A SPECIAL STORY FOR SHAVUOT
The Book of Ruth is read on the second night of Shavuot. According to the story, Ruth gleaned the four corners of Boaz’s field because these belonged to the poor and it was their right not their privilege to do so. It so happened that by Divine ‘coincidence’ Boaz was a first cousin of her late husband. He discovered that she was a princess of Moab and a very beautiful woman.
A Moabite could not be accepted amongst the people of Israel unless they converted, and then they would only be recognised after three generations. However, around this time the interpretation of Torah was amended and applied only to Moabite men because they, not the women, refused the Israelites bread and water during their
wilderness wanderings.
Boaz fell in love with Ruth and married her, but according to the Zohar (Hebrew: זֹהַר, lit Radiance – is central to the body of Jewish mystical literature known as ‘Kabbalah.’ It contains a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the five books of Moshe, and Scriptural interpretations that include material on mysticism, mythical cosmology and psychology.) he died after being married for only one night; this was his sole purpose for coming into the world because through them was born David the ancestor of Yeshua our Meshiach.
There is more to the story. Abraham, had two star pupils. One was Lot, his nephew, and the other was Chedorlaomer who became the King of Sodom, a city saturated in evil. For example, if anyone was caught doing charitable acts, they were killed. Everything good was considered evil and vice versa. Shortly afterwards the second star pupil, who was Lot, became the high judge of Sodom.This was the end for Abraham. The Zohar says that after Lot left, marked the first occasion when Abraham really prayed for a son, because beforehand he had placed all his hopes upon Chedorlaomer and Lot.
According to the story, the actual star pupil of Abraham was a little girl, the daughter of Lot who eagerly followed Abraham’s teachings but reluctantly followed her father to Sodom. Upon arrival, a tragedy would soon occur. The poor wouldn’t die in the streets anymore much to the chagrin of the Sodomites who couldn’t find who was feeding them.
In Scripture, we read that three angels came to Abraham and one of them said, ‘God sends word to you: Her crying reaches Me, and I am going to destroy Sodom.’ The second angel told Abraham he would have a son, Isaac. The Zohar reflects upon what ‘her’ crying referred to and suggests that it refers to the day in Sodom when the little girl was caught giving a piece of bread to a poor man. The Sodomites poured honey all over her and they put her on the roof, and she was eaten by the bees, the most painful death anyone can be subjected to.
The following day Sodom was destroyed, and Isaac became Abraham’s new star pupil. Yet even he did not compare to that girl who gave her life for giving a poor man a piece of bread. Here is the connection. Meshiach is descendant from Isaac, but the hidden message is that He is the ‘Bread of Life’ who willingly sacrificed Himself as a ransom for many.
(Story from Louis Ginzberg, ‘The Legends of the Jews’ adapted within a Messianic context)
raphaelbenlevi 