The House That Ruth Built

Secrets Contained in the Book of Rus (Ruth)

2013 – Shavuos Feature, Ami Magazine
Rabbi Moshe Taub

For this year’s Shavous feature, I wish to focus on but one stealthily hidden wonder contained in megillas Rus [the Book of Ruth]; the book which is read across the world on this holiday.

I. The Mystery

What I wish to share begins with just one line in a midrash.

[‘Midrash’ refers to the many books of commentary on the bible by the rabbis of the Talmud, from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. Far more authoritative than a standard commentary, it is rather seen as part of the chain of the Oral Tradition].

In this midrash (Midrash Zutta, parsha 2), a mysterious element of the story is shared (I will paraphrase):

In the entire book of Rus –all of its eighty-five pesukim – each and every pasuk begins with letter vav; save for eight verses.

[Pesuk=Verse; Pesukim=Verses]

I can assure the reader that this checks out, as I went through Rus and counted myself.

The great rabbi and mystic, Rav Shlomo Alkabetz (d. 1584)–the composer of lecha dodi – posits that this is to be expected, since that the letter vav often plays the role of continuity, called the ‘Vav Hachibur; Connective Vav‘.

The function of this letter -when found at the start of a sentence – is no different that the word ‘and‘ in the English language, although it plays a slightly deeper role, conceptually akin to ‘Yes and…” used in drama and improv classes; it is the glue that binds and then pulls forward the ‘before‘ to the ‘now‘.

Indeed, the literal meaning of the word we use to represent this letter ‘vav‘ is ‘hook’.

A megilla, by its very definition, is one long story; one thing should lead naturally into the next and then that into the next, and so on; it is to flow. Vavim make sense in a megilla.

Although only the Book of Esther is given the official title of ‘Megillah’, Jews colloquially use this same term also for the following books: Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and sometimes, Jonah

For example, the Shabbos reading of parshas Vayeitzei [Genesis 28:10-32:3] is also one long story where only twenty-one out of one-hundred-and-forty-five pesukim begin without a vav!

In other words, the fact that Rus contains so many pesukim which begin with a vav must not the sole chiddush of this midrash, rather, explains Rav Alkabetz, the midrash is drawing our attention to the exceptions to the norm – those eight verses that do not begin with a vav.

II. The First Secret

 Rav Alkabetz goes on to explain that the lack of vavim in those pesukim come to signify that Rus, in those places perhaps, chose to break from her natural order, her flow and rhythm of life –her vavim – in order to convert and to become the matriarch of the holy Davidic monarchy.

III. The Secret Within the First

I then took a closer look at context of these eight pesukim.

The first one (1:9) is when Naomi says her goodbyes to Rus and Orpah, blesses them, and they all weep together.

Here are the rest:

• Naomi seeks to change their minds about joining her.
• Naomi explains that joining her would turn into a period of waiting.
• When Rus, referencing death, “Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried…”.
• After that it is when Naomi recounts how much had changed since she had last been to beis lechem, and that she must change her name from Naomi.
• Boaz speaks to Rus for the first time, and tells her not to glean in other fields.
• Boaz promises Rus that Hashem will reward her in the future.
• In a verse that begins with an enlarged lamed, Boaz promises a redeemer, and if not he will take his place.

Amazingly, and in support with Rav Alkabetz, each one of these verses reflects a change of some kind; a change that Rus, or another, had been through, are going through, or will go through. Whether it’s from life to death, wealth to poverty, the company of loved ones to loneliness, or change in mazel, the theme seems clear by each.

This break of connection to the past is seen through the absence of the letter vav commencing those verses/themes.

IV. The Second Secret

But why eight?

If Shmuel [Samuel, the author of Ruth] wished to draw our attention to the many vavim – to their role when used and when not – he could have done so one or two times.

Is there any signifiance to this number?

• We can suggest that Shmuel chose precisely eight pesukim, perhaps, to allude to King David, who was the eighth of Yishai’s [Jesse’s] sons.
• Furthermore, the gemara [Talmud] tells us (sanhedrin 97a) that in the ‘seventh year’ will be war, and in the eighth^th year ben-Dovid (messiah) will arrive.
• This may be alluded to in Tehillim/Pslams 12:1 “lamnateach al haShminis…”, a reference to eight being representative of mashiach tzeiten (Messianic times).
• Eight being a symbol to the Davidic line is hinted to in the gemara (arachin 13) where we are taught that although the harp has seven strings, this same instrument of moshiach will have eight.
  • (See ‘Jewish Wisdom in the Numbers‘ by Rabbis Levene and Hartman, for further allusions regarding the significance of the number eight).

• Furthermore, the Chida (died. 1806) and others famously posit that the reason we read Rus on Shavous is because, like Rus herself, we are all converting to the Torah anew each and every Shavous. Perhaps, then, these eight comes to symbolize bris mila, typically performed on the eighth day, the final step for a male in converting -their ‘eighth day’ as it were.

