any, no commandments, no obligations, no nothing. So why do we have it? answer is it starts with in the middle there is at the end there is it's all about okay so that was the second third very good was the beginning of the harvest and therefore shot correspond in terms of the season two wonderful fourth love the stranger and the girl okay the love and this for the stranger and the girl which is obviously very important in the Torah and also to some extent We went into the covenant of Torah through what? Through milut. That's what said that we also you know the Jews did not circumcise themselves in Misim. So they did it then and then they became part of the covenant and it was through like gut. Very good. And the fifth one is so we had a vid, we had we had converts, we had and one more. Think about it. It's pretty simple. Suffering. Suffering. Yeah. Suffering. and army went through suffering in order to come to Israel and to be part of a community and on when you celebrate you need to understand it's not going to be that easy it's also going to be through some sacrifices that you do okay five reasons this year I decided that I need a sixth one and it should be mine and I hopefully I came up with something that I would like to share with you which I really think can be substantiated through Tanakh and through the text I wanted to claim that was written um basically to contradict me. Now before I'll go into proofs I'll also go into claim and this is the theory megalere is a megila for galut for you in galut for Jews in galut which is this is not original many people say the same thing but megat I'll call it megillionit a zionistic megilla this is very interesting very dramatic but with all due respect why I'm saying that. Now before I'm telling you why I'm saying that I will say I will need to say two things. A in order to create some kind of a theory like that and to start to compare between one migilla and another we need to know that what that we need to find same wording or connections between one verse to another. Sometimes the connection can be a positive one and sometimes it can contradict which means once the term is being used for a and then it's being used for something else. Okay. And the second thing the second hagda the second introduction is timeline. We know was written when before that was the time after already were on their way to Israel. They start building the betash it stopped and that was Ham or his children based on the Gar. So it was around the building of the first temple when first second thank you the when uh uh and okay so that's what about so in it says that was the one to write his own book books always interesting to me he didn't make it so um alf and he wrote and migillat That's what Gar and Babatra says. However, in the in the academic research, they have few opinions. One opinion is that they it was written after the second temple around the second temple or a little bit after which means the first sec the second betamed was destroyed on 70 70 CE. So it was somewhere around that. Okay. Interest interesting because it says whatever. Why do they say that? By the way, you can say hook, they don't care, right? They are not religious. That's not true. What they do in order to try to um to find the time for whatever was written, you have few ways to do it. So I know a little bit for my own thing is that if you want to try to um give a time to a manuscript, so there are professional people who look at the cluff and they look at the writing. So that they can dictate, they can determine if it was from the 12th century, 13th century, 14th century, France, England, Germany, whatever it is based on the CL. You can also identify toot where they came from, how old are they? I think we have a little bit of an experience here. And so that you can do, but how can you do it with me to the thing is that you look at at expressions and uh and sentences and wordings. Meaning you look at words that were not mentioned in other in any other books of Tanal but they do appear well in the Mishna. So Mishna is around the second century. So that's how you create those uh theories. Second opinion says no m it was mash around the time of why it was a pulmus like a a letter anti-za because were very much um into getting rid of all the women that were not Jews. You know the people who came from Bav many of them intermarried and one of the things that they told him is what you need to separate yourself from those non-Jewish women and meat shows you what here you have a foreign woman and not Jewish woman and look what she did right so what do you do that's the second opinion third opinion says no it was Bameshim it was around that time not sure that wrote it maybe someone else but it was around that time so three different opinions, advantages and disadvantages to all of them. Now just ask yourself the question why the says that wrote them. So wrote his book that's fine. Okayim and Ruth. So he says why? Because you think Ruth is at the time of the because it saysim or because wanted to