This story has a lesson. There are a lot of different kinds of chesed that a person can do. But the true chesed, the pure chesed, is like Rus did. It is a chesed that the one who does it has no future to look forward to, no one to appreciate what he or she did. This is the special chesed for the Jewish people.
And there’s another lesson here: Rus demonstrated to the Jewish people that the true quality of the Jewish people is not necessarily something that you inherit. She hailed from Moav, yet she acquired this quality in the fullest way.
This shows that you don’t necessarily have to learn it from your parents. If a person acquires on his own the trait of chesed in its fullest, he can become the parent of the Mashiach.
Most of us were indeed born as Jews. But some among us might feel limited or disadvantaged by the fact that we were not born and raised in a Torah- observant home, or were not privileged to study in the best Torah educational institutions, and so forth. However, if a person has the proper devotion and motivation, if he attaches himself to a tzaddik and learns from him and sticks with him because he has a fierce desire to be connected to Hashem, like Rus did with Naomi, there are no limits on the greatness he can achieve.
Hashem doesn’t forget the devotion we show in dark times. In the end, there will be so much light and illumination, so much beauty and so much nachas, like it was with Rus, who merited becoming the matriarch of the Jewish kingdom.
And from Boaz, we should learn how great it is not to be quick to anger. We should learn how to control ourselves and be careful not to step on people, not to hurt their feelings.
As an example, I will tell you a personal story. I got married shortly before Pesach, and for our first Pesach, we were by my father-in-law. Nowadays, there are all sorts of techniques to check the lettuce to be used for Maror from bugs, but in those days, you would just sit and examine each leaf individually, and even after that, you wouldn’t be sure that it is a hundred percent clean from bugs. So in my home, we would eat only the stems of the lettuce, not the leaves, so we could fulfill the mitzvah of Maror in the best possible way without taking any chances of ingesting bugs.
On Seder night, after Maariv, I came to the home of my father-in-law. I walked into the kitchen, and to my surprise and consternation, I saw all the lettuce leaves nicely arranged, and all the stems thrown in the garbage.
All I needed to do was yell, “Oh no, oh no, the stems are all in the garbage! No Maror tonight!!” and it would have ruined the whole atmosphere of the Seder.
That would be exactly the wrong thing to do. We need to maintain control over ourselves, and not just react, not just blurt out exactly the wrong thing to say. There are people around us, and they have feelings. Maror is a wonderful mitzvah. But with one word, you can “kill” someone.
On the wonderful day of Shavu’os, when the heavens open up and Divine plenty descends to the world, let’s all remember the important things we learn from Rus and from Boaz, from whom come Melech Hamashiach, may he redeem us soon.