Indeed, many suggest that ‘Rus’ was chosen as her name only after her conversion. This is because, as we know, the Torah commands all Jews in 613 mitzvas, which is an additional 606 mitzvas from the seven laws which are incumbent upon all of humanity [the seven Noachide laws, sheva mitzvos bnei noach]. ‘Rus’ was chosen because it has the exact gematria [numerical value] of 606 [Reish=200, Vav=six, Tav=400], which is the precise number of mitzvas a convert must accept upon themself on top of the seven laws -just as the Jews had to do at Sinai!

Alas, there still seems to be a piece missing from this puzzle…

V. The Third Secret

We shared above how Rav Alkabatz suggests that any megillah, or long-form connected event, would naturally have verses that begin, mostly, with vavs, ‘and‘…’.

Yet, if that is the case, why don’t we find this same feature in the Book of Esther, or our other megillos?!

(While they too certainly contain a large amount of vavim, only Rus is has a percentage this high).

So, I decided to take a different tact: To look at these anomalous eight pesukim in Rus; the exceptions that do not begin with the letter vav.

They are to be found in:

I then wrote down the letters with which those outlier pesukim began.

Although I am not good at word jumbles, I started to consider how Rus represents the seeds of moshiach.

This was all the impetus I needed to be inspired to the follwing thought:

These letters spell ‘yeshua bo l’kah’ –’a salvation shall come to Hashem‘.

We borrow a similar term in in our weekly havdala, taken from King David, who may have been alluding to this term in Tehillim/Psalms when he writes (3:9) ‘la’Hashem Hayeshua…’/’to Hashem is salvation…,’ which the Zohar (vol. 3 90b) explains to refer to Hashem’s awaiting His own salvation from exile through moshiach.[1]

A Lesson To Take Home

The vavim of our lives pull us into a senseless rotation; what we did yesterday is what we will do today, and what we will do again tomorrow.

the holiday of Shavous is when we are supposed to accept the Torah anew; to re-discover why it is so dear, to re-affirm that it is our precious life-jacket.

Shavuos is a time to tear down the vavs of our existence and re-enter our lives; to take control…as did Rus.

As I was writing this I recalled something I had written about ten years ago.

In parshas Pekudei [end of the book of Exodus] we are taught that Moshe rabbeinu [Moses] had trouble accounting for 1775 talents of silver that made up the vavim/hooks[2] of the mishkan [tabernacle]. Several years earlier I had figured out that the only pasuk in all the chamisha chumsha Torah [the Five Books of Moses] that has the exact gematria of 1775 is from Shmos [Exodus] 2:12: “And he (Moshe) turned in all directions…”.

A man was beating a Jew, so he killed him.

This was Moshe’s chance to discover his own vav. Meaning, and as the Ibn Ezra (died. 1167) explains, that at that juncture Moshe had to decide whose side he was on, and how his future would turn out.

Should he continue his life an an Egyptian? Or was this the moment to throw off his princely status and align with his brethren?

Indeed, he broke off that hook, that vav, and became our leader.

I came upon another discovery: there is one parsha in the Torah that also has a vav at the start of each pasuk except for eight pesukim: parshas Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1-40:23). Indeed, the Rokeach (died. 1238) mentions this fact without reference to megillas Rus. [3]

This is extraordinary for two reasons.

• Vayeshev contain the story of Tamar and Yehudah –the first seeds of moshiach before Rus, and indeed Tamar’s son Peretz is mentioned in the genealogy up to Dovid found at the end of Rus!
• This is also the first story of someone forced to make a change in his life; when everything he knew was altered. He thought it was for the worse; we know it would be for the better. I refer, of course, to Yosef [Joseph].

So many secrets contained in the Torah…even in one midrash!

May the only continuity we see be that of Torah, kindness, and health.

Gutt Yom Tov!

Rabbi Moshe Taub

NOTES

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[1] This that Gd awaits His own salvation, as it were is a deeply mystical concept, and impossible to review without a deep familiarity with Torah subjects and the Talmud. Briefly: See Rashi to Devarim 30:3 and Megilla 29a (see also Yerushalmi to Taanis 1:1; MechiltaBo; Yalkut, Shmuel remez 92) that “kaviyochel, the Shechina rests with bnei yisroel in galus and its hardships and when we are redeemed He writes it as if He too has been redeemed, for He shall return with them. Although Hashem is under no authority other than His own, there is a concept of Hashem waiting for us to act before He does. See also Berachos 7a where Hashem requests a beracha from the kohein gadol, as it were. See Even Yisroel that l’asid lavo Hashem will not just put us in judgment (see Rosh Hashana 16b, Ramban Shaar Hagmul based on Sanhedrin) but Himself as well. This last source can be found quoted in Shalal Rav yomim noraim p. 58 (although Shalal Rav quotes this source as saying Hashem judges Himself each Rosh Hashana, this is not what the source he bring seems to be saying when one looks inside the source).

[2] While we are tying the idea of the hooks being called vavim to the idea above, as well as the idea to follow, I would be remiss not to mention that my father has a different, and wonderful, interpretation to the hooks in pekudai meaning vavim –by way of a halacha in the Shulchan Aruch –that one can find on O.U.’s website.

[3] (Vayeishiv non-Vav pesukim, are:

• Aleph; 37;2;
• Lamed  37:27;
• Hei 35:25;
• Aleph 39;9;
• Aleph 39;23;
• Beis 40;13;
• Choff 40;13;
• Choff 40;15;