[Avodah] Boaz's nisayon with Ruth

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 02:39:55PM +0300, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
: The idea that Boaz was deeply in love with Ruth is probably a case of us
: projecting our Western sensibilities and feelings of romantic love onto a
: situation where they almost certainly don't apply.

I dunno... Yitzchaq meets Rivqa, she literally falls for him. They
try pulling the sister-wife thing, but they blow it because "Yitzchak
metzacheik es Rivqa ishto".

When it comes to Yaaqov and Rachel, we find even more explicit description
of a couple who who romantically in love. "Vaya'avod Yaaqov beRacheil
7 shanim, vayihyu be'einav kayamim achachdim be'ahavaso osahh".

I think that academic claims of how much the human condition has changed
over the millennia need to be checked against our belief that while
TSBP evolves over time, halakhah does its redemptive work for generation
after generation.

Yes, many things have changed. The industrialist who relates to time
with the linear instruments of a clock and day planner experiences
something very different than the farmer's cycles of day and night and of
annual seasons. Both of which are very different than the post-telecom
experience of time which is dominated by events to respond to (phone,
email, text/IM), more so than a preplanned schedule. But far more stays
the same than would make for good PhD theses.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
micha at aishdas.org        "I am thought about, therefore I am -
http://www.aishdas.org   my existence depends upon the thought of a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch