The Book of Ruth: A Story of Selfless Dedication

The custom is that on Shavuos one reads the מגילת רות , the Book of Ruth. Numerous reasons are given for this, I will just quote a few.

1) In the same way as the whole Jewish People said Na’aseh V’Nishma “We will do and then hear” (all the details), Ruth made the same undertaking, when insisting on joining her mother-in-law, Naomi, on her return journey from Moav to the Land of Israel.

2) The story of how Ruth was collecting the gleanings left in the field for people in poverty, and therefore met Boaz to whom she eventually became married, took place at the time of the wheat harvest which is around the time of year of Shavous.

3) Ruth had the merit to see as her great grand son, King David, Dovid Hamelech the most famous king in Israel who composed the Psalms and from whom the Moshiach will come. King David died on Shavuos.

As we read through this moving story we are all struck by the strength of character and צדקות, righteousness, of the two ladies concerned. One could say that as far as Naomi is concerned, having seen what happened to her husband and two sons, who all died after they had fled from the Land of Israel, because there was a famine, that Naomi was returning to her roots and realised how important it was to be steadfast.

However, as far as Ruth was concerned, she was a Princess in Moav, not only taking a leap into the unknown, but also going to accompany an old broken impoverished lady who begged Ruth not to come with her. We all know how the two daughters in law Ruth and Orpah both started walking on the road together with Naomi imploring them to return to their parents houses and lives of luxury and here we see the difference in that, whilst both cried, Orpah returned to her parents house and to the bad ways of her people whereas Ruth cleaved to Naomi and promised to keep the whole Torah.

It was even more remarkable in that, there is a verse in Torah which says לא יבאו עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה “a descendant of the two nations, Ammon and Moav cannot join the congregation of Hashem” that is become Gerim. Here we find Ruth who was a Moabite insisting that she would try to join.

The Gemora tells us that when there was talk of David becoming King of Israel, there were people who objected because of this verse, but Boaz who was David’s great grandfather had a tradition that when it says a Amoni and Moavi it only means the male members of those nations. מואבי ולא מואבית A Moabite man may not become a Ger but a lady may. This is what is known as Torah Shel baal Peh, our oral tradition of the interpretation of the Torah which was also given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Finally, it was agreed that this was the definite correct interpretation, but can you imagine, this young girl coming from a foreign country, not even knowing whether she would be accepted as a full Jewess.

Her strength of character and steadfastness was extraordinary.

She then got married to a very elderly gentleman, Boaz was certainly over 80 at the time, one can see that both of them meant it לשם שמים, for the sake of heaven. Ruth outlived her husband and in fact lived on to see David crowned as King.

We find in a verse just before the revelation at Mount Sinai, that Moses was instructed
כה תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד לבני ישראל “So you should say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israel” and our Rabbis comment that first Moshe had to speak to the ladies and see what their reaction was, they were known as Bais Yaacov. Once the women agreed to go ahead, the men would no doubt follow and they all accepted the Torah Na’aseh VeNishma, we will do and we will hear, as we know.

It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the ladies have a pivotal role in keeping and continuing Yiddishkeit, Torah True Judaism. The woman of the house sets the tone, she buys kosher food and she teaches her small children how to behave in a Jewish way and so it continues.

Naomi and Ruth were both prototypes of this, Naomi coming from the traditional background, whilst Ruth was coming from outside. Nevertheless, they made a fantastic team.

I mentioned a second reason for reading the book of Ruth at Shavuos namely that the main part of the story took place at the time of the reaping of the crops. If you look at the wording in the story, you will find at one place it says “And it happened by chance that Ruth went to the field owned by Boaz”. And then it also happened that Boaz asked his workers who is this young girl. But if you look into it more carefully, you will see that although there seems to be a whole series of coincidences, really they were not coincidences.

The scene was set in order that this match should take place. However, we all have what is known as a Bechirah, a choice and it is up to the individual or individuals to do the “right” thing. That is exactly what happened to Boaz, who was under pressure not to take this Moabite convert as a wife and also Ruth who could have had the pick of a number of young men. They both made the correct choice.

