The Royal Rus (Part 2)
Lifting her Spirits
Now that we have described Rus, let’s move on to another key figure in the story, and that’s Boaz.
As we said, Boaz was the Gedol Hador back then. He was a judge and a leader, he had a large family, and he was also very wealthy and owned a lot of fields.
And one day, a Moabite woman goes into his fields. As we explained, Jews back then looked down on Moavim and detested them. But he noticed that she is honest and modest.
He went up to her and said to her:
It was surely told to me all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, that you left your father and mother and homeland, and went to a people that you didn’t know previously. May Hashem repay your good deeds, and may your reward be complete from Hashem the G-d of Yisrael, as you have come to shelter under His wings.
Boaz’s message to her was that he knows she left her parents and family and royal riches behind, in order to be close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He told her that she is a wonderful woman and is going in the footsteps of the Imahos, and Hashem will help her.
For the first time, she heard words that lifted her spirits.
Rus was very moved:
She said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my master, for you have consoled me, and you have spoken kind words to the heart of your maidservant.”
This was her message to him: Do you know who you are talking to? A Moabite woman. I never heard words like that. I only got put down. And all of the sudden, the Gedol Hador has no one to talk to other than a lowly person like myself!
He then told her to let him know if anyone mistreats her, and he will stick up for her. And she is invited to eat at his table, too.
As if that wasn’t enough, he told his workers to show her special consideration and let her glean ears of grain where it normally was not allowed, and they should also leave a little extra lying around for her to take.
What a wonderful personality Boaz was. He went out of his way to uplift her. He was not so sure yet whether she was actually allowed to marry a Jew, as she was a Moabite, but he spoke nicely to her and made her happy and helped her out as much as he could.
A Marriage Proposal
Now we come to a very deep point.
If a person passes away, and he has children, the children are his continuation. But if a person dies without children, this is a big tragedy. The Rambam wrote that a person doesn’t stop fearing death until he gets married. Because if he is married, from now on, he has continuation. If he didn’t marry, one day he is liable to die without any continuation. However, if he is a talmid chacham, and he has talmidim, that is his continuation. But naturally speaking, children are a person’s continuation.
And the Torah taught us that there is a way to establish and preserve the name of a deceased person who had no children, and thereby do a great chesed for his soul. This is by fulfilling the mitzvah of yibum, which entails marrying the widow of the deceased.
In principle, the best yibum is when it is performed by the deceased person’s closest relative, which is his father. So, in principle, the father should marry his son’s wife. But the Torah forbid this and placed the mitzvah on the brother of the deceased. In any case, it is a great thing for one of the relatives of the deceased to marry the widow and thereby establish and preserve the name of the deceased in the world.
Machlon and Kilyon, the deceased husbands of Rus and Orpah, had no children. So Rus was eligible for yibum. Halachically speaking, it was not possible to fulfill the mitzvah of yibum, because there were no remaining brothers. Yet, Naomi proposed that Boaz should marry Rus, because she felt that spiritually speaking, it was the right thing to do, and would save the neshamah of her deceased son, who was a great man.
Naomi was of the opinion that if one of the relatives of Machlon, whether it be a cousin or even a second cousin, would marry Rus, this would be a great chesed for Machlon’s soul, although there was no Halachic obligation to do this. So she told Rus: I can’t command you to do this. I can only propose it as an idea. Boaz is our second cousin. I know that he is pretty old already, but if you marry him, it will be a great chesed for the soul of my son, and I know that your greatest aspiration is to be close to Hashem.
Naturally speaking, Rus should have told her that she doesn’t want to marry a second cousin who is well into his eighties, as she has no obligation to do so. She was still young and hoped to build a home. It would make much more sense for Boaz to help find her a shidduch with a man her age, so she could have a future ahead of her.
But Rus didn’t think about anything. She just told Naomi that she will do whatever she says.
This was the wonderful personality named Rus. She was ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of a Jew. This is why she merited becoming the mother of the malchus of the Jewish people.
And What does Boaz Say?
After Rus agreed to the idea, Naomi proceeded to arrange the shidduch between Rus and Boaz.
They couldn’t do it the normal way, and send a shadchan to Boaz to offer him Rus as a potential marriage partner, because no one in his right mind would go to Boaz, the Gedol Hador of the Jewish people, and suggest that he marry a impoverished young lady who is a widow, and a Moabite on top of it. It would be an insult just to make such an offer.
The only way was to go straight to Boaz himself, because he was a great man, and surely knew how to appreciate the special personality that Rus possessed. If she will approach him directly, he will already know what to do.
So Naomi says to Rus: Boaz is in the middle of the harvest, and will be sleeping in the barn tonight. Go to him, and he will tell you what you need to do.
Now let’s get back to Boaz. He was an elderly man, a leader of the Jewish people. Yesterday he saw this woman gleaning in his field, and since he noticed that she behaves modestly, he spoke to her words of encouragement, but he didn’t really know so much about her at this point. Now all the sudden, in the middle of the night, he sees her lying at his feet in the barn.
What would be the expected reaction, the normal reaction, in such a scenario? He would yell at her: What do you think you are doing here? Disgusting! Get out of here!! Now I know you are just like the lowly Moabites you come from.