what to identify Davidid as the king because he was the one to what to appoint David. Right now by the way even if we believe that wrote it he was not there because the son of Ruth is way way way before the vid. It's not that Chum was there and took pictures, you know, of Ruth and Nomi coming and Boas and all of that. It was not there. It was told to him in a in a if that's what we want to believe. Okay. So, I leave it open because it's not a theological sh here about what do we believe or not. But I just wanted to give the timeline according to all the opinions. Yes. Welcome home. No, no, I'm leaving at 7:00. Oh, okay. Okay. I thought you left. That's what I I looked at you. I said, "Wow, wow, that's great. You came for the shoe. A few less. Uh, I just heard that the G that you gave is not by and that that's when it was publicized. That's when it was printed. So, can't you say to printing public? So, can you say that it was written by then only became public later on with people making changes? Wouldn't that kind of it might but it's nowhere in Ezra and uh in time of Ezra they barely knew the Torah leave alone the brings a different question when exactly the was codified when exactly the rabbis decided okay zu 24 books set we don't know I mean there are theories aboutd but we don't really know for sure when exactly was the time that they said okay out okay makabim out okay we finish withim why how why not for now okay what they do if they say oh just a that's a story about someone who was a governor in his town from Bethlehem. His name was Boaz or maybe his name was not Boaz. We don't know that we don't know if Ruth and O and Nomi and El was their real names or just names that were given to them through Tanakh. We have no idea. I can definitely assure you that Ruth's father probably didn't call her root. Right. That that's I'm almost sure. And then the fact that she's the daughter of Melition understand how the second opinion how do we know that she was the daughter of a memo only based on tradition right so how do they know because they wanted to create some something we said okay so I'm not going to use the text too much because it's not very I mean you can have it you can look at your phones but I I just in terms of when I want to quote Sukim so I want to show you something so the beginning let's start with the beginning so obviously at the beginning is right. Oh, wow. Wonderful. Right. But if I was you, I will raise my hand say, "Rabbi, are you joking me?" This is not a proof. And I will tell you, you are correct. But that was just the beginning. Now let's start the beginning of Megaton which I called it galut, right? And is the that's my theory. Now by the way you forgot to ask me even if what I say it's true you still have the question okay so why do we read on just because we should read it when not right so we will need to answer that too will have an answer but let's establish first the theory okay so the beginning the introd the opening statement is what a feast celebration mishe right doing a mishe for half a year. This is crazy. Okay, I don't know who paid for that, but uh half a year of celebrations of wine, food, women, everything going. And why would he do that? Why did he do this mishe? Because he wanted to show control, right? He was the ruler on over 127 countries. He wanted to show that he's a strong king. can provide for everyone whatever they want and also he according to Khazal and I I will try to avoid Khazal as much as I can just in order to show you the narrative uh he wanted to show to Vashi that he is the king and not she even though she had a lineage he did not but you know he wanted to show that he's the king so he wanted to show responsibility and he had the wealth to do The beginning of there is no mish there is ra there is famine and the famine same thing like wealth looking for people to take responsibility and elim who is being presented to us in the first sentence seems to be that he shies away perform any responsibilities and he leaves. He does not show any control over the situation or does not take any responsibilities. So in a very superficial way there's this is not a substantiate it's not a strong proof but we have mishe versus okay feast versus famine and the reaction B this feast that did he did it for everyone Jews and non-Jews alike And the Jews go there and they have a wonderful time to the extent that God is so upset with them that want to annihilate them because they knew there is one thing to attend. There's a second thing to attend and to enjoy. So they attended and they enjoyed it. And now I'm taking a bit says that dressed up like a kenador and gave them what to drink and to eat with the temple vessels and the Jews enjoy it. So total integration into society. Total integration into the into society. You go to root. In root, what do we have? We have a family that tried to integrate into society, a different society, but doesn't work. We mentioned last week or whatever they are dwelling where in mo in the fields of Moab, they didn't