I want to repeat to you an idea which I heard from Rabbi Dessler זצ"ל, of blessed memory, (who incidentally officiated my parents’ marriage many years ago) and he discusses this idea of free choice, Bechira. He says that we all have a free choice, for example people have the choice to read this article, people have the choice to walk down one side of a road or the other side. There are some choices which have relatively minor implications but, he says, we all have at certain times in our lives, to take a major step, we are at a cross-roads and we are not sure what to do, if we turn one way our lives and those of later generations turn out completely differently than if we had gone the other way. He refers in particular to the moment when Naomi told her two daughters in law to return to their homes, one did and one didn’t and what was the result after three or four generations, Ruth had a great grandson called David, Orpah had a great grandson called Goliath. It may be a surprise to you but it is so.

So we see the two complete opposites, we all know the story of David and Goliath and in fact Goliath was a distant cousin to David. But look at the way they had drifted poles apart. That is one of the outstanding lessons that we can learn from The Book of Ruth.

We, all of us, nowadays are faced with major choices, we live in a society which some people call Western civilisation and I think of as Western decadence. Increasingly we are pressurised by the media into attitudes and actions which, to put it mildly, are not according to Torah values. Very often, instinctively, we know that the latest Government thinking on education or the general permissive attitudes are wrong. How are we supposed to know the correct way to behave and to ensure that our children and grandchildren, relatives and friends remain true Jews?

One, first of all, must have strength of conviction, we adhere to a Jewish religion and race which has been in exile for nearly 2000 years but nevertheless survived and the ones that survived were the Jews that adhered to their religion. Secondly there must be basic knowledge of Torah in order to be able to keep the mitzvahs, we must know what are the most important points. Not only must we know, we must internalise that they are important. There are certain basic mitzvahs which are the foundations on which Jewish family life functions. There is Kashrus, eating kosher food, and this does not mean just when eating at home but also outside the home, for example when going out to a restaurant or on holiday etc. There is Shabbos, which is a day to recharge our spiritual values, learn some Torah, sit together as a family, sing Zemiros etc. There is Taharas Hamishpocha, going to Mikvah creates purity in a spiritual sense and then there isחינוך , education. But of course, all mitzvas are important and to be adhered to.

If you look back on the communities that were very large in this and other countries but did not have organised orthodox Jewish education, they have virtually disintegrated, whereas others with proper organised Torah True Jewish education are strong vibrant and increasing in numbers.

It is important that a two pronged method is used to withstand bad influences. They are, of course, the home, where I have emphasised the role of the mother but of course the role of the father is also important, and secondly, the Jewish, Torah True, education that each child needs to receive. Going to a cheder once or twice a week is a very poor substitute. Torah True Jewish School for boys and girls is essential. We need to ensure that boys continue to Yeshiva Gedolah and girls to Beis Yaakov type of High School education.

The third reason I gave at the beginning for the reading of the book of Ruth was that King David, who is mentioned right at the end of the book, died on Shavuos. He was a great Tzaddik and an original thinker and psalmist and composed beautiful and eloquent praises and songs to Hashem, including the Hallel. These תהלים, psalms are used by Jews all over the world to this day.

I am sure that Ruth never dreamt, when she accompanied Naomi back to the Land of Israel that she would marry Boaz and that she would witness a great grandson as King David from whom would come the Royal family and the Moshiach .

It shows you what can be achieved with selfless dedication.

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The Shira

The Shirah was the song of praise sung by the Children of Israel when they crossed over the Red (Reed) Sea after leaving Egypt and the waters split. They walked through dry land between piled up mountains of water and the Egyptians pursuing them were drowned.

The Shira as it is written in a Sefer Torah

The normal way words are written in the Torah is on straight lines following one another with gaps left only at the end of each chapter.

The Shirah is the only place where there is a spacing in a brick like formation as shown on the adjacent page. This layout is according to tradition and is shown in the Rambam’s monumental work Yad Hachazoka. I have not seen any reason given for this layout which is unique in the five books of Moses. Furthermore, the song starts with the words אשירה לה' and ends ה ימלך לעולם ועד.

The question then arises as to why the two lines below the final sentence are still written in the same brick like formation. If you look immediately above you will find that the introduction, which commences with the words אשירה לה' is written in the normal manner with no gaps. Therefore, it is even more strange that after the song apparently ends there should be more brick like formations.

I suggest that the key to the answer lies in the last line of the brick like formation. If you look at the first word of the last line, this reads הים - HaYom, “the sea”, if you look at the final word it once again reads הים HaYom “the sea” and in the middle, you have the words ובני ישראל הלכו ביבשה בתוך “and the Children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of”.

