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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff>[1] </FONT>From: Micha Berger via Avodah
<avodah@lists.aishdas.org><BR>Subject: Re: Boaz's nisayon with
Ruth<BR><BR><BR>: And therefore what? According to Chazal Boaz was the Gadol
Hador and he<BR>: was also an old man. Why would a strange woman giving him a
sign that she<BR>: wanted to sleep with him tempt him? Why would that be called
a bigger<BR>: nisayon then Yosef faced? [--R' Marty Bluke]<BR><BR>I took Chazal
to mean the story as I learned it in school was bowdlerized.<BR>I suspect that
"vegilis margelosav" is sagi nahor. Eg, why "margelosav"<BR>and not
"raglosav?"<BR><BR><BR>Micha
Berger
<BR>micha@aishdas.org
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face=Arial>[2]</DIV>
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<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From:
Simi Peters via Avodah <A
href="mailto:avodah@lists.aishdas.org">avodah@lists.aishdas.org</A><BR><BR>Subject:
[Avodah] boaz and rut<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR><BR><BR>Kol
tuv,<BR><BR>Simi
Peters<BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>[3]</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From:
Ilana Elzufon via Avodah <avodah@lists.aishdas.org><BR>Subject: Boaz's
nisayon with Ruth<BR></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>>I am having a hard time understanding this nisayon. Imagine
if you<BR>woke up and found a beautiful woman (full clothed in a tznius
manner) lying<BR>at your feet. Would you have any hava amina to sleep with
her?<<[--R' Marty Bluke]<BR><BR><BR>As RnSP points out (in a different
subject line), they were certainly not<BR>strangers. I will confess that I
have always imagined that, over the weeks<BR>of encountering each other
repeatedly during the course of the harvest<BR>season, the two may well have
developed feelings for each other. ....<BR>So what is the nisayon? He woke up
and found the woman with whom he was<BR>deeply in love...lying at his feet.
And she asked him to "spread his<BR>wings" over her. Would it not have been
the most natural thing in the world<BR>to invite her to come under the blanket
next to him, rather than staying at<BR>his feet, and to let one thing lead to
another?<BR><BR>Ilana<BR><BR></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>[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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[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.</DIV>
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<DIV>[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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[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. </DIV>
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<DIV><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</FONT><FONT lang=0
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