make it to the city. There is no integration yet. However, there is later on there is an integration of intermarriage. They marry root and opa and basically they feel that they are what they are fully now integrated with the moines. Okay. So we have the idea of integration. Now after we have this this introduction now let's talk let's go further. How do we know what do we know about modai about his identity? Oh no no no not now no I don't know what the doubt so now no he's from okay so he's from both but he is called the first thing that we know about is what and then so the introduction to Modai is hey nice to meet you what's your name a Jewish man And then we have right he was one of what of the people who were exiled. Oh okay. So he was exiled but rea at that moment what's going on in Israel they are building the better mdash or they are really in the construction like here right it takes them time so why is there that's the first question I ask myself almost every year it means what he does not care there is gulah By the way, how do I know that he doesn't care? Because even after the ends, you don't [Music] see Benesh and they live happily ever after in Baka. No, they stay there because it's good. At least they think it's good. So, Modai is one of the gulim and there is an opportunity to leave the place. He stays. A man didn't even know he was Jewish until somebody told him. Yeah. Fair. Fair. Wait, wait, wait. We'll get there. We'll get there. So, he's in is Yes. Wasn't there was he mentioned in Ezra or something? Sure. Part of the people who went back to Israel. So, [Music] so this modai is is wonderful. It's a wonderful thing that he's an issue. And when we talk about his identity and his nationality, we don't hear too much. Not only that, we don't hear too much. We hear issu. And then he tells do not say anything about what your identity. Who knows about [Music] The nation that stays in Shushan are being called what? Yehudim. Fast forward to what do we have? And at the end, what do we have? The name is few times. Israel which means not Yudi is a a gal name that was given to us by whom? The Romans. We had Judea. We were expelled from Judea and we were called Jews. When you look at Tanakh, we are not called Jews only in Megatere. Where are what are we called? Is or is there's no Yudi in the Torah? We were referred to Elohim. Okay. Is not. So what we see is an immediately contrast between in the people are becoming they become groups. We see also with and they are not really an you can destroy them. It's not like destroying a nation. You're destroying a a group of people here and a group of people there. When you go to root, you're talking about is so that's the third third thing. Fourth, I know it's very uh we'll talk about it. What was the profession that the Jews had in Shushan? The known Jews, all government employees. Now, we don't know what the other Jews did, but the known Jews were all in the government positions. What do we have in root? Agriculture. All agriculture. Exactly like what needs to be done when I'm Israel is in in Israel that we have what that we have people with that they're dealing with what with agriculture um it's all about the agriculture okay move on in the guilt we have a Jewish woman. We have a Jewish woman who marries a non-Jew in order to what? Hey, she had she had no other choice. Yeah. But the idea was that she will save the Jewish people. Right. In Ruth, we have exactly what? The opposite. We have a non-Jewish woman who marries a Jew to create what? Beta. A house of kingdom, a dynasty of kings. Now with Estelle, we know that what that Modai raised her. Why? Because of she does not have parents where int very similar to that. She lives. Yeah. Finally. Do you remember the puk? No. Okay. So, I'll show it to you. Um, he says, "Bo says to hell, says to her, "I know what you did after your husband died. You also you don't have a father and a mother and therefore also Boaz basically approach root as his daughter he always calls her what bet and modai raised Esther as oy okay his wife or like his daughter can um really without it says So again you have two women who are being raised by someone else. Okay. When you think about what was the miracle which means what they stood up and they had self-defense. They were able to what? To defend themselves and even to kill some of their enemies and that's it. And then they stayed right. What is the repetitive word that is mentioned in root especially in peral? So we will do it like that. Start counting went to the gate in order to do [Music] the Okay. Who is counting? Everyone's counting. Okay. One. Ael. the [Music] redeemer. Okay, I'm jumping ahead second time. And I will I say that I will tell you Skipping a bit. So you got the point I think it's like 10 times the idea 11 thanks who count right who is counting so the idea is is the idea of redemption not Not only just to what? To save yourself but the redemption, salvation. Something that will bring to end this discolute. Now what's the last peril? Taxes, right? Did