Ruth

“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot very bitter.

But she said to them: "Do not call me Naomi [pleasant]; call me the bitter of soul, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me indeed.

Has testified against me. Has testified against me that I had sinned before Him. Another explanation is that the Divine Attribute of Justice has humbled me, as in, “And the pride of Yisroel shall be עָנָה humbled.”

So she departed and went up and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she chanced upon the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

“Ruth the Moavite said to Naomi: I will go to the field and glean among the stalks after one in whose eyes I find favor. She said to her: Go, my daughter” (Ruth 2:2).
“Ruth the Moavite said to Naomi: I will go to the field and glean among the stalks after one in whose eyes I find favor” – Rabbi Yannai said: She was forty years old, and only until the age of forty is one called “daughter.”
“She went, came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened upon the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelekh” (Ruth 2:3).
“She went, came” – she had not even gone and you say that she came? Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: She began marking the path before her. “She happened upon [vayyiker mikreha]” – Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Anyone who would see her would have a seminal emission [keri]. “The portion of the field…from the family of Elimelekh” – it was given to her from what was due to be her portion.

Presently Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He greeted the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they responded, “The LORD bless you!”

The mishna articulates a general principle: One is obligated to recite a blessing for the bad that befalls him just as he recites a blessing for the good that befalls him, as it is stated: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). The mishna explains this verse as follows: “With all your heart” means with your two inclinations, with your good inclination and your evil inclination, both of which must be subjugated to the love of God. “With all your soul” means even if God takes your soul. “And with all your might” means with all your money, as money is referred to in the Bible as might. Alternatively, it may be explained that “with all your might” means with every measure that He metes out to you; whether it is good or troublesome, thank Him. The mishna teaches several Temple-related halakhot. One may not act irreverently or conduct himself flippantly opposite the eastern gate of the Temple Mount, which is aligned opposite the Holy of Holies. In deference to the Temple, one may not enter the Temple Mount with his staff, his shoes, his money belt [punda], or even the dust on his feet. One may not make the Temple a shortcut to pass through it, and through an a fortiori inference, all the more so one may not spit on the Temple Mount. The mishna relates: At the conclusion of all blessings recited in the Temple, those reciting the blessing would say: Blessed are You Lord, God of Israel, until everlasting [haolam], the world. But when the Sadducees strayed and declared that there is but one world and there is no World-to-Come, the Sages instituted that at the conclusion of the blessing one recites: From everlasting [haolam] to everlasting [haolam]. The Sages also instituted that one should greet another in the name of God, i.e., one should mention God’s name in his greeting, as it is stated: “And presently Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, The Lord is with you, and they said to him, May the Lord bless you” (Ruth 2:4). And it says: “And the angel of God appeared to him and said to him, God is with you, mighty man of valor” (Judges 6:12). And it says: “And despise not your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:22), i.e., one must not neglect customs which he inherits. And lest you say that mentioning God’s name is prohibited, it says: “It is time to work for the Lord; they have made void Your Torah” (Psalms 119:126), i.e., it is occasionally necessary to negate biblical precepts in order to perform God’s will, and greeting another is certainly God’s will. Rabbi Natan says another interpretation of the verse: “Make void Your Torah” because “it is the time to work for the Lord,” i.e., occasionally it is necessary to negate biblical precepts in order to bolster the Torah.

May Adonai reward your deeds. The Midrash says, “May Adonai reward your deeds. May you have a full recompense from Adonai…” Rabbi Chasa said, “under whose wings you have sought refuge!” This is something about which one says, “look, this is new,” (but it’s not at all new.) Rabbi Hassa doesn’t add anything new here but simply places his good name in the middle of the verse and no more. Many sought to explain it!
It might be explained according to what the sages said in Midrash Shochar Tov on the verse, “When Israel went forth from Egypt…” (Ps. 114:1) (Commenting on this verse,) Rabbi Pinchas Hakohen bar Chama said: ‘As a surety was placed in the firmament, the blessed Holy One plants the deeds of the righteous and they grow fruit. To what might we compare this? If it is to a deposit, then Rabbi Moses has already said in Choshen Mishpat (S, 292:7), if one makes a profit using a deposit, he does not have to give back the profit to the person to whom the pledge belongs. Even if the owner claims his deposit and the holder delays returning it and (while doing so) makes a profit, Rabbi Shlomo Luria quotes the Shach on this saying he is not obligated to give the owner of the surety the profit. Even a when one delays paying a debt, and then one makes a profit (on what he owes) the author of the Shulchan Aruch writes (S. 71) based on the responsa of the Rosh, that he is not obligated to pay the profit to the one he owes the money.
How much more so here when we are not speaking of a surety or a debt, for there is no reward for the commandments in this world for all the commandments are of equal importance. The reward is not given until one leaves this world. Then, God in His mercy, repays each person even if his deeds are not complete. In this case there is no debt or surety. How can one claim the principle since it is all considered charity and acts of loving kindness so there is no judgment in the case of a debt or a surety. But God’s kindness is made great and he rewards one’s actions, so that one receives full recompense of the fruits that are born from the planting of commandments.
It is about this that Rabbi Chasa has two questions. First, if one plants commandments and fruit come forth and God, in His goodness, gives the one who performs the mitzvot recompense, why did Boaz have to offer a prayer asking for this? And furthermore the verse should have said, “And Adonai, God of Israel, under whose wings you have sought shelter will give you reward for your actions and it shall be full recompense.” To this Rabbi Chasa answers, this is the case from the time of conversion onward, but not the act of conversion itself since Ruth was not an Jew yet. Therefore ,Boaz prayed that the mitzvah of conversion would also be planted for good and that Ruth would be rewarded for the fruit of her conversion and she would profit in the recompense for her act with Adonai, God of Israel, as God did with the people of Israel. And if you ask why do I need a prayer for this (Boaz offers a prayer on behalf of Ruth), “under whose wings you have sought refuge!” That is, Boaz states, “I am speaking about the act of conversion in my prayer.” Rabbi Chasa points this out, by placing his good name before the statement, “Coming under whose wings..”

And may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah—through the offspring which the LORD will give you by this young woman.”

A bride is forbidden to her husband without the [marriage] benediction in the same manner as a niddah. Just as a niddah who has not immersed [in the ritual bath] is forbidden to her husband, so likewise is a bride forbidden to her husband without the [marriage] benediction. Whence is the benediction of bridegrooms derived from the Torah? As it is stated, And they blessed Rebekah. And whence do we derive that even a widow is so forbidden? As it is stated, And he took ten men of the elders of the city … And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman … and let thy house be like the house of Perez.