Ruth b'Iyyun Series (ix)

(1) And Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And look! The redeemer was passing by, of whom Boaz had mentioned.

He said, “Turn, and sit down here, So-and-so!” And he turned and sat down.

(2) Then he took ten elders of the town and said, “Be seated here”; and they sat down.

(3) He said to the redeemer, “A portion of the field which belonged to our brother, to Elimelech, Naomi is selling, who returned from the fields of Moab. (4) I said I would make known to you [to your ear], saying, acquire before the settles, and before the elders of my people. If you would redeem, then redeem! And if he would not redeem, tell me. For other than you, there is no redeemer, and I am after you.

And he said, "I shall redeem!"

(5)And Boaz said, “When you acquire the property from the hand of Naomi, also from Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased, you must also acquire, in order to establish the name of the deceased for his portion.

(6) And the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own portion. You redeem my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem.

(7) Now this was formerly done in Israel in cases of redemption or exchange: to validate any transaction, one man would take off his sandal and hand it to the other. Such was the practice in Israel. (8) So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Acquire for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.

"Meanwhile, Boaz had gone to the gate and sat down there. And now the redeemer whom Boaz had mentioned passed by. He called, “Come over and sit down here, So-and-so!” And he came over and sat down (Ruth 4:1)":

What, he was just waiting waiting around and suddenly he appeared???

Rabbi Samuel the son of Nachman said: "Even if he was at the ends of the earth, the Holy One, blessed be He, would have flown him and brought him there so that a righteous man would not be upset sitting there".

Rabbi Berachya: "So expounded the two great men of the world, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua:

Rabbi Eliezer said: "Boaz did his thing and Ruth did her thing, and Naomi did her thing, and the Holy One, blessed be He said: "So I will do my thing". And he said "Hey, so and so, go there!"

Rabbi Joshua said: his name was Ploni Almoni ("so and so")".

So-and-so. But his name was not written because he did not wish to redeem.¹The person’s name was Tov (See above 3:13). His name is omitted because he did not discharge his duty as a kinsman. He therefore did not merit to be recorded as Tov [=good].

So. פְּלֹנִי means] covered and concealed, [as in] the expression of, “If there be concealed יִפָּלֵא”²Devarim 17:8. and “Is there anything concealed הֲיִפָּלֵא from Adonoy?”³Bereishis 18:14.

(8) If a case is too baffling for you to decide, be it a controversy over homicide, civil law, or assault—matters of dispute in your courts—you shall promptly repair to the place that YHWH your god will have chosen, (9) and appear before the levitical priests, or the magistrate in charge at the time, and present your problem, and they shall announce to you the verdict in the case, (10) and you shall carry out the verdict that is announced to you from that place that YHWH chose, observing scrupulously all their instructions to you.

(14) Is anything too wondrous for YHWH? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

And so. אַלְמֹנִי means widowed, without a name. (Another version: [He is called] אַלְמֹנִי because he was widowed of the words of the Torah, for he should have expounded, “[only] an Ammonite [is forbidden in marriage to a Jewish woman], but not an Ammonitess [i.e., an Ammonite woman is not forbidden in marriage to a Jewish man]; a Mo’avite, but not a Mo’aviteess.” Yet he said, “for I would mar my own inheritance.”)

Ammonites and Moabites are forbidden, and their prohibition is eternal. However, their women are permitted immediately.

There is a tanna’im dispute: The verse states: “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter into the congretation of YHWH; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of YHWH... forever! (Deuteronomy 23:4); An Ammonite man is barred from entering into the congregation, but not an Ammonite woman, and similarly, a Moabite man is barred from entering into the congregation, but not a Moabite woman. This is the statement of Rabbi Judah, who derives the halakha from the masculine form of these two terms.

Rabbi Shimon says: The verse states: “Because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way” (Deuteronomy 23:5). Since it is the way of a man, but not the way of a woman, to go forth to meet guests, females were not included in the prohibition.

(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of YHWH; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of YHWH, (5) because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.— (6) But YHWH your god refused to heed Bilamm; instead, YHWH your god turned the curse into a blessing for you, for YHWH your God loves you.— (7) You shall never concern yourself with their welfare or benefit as long as you live.

(5) Boaz continued, “When you acquire the property from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you must also acquire the wife of the deceased, so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate.”