[Avodah] Boaz's nisayon with Ruth

[via Avodah]

[1]  From: Micha Berger via Avodah  <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
Subject: Re: Boaz's nisayon with  Ruth


: And therefore what? According to Chazal Boaz was the Gadol  Hador and he
: was also an old man. Why would a strange woman giving him a  sign that she
: wanted to sleep with him tempt him? Why would that be called  a bigger
: nisayon then Yosef faced? [--R' Marty Bluke]

I took Chazal  to mean the story as I learned it in school was bowdlerized.
I suspect that  "vegilis margelosav" is sagi nahor. Eg, why "margelosav"
and not  "raglosav?"


Micha  Berger              
micha at aishdas.org         



[2]




From:  Simi Peters via Avodah _avodah at lists.aishdas.org_ 
(mailto:avodah at lists.aishdas.org) 

Subject:  [Avodah] boaz and rut

Boaz knew, liked, and even admired Rut, fully  accepted the fact that she 
was Jewish and felt protective toward  her. .... It would have been easy for 
him to see Rut's behavior as the  sexual invitation of a lonely, socially 
isolated woman, whose feelings he  did not want to hurt. ....Boaz could easily 
have justified availing himself  of the 'invitation' instead of waiting to 
do things through bet din the next  day. I think that adds up to a fairly 
decent nisayon.



Kol  tuv,

Simi  Peters






[3]

From:  Ilana Elzufon via Avodah <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
Subject: Boaz's  nisayon with Ruth



>>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?<<[--R' 
Marty Bluke]


As RnSP points out (in a different  subject line), they were certainly not
strangers. I will confess that I  have always imagined that, over the weeks
of encountering each other  repeatedly during the course of the harvest
season, the two may well have  developed feelings for each other. ....
So what is the nisayon? He woke up  and found the woman with whom he was
deeply in love...lying at his feet.  And she asked him to "spread his
wings" over her. Would it not have been  the most natural thing in the world
to invite her to come under the blanket  next to him, rather than staying at
his feet, and to let one thing lead to  another?

Ilana




>>>>>
 
[1] Over the years I too have wondered about the use of the  word 
"margalosav" instead of "raglosav" and came to a similar conclusion to  RMB's, that 
is, since "margolios" are pearls, the pasuk might be talking about  the 
family jewels.  However I did not assume that Rus /actually/ uncovered  Boaz in 
that way but rather, that uncovering his feet was a way  to hint to him that 
he should uncover something else -- not that  night, but in due course.  
That he should act as her goel, that he  should marry her and have children 
with her.
 
[2] Yes, Boaz liked her and admired her but when Chazal say that the  
evening was a great nisayon for him they are clearly saying that on that  night, 
he was attracted to her and had the desire and opportunity to  sin.  The 
nisayon was much more than "he didn't want to hurt her  feelings."  And she 
wasn't so "lonely and socially isolated"-- she could  easily have married a 
much younger man, as Boaz says when he speaks of her great  chessed in 
approaching him instead of going after the  bachurim.
 
[3] The idea that he was "deeply in love with her" is a stretch but yes, he 
 clearly had feelings for her.  Until that night I would say his feelings  
were mainly protective and paternal -- he always called her "biti, my 
daughter"  -- but that night, under those circumstances, a yetzer hara was aroused 
that  does not seem to have been there before.  After all, months had 
passed and  he had not suggested marriage, which was the very reason Naomi 
resorted to such  an unconventional strategy.
 
[4] I want to add one more point, which is that not all old men are the  
same.  R' MBluke started this thread by asking why this should be such a  
nisayon when Boaz was "the Gadol Hador and he was also an old man."  That  the 
Gadol Hador could be overtaken by illicit desires we already know from  many 
previous incidents involving Yehuda, Shimshon, Dovid Hamelech and  others.  
As for old men, many lose desire as well as the ability to act on  their 
desires, but we know that this was not the case with Boaz from the very  fact 
that he did indeed father a child with Rus.  
 
 
--Toby Katz
t613k at aol.com
..
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