you ask yourself why is that there? Like now I know two things never change. and death and but why who cares that put taxes on the lands and okay someone needs to pay for the festivity and the war and everything but why do we need it absorption the what absorption into the normal part of taxes which means everything went back to what it was before the yes is what? Yeah, Modai is up there. So, we don't need to worry, right? Even with the taxation, maybe we got some kind of an exemption for Jewish for tuition and things like that, right? And then but take a look at the last last assistant whatever individuals not to the [Music] individuals. He always tried to find good about his people. Shalom to his descendants. I am sorry to say something and I know I'm recorded. One of the major differences between Galut and Israel is what? In Galut we build beautiful kilot. Beautiful kilot. What is missing? Nationhood. There is communityhood which is a madeup world but there is no peoplehood. Kilo do incredible things. They support incredible institutions but there is no le and there is no this puk at the end of there in my opinion it's almost like the sum up of galut. It's my kahila. It's my descendants. It's my family. It's the life that we live here. But there is no nationhood. Root ends up with what? First and foremost, it ends up with root disappeared. Yes. Because you are here to do your job. And if I'm not needed anymore and someone else can do a better job than me, it's not about me. It's about the greater goal. That's a B. What we have is is that we have the entire neighbors and the entire city celebrates with them. Yeah. The city went through a transformation. The city in Peric Alf looked at Nomi says to Aora, we are very sorry or happy that that's your situation and did not offer help. The entire city celebrate with Nomi [Music] and what do we have? A we have continuity which by the way also contradict the beginning of the megal megal begins with what? With zero continuity. That's it. It's the end. It's mon and we end with what with all this with all this dynasty of people and B we have and is what you need the nation you can't have a many people thinks that they are kings they are kings on in their imagination you need to have the nation with you so this is the idea of food so yes what do you do with not my problem that was his problem means by not which means his his people some of them were jealous some of them didn't like him says it was the Sanhedrin that they claimed that he's spending too much time in government rather than yeshiva okay but that was there a little later on perspective but the idea is that you know many people liked him and some people didn't so the idea is that I think we established enough that meilato root has the idea of Israel and not Galut. And now if my claim is that it was anti-ag and Naomi and Mlon and Kion was what? They left Israel thinking that the future for them will be where in Galut. Unfortunately or fortunately no me sum up her experience in galut in the following [Music] sentence I went full and I came back empty now don't get me wrong when they came to Israel no one was waiting for them there was no apartment there was No community, the community was hostile against them. But for Braim later, she established dynasty. Established, she didn't see it. She established what a potential for dynasty for future where in Erat is which means when you look at meat there what they accomplished was tangible. Jews could stay in Shushan for at least until Esther and Modai are gone. Everything will be great because they are taking care of us. And the next king, his mother is Jewish. It's Esther. It will be wonderful for the next 30 years. And then what? And then what? You have another Aman. Not this Aman. You will have his cousin. Whatever. You will have someone because yes, you are there. But you cannot and shouldn't think that that's your place. That was the problem that Modi had. They call which means what other cities called and mdashi that's what that what says which means their entire idea of where is home was skewed. Therefore comes along and says it's better to stay in a Yehuda which you are not sure exactly what will happen there. David to become a king also had to go through hoops but it's better to be here. So, Megillat is somewhat of a anthesist. That's the word you say. Anthesis. Anthesis. Oh my god. I wanted to go to the dentist after. So, in Hebrew, it's called antza. Ant. That's much easier on the on the shine. Antza. So, it's Antza. Theat does not mean that it's going to be so easy here, but it means that the future is here. And that's what is talking about. It talks about land. It talks about what is the beginning. You don't know exactly how much you will have, but you are happy that you have something. You not might not be as wealthy as the guy in Sushan, but he will have no future. I know it's hard. Maybe it's a little hard to hear. And it's not to dismiss what's going on in in Hutzlar. I told you I might and I travel a lot. I see beautiful