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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I said that “</span>Boaz knew, liked, and even admired Rut, fully accepted the fact that she was Jewish and felt protective toward her.” This is not a claim that he was “in love with her” (nusah 21<sup>st</sup> century) and is not the projection of a Western conception of Romantic love (nusah 14<sup>th</sup> century). Men and women have always been attracted to each other and loved each other which has, b”H, ensured the survival of the human race. Yitzhak avinu is described as loving Rivka imenu (after marriage); Yaakov avinu is described as loving Rahel imenu and Mikhal bat Shaul is described as loving David (in both cases before marriage. What is being described is an emotion, not an action.) And while Shir haShirim is allegorical, the allegory describes a profound, intense and sensual love.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Boaz was a tsaddik, but prior to the establishment of the issur of yihud with a penuya, relations with an unmarried, ritually pure woman might not have carried the same halakhic or social stigma as it does today. Hazal do not find strange the idea that an old man might have sexual feeling and reactions. (Consider their description of David and Avishag in the presence of Batsheva.) <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Kol tuv, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Simi Peters<span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Marty Bluke [mailto:marty.bluke@gmail.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, June 15, 2016 2:40 PM<br><b>To:</b> Ilana Elzufon <ilanasober@gmail.com><br><b>Cc:</b> The Avodah Torah Discussion Group <avodah@lists.aishdas.org>; Simi Peters <familyp2@actcom.net.il><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Avodah] Boaz's nisayon with Ruth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 12:10 AM, Ilana Elzufon <<a href="mailto:ilanasober@gmail.com" target="_blank">ilanasober@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><p class=MsoNormal>RMBluke: 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? <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>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. From the very beginning, we see that Boaz was caring, helpful, and protective towards Rut - feelings that can easily develop in a romantic direction. His actions could also easily have led her to be attracted to him.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Without Naomi's intervention, neither would have acted on these feelings. Rut would certainly not have the temerity to initiate a relationship with a man of Boaz's status - it would probably have been improper for her to do so with any man. And what does Boaz say when he discovers Rut? He praises her chessed for not going after the younger men. He seems to have assumed that such a beautiful and relatively young woman, of such fine character, must have no shortage of admirers in her own age group, and that she would and should prefer them to an older man like himself.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>So what is the nisayon? He woke up and found the woman with whom he was deeply in love (had he admitted this to himself already? did he realize it only at that moment?) 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?<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'>Ilana<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>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. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div><br />
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