[Avodah] Questions on sefer Rus

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 08:43:07AM -0400, BKanter at aol.com wrote:
: 1) All of the relationships leading up to Dovid Hamelech are of a seemingly  
: illicit or impure nature (bnos lot, Tamar, Rus & Boaz, even Yishai and his  
: wife). I have read somewhere that this was necessary because if the "sitrah  
: achra" knew that the moshiach was coming into the world he would have tried
: to stop it. Is there  a source for this idea? 

Here's the Ari za"l's take (Shaa'r haGilgulim pereq 38):
    For a great neshamah to leave the qelipos (the tehom of tohu) you
    should know, it must be done with tricks and plots... It was similar
    with respect to Dovid haMelech, who only left the qelipos at the
    time of the maaseh mentioned by Chazal on the posuq, "Hein! Be'avon
    cholalti, uvcheit yechemasni imi" (Tehillim 51:7; see Yalqut HaMakiri,
    Tehillim 69)... This is also the reason for the maasei Tamar, Rus,
    Rachav hazonah, all the nashamos of geirim, all the malkhei beis
    David, and the mashiach who will have come from Rus haMo'aviah and
    the union of Yehudah and Tamar. Rabbi Aqiva was the son of geirim
    who were descendents from Sisera. These are the kinds of tricks
    and plotting that HQBH uses against the qelipos in order to free a
    neshamah to be used against them.

It sounds like what you're saying.

: 3) The connection between Yibum and Moshiach. i.e, all the above  mentioned 
: stories have a Yibum aspect to them (the idea of "L'hakim shem  hames") is 
: there a source for this as far as you know?

Here's the Ramban on Bereishis 38:3 (maaseh Tamar), translated by R'
Yitzchaq Etshalom:
>     The subject is indeed one of the great secrets of the Torah,
>     concerning human reproduction, and it is evident to those observers
>     who have /eyes to see and ears to hear/ [italics by RYE]. The
>     ancient wise men who were prior to the Torah knew of the great
>     benefit in marrying a childless dead brother's wife, and that it
>     was proper for the brother to take precedence in the matter,
>     and upon his failure to do so, his next of kin would come after him,
>     for any kinsman who was related to him, who would inherit his legacy,
>     would derive a benefit from such a marriage. And it was customary for
>     the dead man's wife to be wed by the brother or father or the next of
>     kin in the family. We do not know whether this was an ancient custom
>     preceding Yehudah's era. In B'resheet Rabbah (85:6) they say that
>     Yehudah was the one who inaugurated the commandment of marrying a
>     childless person's widow, for since he had received the secret from
>     his ancestors he was quick to fulfill it. Now when the Torah came
>     and prohibited marrying former wives of certain relatives, it was
>     the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, to abrogate the prohibition
>     against marrying a brother's wife in case he dies childless, but it
>     was not His will that the prohibition against marrying a father's
>     brother's wife or a son's wife or similar wives of relatives be
>     set aside. It was only in the case of a brother that the custom had
>     established itself, and the benefit is likely with him and not with
>     the others, as I have mentioned. Now it was considered a matter
>     of great cruelty when a brother did not want to marry his dead
>     brother's wife, and they would call it the house of him that had
>     his show loosed, for [after the dead brother's wife had performed
>     Chalitzah of the brother-in-law], he was now removed from them,
>     and it is fitting that this commandment be fulfilled through the
>     loosening of the shoe. Now, the ancient wise men of Yisra'el, having
>     knowledge of this important matter, established it as a custom to be
>     practiced among all those inheriting a legacy, providing there is no
>     prohibition against the marriage, and they called it Ge'ulah. This
>     was the matter concerning Bo'az, and the meaning of the words of
>     Naomi and the women neighbors. The man of insight will understand.

> (According to some supercommentaries, Ramban's cryptic allusions
> refer to the mystical notion of transmigration of souls via
> redemption/Yibum. Anything more than this mere mention is, of course,
> significantly beyond the scope of this shiur.)

That fact that the man who is supposed to do yibum is called the go'el
implies a connection. I'm not sure the substance ot it, though.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 47th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
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