communities. I know many of you came from beautiful communities. But [Music] Zo and it's not only because we moved here. So now the question is and now I need to be careful because I can't go to 120 they will kill me with the min um question is okay so why do we read okay Zionistic wonderful antiurim okay so you know on reach I mean what's the idea and here is something that I don't think we think about when we talk about Torah when we talk about Torah so we think about ah we are all together and really if I'm not mistaken said um says our nation is being characterized only by its Torah and all of that is wonderful but Israel has a a very significant component into the fulfillment of Torah. And I'm not talking about mitzvot. I'm not talking only about mitzvot commandments that are tied to the land. I'm talking about nationhood. The Torah that was given to us was given to us as what? but to a nation. Now, this is interesting. The first thing the truth says to Naomi, when says to her, "Go home. Go home." She says to her, "What?" You would think if she wants to quote unquote convert, the first thing that comes out from her mouth will be what? Elo first and let's let's talk about the and then let's talk about you know faith and faith and and the nationhood no no root start with what at the end of root why did I uh 6:35 at the end of root it says we [Music] Huh? First he says what is what is to the wedding? No, but he referred to his people in Bethlehem as what? As nation and then there is one more. There was um ohash again they could say all the people who were there. No, the idea is nation and then at b is and then and then that's it which means the idea of what of nation comes along again where at the end so what is the importance of the nation in the Torah. And this is interesting. We have the idea of what is to being a guarantor to each other. This is how you can fulfill someone else's mitzvah. By the way, how can you fulfill someone else's obligation in a mitzvah? Do you know where is the puk that teaches us about in the Torah? Yes. Agreed. What's the pub? I don't think I'm not sure if that's not this one. It's at the end of if I'm not mistaken. which means what does it mean? What is obstacle? They will fall on each other which means basically at the time of stress they will fall on each other and it can be translated as that I'm going to fall on you physically or I can count on you. That's how Kazal interpreted that the idea of being a guarantor for another Jew comes as a result of a now take a look at it. When Alik left he was a guarantor to anyone he ran away from responsibilities. Boaz and the Goel who also shied away from responsibilities. The only one who took responsibility was whom and root. I agree both of them. You know you always have this the question who is the hero of the megila. You know with the meat stair you also have the same question that the stair is that mod perhaps vashi maybe uh what's his name or whoever okay meon carva okay whoever is the hero. The question you have here in the in a way who is the hero. So everyone here will say root right? Some people will say no. Some people will say boas. Some people will say the neighbors. Okay. And one person will say maybe the goel was the hero. Okay. Whatever they we need to also define what does it mean a hero? How you constitute a hero? But leave all those questions alone. The idea of reading it's to teach us that the Torah has another component which is what the national component. What brings us together to sh is the Torah was given on for a purpose. But the maximum fulfillment of Torah is when you have the three points of this triangle tora and this is the mulash. This is the triangle only when you have three of them together then you know Torah can be maximized to its fullest potential. So now if I will ask you what are the reasons we read on I hope you will tell me that there are six reasons the known five and the additional six it's a theory I think I can find more and more when I looked at it again I saw some other things uh but that's more in the characteristic of root versus a stale est is being told what to do and then she does whatever she wants to do. Ruth is being told what to do and she always does it always. She does not deviate which is very interesting. Estelle has some kind of a transformative change in her in her personality from a very quiet shy unassuming girl. She's the one to lead from Pericv and on you know she she's the one that uh is moving things on and root she does exactly what she was told and then when it's being accomplished Nomi is the one to what to take charge which is very very interesting to see but that's in terms of personalities not in terms of uh the general uh understanding yes but Esther argues a lot against the person certain things that's what I'm saying she went through a transformative change in her personality from the beginning to the minute that she decides okay I'm going to the king and whatever will be will be why does always have to drop dead okay that's for