What we have is a bird's eye view of what happened because of the two gaps which have been deliberately left to emphasis the waters on the two sides and the Children of Israel walking on dry land between them. (See copy of the layout on the adjacent page)

I mentioned earlier on that I had not seen any explanation given as to why the whole Shirah is written in brick like formation. I should like to suggest a possible reason.

There are a number of names of Hashem, most of which we are familiar with as we use them continually during our prayers and are mentioned clearly in the Torah. There is, however, one particular one known as the Shem Ayin Bais שם ע"ב which is quoted by Rashi on a Mishnah in Succah page 45A and he explains that these are in fact 72 separate combinations of three letters which come from three verses just before the Shirah (Chapter 14, verses 19, 20 and 21). Each verse consists of 72 letters and the method used is to take the first letter of the first verse, the last letter of the second verse and the first letter of the third verse, which therefore makes the word
והוVov Hay Vov, and so on. A detailed explanation of this is given by the Zohar on the spot.

The final statement at the end of the third verse isויבקעו המים , “and the waters split”. It would seem, therefore, that this emanation of the 72 words were those used by Hashem to wrought the miracle of the splitting of the sea.

Going back to the brick like formation of the Shirah if you count each brick individually and I mean by a brick, for example, אשירה Oshirah and the next four words as one brick, the word סוס Sus as a separate brick etc., and you then go forward until the final word in brick like formation “HaYom”, you will find that there are exactly 72 bricks. As the Bnei Yisroel then saw such wonders and reached such a high level of holy spirit, Ruach Hakodesh, they instinctively understood the use of the 72 combinations and their song of praise is likewise split into 72 bricks.

To re-enforce my suggestion, I want to turn to the verse before the Shirah which is immediately above and starts with the wordsויראו ישראל את היד הגדולה and endsובמשה עבדו. This states that the Israelites saw the Great Hand which Hashem had brought upon Egypt, the people revered Hashem had faith in Hashem and Moshe His servant.

We know that in addition to the Hebrew letters serving to form words, each individual letter has a numerical value for example, an aleph is one, a yud is ten etc. If you take the initial letters of the whole of the verse and add them together, they total 216 which is exactly three times 72. I mentioned earlier on that the 72 combinations each have three letters and therefore this is really, at a deep level what the Children of Israel saw, namely, that these 216 letters in total had been used to produce the great miracle, the splitting of the sea.

* * *

The Shirah was the song of praise which the Bnei Yisroel sang together to Hashem after the vanquishing of their foes and all future wars and praises pertaining thereto up to the coming of Moshiach are hinted therein. The last phrase ה' ימלך לעולם ועד is in the future tense and we are told that Hashem will be King (recognised by all) for ever and ever, this applies to the time of the Moshiach onwards.

At the time of the second temple, when the חשמנאים - Hasmonians rose up against the Greeks leading to the miracle of Chanukah the acclaimed leader of the war was יהודה המכבי, Yehuda HaMacabi. A reason given for this unusual surname is that when he went into battle with his small band of religious Jews against the mighty armies of Greece, his battle cry was מי כמכה באלם ה'“Who is like unto you among the strong ones, Hashem” the first letters spell out מכבי, and as we all know, he won a series of spectacular victories leading to the recapturing of Yerushalyim and the Bais HaMikdosh.

Why did he choose this battle cry? If you look at the Shirah as a whole, you will notice that this phrase appears right in the heart of it. Yehuda HaMacabi told his followers that in the same way as Hashem performed a miracle to help the Children of Israel when they were going out of Egypt, He would help them again in their struggle to vanquish their degenerate enemies. The numerical value of the first letters of the words מי כמכה באלם ה' add up to 72 and as mentioned above this was the emanation of Hashem at a time of the going out of Egypt and he managed to reawaken this for his own generation.

The miracle of Chanukah took place, according to the Seder Olam, in the year 3595 from the creation of the world, this was 234 years before the second Temple was destroyed. The total numerical value of the four words, מי כמכה באלם ה add up to exactly 234. Would it be too much to suggest that as reward and merit for Yehuda HaMacabi using this phrase as his rallying call Hashem granted a further 234 years from the Ness of Chanukah that the Bais HaMikdosh should remain standing.

