[Avodah] Boaz's nisayon with Ruth

Marty Bluke via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Tue Jun 7 23:02:54 PDT 2016


The Megilla describes how Ruth sneaks in to where Boaz is sleeping and lies
down at his feet and that Boaz woke up in the middle of the night to find
her there.

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (19b) states that Boaz had a bigger Nisayon with
Ruth then Yosef had with Potifer's wife because Ruth was single and tehora
(see Rashi there).

I am having a hard time understanding this nisayon. Imagine if you woke up
and found a beautiful woman (full clothed in a tznius manner) lying at your
feet. Would you have any hava amina to sleep with her? I would bet that the
answer for everyone (male) reading this is no. The thought would not even
cross our mind. So why does the Gemara state that this was a tremendous
nisayon for Boaz? It's not like there is no yetzer hara for arrayos today,
there certainly is, just look around at what is going on in the world
around us and even within the frum community. And yet, IMHO the average
person would not see the situation described in the Megilla as a nisayon at
all.
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