If he would have said this, David Hamelech would not have come to the world, and neither would Mashiach.
But Boaz was a such a wonderful personality. He restrained his outrage. He didn’t get angry. He just turned to her with a question: מי את – “Who are you?” In other words: Please explain to me what this is all about and what you are doing here.
She answered that she came to save a neshamah. The neshamah of her dear deceased husband. Boaz heard that, and was very moved:
He said, “You are blessed to Hashem, my daughter! Your latter chesed is greater than the former.”
He told her that what she is doing now is more beautiful than everything she did up until this point.
Boaz’s reaction went way beyond anything that could be expected. You could say it was miraculous.
David Hamelech declares in Tehillim:
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You for Your righteous judgments.
What are these “righteous judgments” that David Hamelech got up in the middle of the night to thank Hashem for?
The “judgments” that You brought on the Ammonites and Moabites, and the “righteous” kindnesses that you performed with my grandfather and my grandmother. Because if Boaz would have quickly responded to her with a single curse, where would I have come from? And not only did he not curse her, he even blessed her, as it says, “You are blessed to Hashem, my daughter!”
David Hamelech rose at midnight to thank Hashem for the fact that his grandfather Boaz didn’t say a single harsh word to his grandmother when she came to him in the barn. It was a miraculous event. Only a person as great as Boaz would be able to behave in such a manner.
And the dedication that Rus had to Hashem was so incredibly great, too. If Naomi had not sent her, there is no way in the world she would have done such a thing. She would have rather died than do something like that. But Naomi told her that she has a mission to accomplish. She needs to go and save a Jewish soul.
This was a very high-risk undertaking. Rus knew that if Boaz would curse her, she would be lost forever. Imagine that the Chofetz Chayim would curse someone. And Boaz was a navi, and the greatest Torah sage of his generation. If he would say even one word of curse to her, she’s finished. But she was not to be deterred by anything, because Naomi sent her.
From two uplifted people like this comes David Hamelech.
It’s Not Over Yet
The next day, Naomi sends Rus back to Boaz, this time publicly and openly. Rus repeats her request that Boaz marry her.
Obviously, she could just as well get married to a young man her age, not an elderly gentleman well into his eighties. What does she stand to gain from marrying Boaz, of all people? Why is this a good marriage match?
We would expect Boaz to respond something like, “Well, okay, I heard your request. I will think about it.”
But Boaz didn’t waste any time. Right that same day, he gathered the elders of the generation, of whom he was the greatest, and told them what transpired with Naomi and Rus, and how it is necessary to build the family. There was another figure there, Ploni Almoni, who was actually a closer relative to Rus than Boaz was. Boaz suggested that he buy the field, so it will remain on the name of the family. However, this would necessitate marrying Rus.
Ploni Almoni, the closest relative, the goel, wasn’t interested. He was not sure it was even permitted to marry a Moabite woman, as the Halachah regarding this case had not yet been ruled. He was concerned that at some future point, people might say the marriage was illegitimate, and that would affect the status of any children he would have from her.
But Boaz knew that according to Halachah, a Moabite woman may marry a Jewish man. The Torah only forbids a Moabite man marrying a Jewish woman. So he took the risk. He didn’t worry that people might try to raise an objection at some later point. And he took his step in order to do a chesed to a Jewish soul, as explained above.
When he decided to marry Rus, he didn’t wait a single day. It’s a mitzvah, and as such, it should be performed right away, without delay.
The chuppah was held that evening. They got married, and before morning came, Boaz passed away. If he would have waited another day, if he would have said, “Okay, it’s a mitzvah, but I don’t have to rush into it, there are other mitzvos too,” then there would be no David Hamelech.
When Rus saw that Boaz passed away, we might expect her to raise her eyes to Heaven and say: Ribono shel Olam! Is this what I deserve? I was a princess, I lived in royal luxury, but I gave up everything. I walked to this country by foot, even though I could have traveled in a carriage. And when I arrived here, I just got the cold shoulder from everybody. But I didn’t care. The main thing is to be close to the Jewish people. And Naomi, who is my master and teacher, told me that I should marry this elderly Jew, for the sake of her deceased son, because this is the only way to save his neshamah. So I did that, too. I married an old man, and now he died. Is this what I deserve, Hashem?
But she didn’t complain. She accepted everything with love. And when her son was born, she took the little baby to Naomi her mother-in-law and said: My dear mother-in-law, this child who was born has the neshamah of your son, of my deceased husband. Baruch Hashem, we did the mitzvah completely.
And Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave her full reward. Chazal say that her son was the greatest tzaddik of all generations, and his grandson was David Hamelech.
She merited seeing with her own eyes not just David Hamelech but also his son Shlomo and the Beis Hamikdash as well.
Rus the Moabite saw the grandson of her grandson, who was Shlomo, ruling as king, as it says וַיָּשֶׁם כִּסֵּא לְאֵם הַמֶּלֶךְ – “Shlomo set up a throne for the mother of the king,” and R. Elazar says that this means for the matriarch of the royal dynasty.