Furthermore, if one counts the letters from אז ישיר, Oz Yoshir up to באלם ה, BoElim Hashem, there are 420 which is exactly the total amount of years that the second temple stood.

We begin to understand some of the depth of the Shirah and perhaps part of the reason as to why this was incorporated into the פסוקי דזמרה said every morning…

* * *

King David, Dovid Hamelech, composed תהילים, the Psalms and in his own brilliant and unique way praised and thanked Hashem at length. Anyone who reads the Tehillim is struck by the fact that with his genius he used his own expressions. However, there is one place where he lifted half of a verse directly from the Torah. In chapter 118 which commences הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו “let us give thanks to Hashem for he is good, for His kindness is forever”. He continues מן המצר קראתי י-ה ענני במרחב י-ה “From being oppressed I called upon Hashem and Hashem answered me with expansiveness.” and shortly afterwards he uses the expressionעזי וזמרת י-ה ויהי לי לישועה which translates as “Hashem is my might and my praise and He was a salvation for me.” or “Hashem’s might and His cutting away (of the enemy) was a salvation for me” this is half of a verse taken directly from the Shirah. Surely Dovid Hamelech who was a supreme creator of verses must have had some special reason to have utilised half of a verse from Torah and in particular from the Shirah.

If one looks at the way Dovid vividly describes in this chapter of Tehillim the problems he encountered that, always with the help of Hashem, he managed to overcome, we can perhaps understand why he borrowed this phrase from the Shirah.

When the Children of Israel stood with their backs to the sea, watching with trepidation Pharaoh and his armed hosts coming towards them, they were terrified. They looked to the right, and saw a wilderness with wild animals, snakes etc., they looked to the left and saw the same picture. There were those among them who said that they should nevertheless try to run into the wilderness to escape, others said that they should fight the Egyptians and some even said that they should give in to the Egyptians and become slaves again. But they did pray to Hashem for a salvation. That salvation came in the most unexpected manner, namely, that they turned round walked into the sea which then split and they were saved and the Egyptians drowned.

I believe that Dovid Hamelech especially introduced this verse expression עזי וזמרת י-ה ויהי לי לישועה which can be translated either as “Hashem is my might and my praise and He was a salvation for me.” or “Hashem’s might and His cutting away (of the enemy) was a salvation for me” to emphasise that he likewise had often been in a situation where he could not see a way out and that Hashem had helped and saved him in the most unexpected manner.

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LECH LECHA The relationship between Avrohom and Lot

It is interesting to note that the description of Lot in relation to Avrohom is not constant.
In the beginning of Lech Lecha posek ד, וילך אברם- וילך אתו לוט with no description of the family relationship. The next verse commences with the wordsויקח אברם את שרי אשתו ואת לוט בן אחיו here Lot is referred to as his nephew (brother’s son). In fact, we read at the end of Noach that Lot was the son of Horon. Avrohom’s brother.

Further on, in chapter 13, verse ה, we have, with no description, וגם ללוט ההלך את אברם. In posek ח we have ויאמר אברם אל לוט – כי אנשים אחים אנחנו, we are brothers. In chapter 14, posek יב, we have ויקחו את לוט ואת רכשו בן אחי אברם וילכו brother’ son (nephew) and immediately afterwards, in posek יד, we have וישמע אברם כי נשבה אחיו his brother (not nephew). In posekטז , we have וגם את לוט אחיו ורכשו השיב again referring to Lot as his brother. So we see that Lot is described on occasion without any particular relationship, also as the son of his brother, that Avrohom refers to him as brother, אנשים אחים, later on he is again referred to as the son of the brother of Avrohom, followed by him being referred to as his brother. Very puzzling, I believe.

One other important point to bear in mind is that both when Avrohom went down to Egypt with Soroh and again when Avimelech enquired after her, Avrohom referred to his wife, as אחותי, my sister.

In order to understand the nuances and apparent contradictions, one has to bear in mind a very important point which is perhaps not well know. Not only was Lot the son of Horon, the brother of Avrohom, the son of the brother who had been burned in the Ur Chasdim, in place of Avrohom (Rashi, quoting the medrash at the end of Noach), in fact, Lot was also Avrohom’s brother in law. Because Soroh was also the daughter of Horon as Rashi once again brings at the end of Noach, namely that יסכה and שרי were one and the same person.

Let us now go through the various verses quoted above. When Avrohom left the town of Haran, to go to Eretz Yisroel, the Torah states וילך אתו לוט, Lot went with him. Really this could have been for one of two reasons, either because he was his nephew or because he was his brother in law, or for both reasons. The Torah, in the next verse, clarifies this, because we are told that Avrohom took his wife and his brother’s son (not his wife’s brother). Avrohom felt a responsibility for Lot. The medrash tells us that Avrohom was thrown into the fire on the orders of Nimrod and miraculously survived. Horon who was watching this, was not quite sure which side he should come down on, that of Avrohom or that of Nimrod. He reasoned to himself that if Avrohom would emerge unscathed, he would come down on Avrohom’s side. When he was asked by Nimrod “and whose side are you on” he said, Avrohom’s side. He was promptly thrown into the Ur Chasdim, the furnace and died because he was not the righteous person, the Tzaddik, that Avrohom was. Because of this, Avrohom felt a responsibility to look after his son, Lot as he felt that, to some small extent, he, Avrohom, had contributed to Horon’s (Lot’s father) death.

Avrohom journeyed to Egypt after a few months in Eretz Yisroel due to a famine. He was asked, “Who is this beautiful woman?” and he stated, אחותי she is my sister. Can you imagine Lot’s feelings when he hears about his sister that her husband (Lot’s uncle and brother-in-law) was saying, Soroh is my sister. Soroh was, of course, in a certain manner his sister being in fact his niece. Lot kept his mouth shut and, in fact, Rashi quotes later on, that because of that zechus, merit, Lot was saved from the fate of Sedom.

Avrohom, therefore, was grateful to Lot and held him in great esteem.

With this, we can also understand the fact that when they returned from Egypt, not only Avrohom had considerable possessions which had been given to him by Pharoh and the Egyptians, but Lot also had sheep, cattle and tents. Where did he have this from? Well, we are told that Lot looked very similar to Avrohom and, therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that in order to curry favour with the whole family, not only did they give Avrohom matonos, presents, they gave somebody who looked like his younger brother, namely Lot, presents. Their objective at the time was that Avrohom and Lot should agree to the “betrothal” of Soroh to Pharoh

When they returned to Eretz Yisroel and the shepherds of Lot started acting as if they already owned land, Avrohom remonstrated with Lot and at that stage, he called him, my brother, כי אנשים אחים אנחנו. Lot, no doubt, had indicated to Avrohom that Avrohom had used a subterfuge in calling his wife, his sister, and therefore, what his shepherds were doing was nothing so terrible. However, pure stealing is not comparable to calling a niece a sister, as we all appreciate. We see from the way Avrohom begged Lot to just step away from him, but that he would, nevertheless, come to his assistance if ever necessary, that Avrohom still retained this feeling that he had to look after Lot as mentioned earlier on.

We then turn to the story of the four kings who came from the region of Iraq and rampaged through our Holy Land. The chief one being אמרפל whom we are told was actually Nimrod. They captured Lot and he is referred to, at that stage, as בן אחיו, the son of his brother, of Avrohom Avinu, of course, because Nimrod had an old account to settle with Avrohom.

Avrohom, on the other hand, when informed of what had happened, chased the kings with all their prisoners and booty as he had heard כי נשבה אחיו, that his brother had been captured. This refers to Avrohom’s memory that Lot had not revealed to the Egyptians that he, Lot, was, in fact, the brother of Soroh and that Avrohom by describing Soroh as his sister was becoming like a brother to Lot (he was his brother-in-law). Therefore, when Avrohom defeated the kings and וגם את לוט אחיו ורכשו השיב, he returned Lot and his possessions and freed them, he once again emphasised the aspect of them being brothers and, of course, the possessions were a direct result of Lot being given presents in Egypt because of that whole incident, as I mentioned earlier on.

One, therefore, can see the necessity for the different titles and names being utilised, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Although Lot was by no means an ideal character, he had the zechus of fathering two nations מואב and עמון from whom came רות המואביה and נעמה העמונית. The first being the great grandmother of Dovid Hamelech and the second being the mother of Rechavom, the son of Shlomo Hamelech. Perhaps one could suggest that this was a reward for him having twice heard his own sister being referred to as the sister of Avrohom and him having kept quiet and because of that two of his descendents, generations later, married into the Royal family of Yehuda.

ז מרחשון

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