Wine, Women and Solet – Shavuot & Naso
וְהֵבִיא הָאִישׁ אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ אֶל הַכֹּהֵן וְהֵבִיא אֶת קָרְבָּנָהּ עָלֶיהָ עֲשִׂירִת הָאֵיפָה קֶמַח שְׂעֹרִים לֹא יִצֹק עָלָיו שֶׁמֶן וְלֹא יִתֵּן עָלָיו לְבֹנָה כִּי מִנְחַת קְנָאֹת הוּא מִנְחַת זִכָּרוֹן מַזְכֶּרֶת עָוֹן (במדבר ה, טו).
Be'siyata di'Shmaya זכיתי to discover a phenomenal, new chiddush last week, that answers a lot of questions and ties together many loose ends that have been niggling me for some time. It is an epic subject that spans generations and has specific bearing both on this week's parsha and Shavuot. Since this week we have a "double feature", Shavuot followed by Shabbat, the shiur is a little longer than normal, to provide you with ample reading material for both.
As hinted at in the title, the underlying thread of this shiur concerns the combination of women, wine and bread. It is a theme that repeats many times in Tanach and it is all linked together. The chiddush mentioned above is the glue that links all these seemingly disparate events together.
When embarking upon an epic saga, the best place to start is at the beginning, the first time in the Tanach that a woman is mentioned, the first time that wine is mentioned and the first time that bread is mentioned and not surprisingly, it is all in the same story – the story of Chava. I have devoted many shiurim to this subject and will not repeat them here, but rather simply quote the necessary, relevant parts.
HKB"H commanded Adam (not Chava) with the mitzva of פרו ורבו, a mitzva that he did not rush to fulfil. The proof of this is that only after he and Chava were expelled from Gan Eden does the passuk say that Adam "knew" Chava (בראשית ד, א). Chava, eager to speed things up, gave Adam wine to drink (זהר חלק א, לו א, מאיר פנים פרק טו). This made Adam drunk, and while he was sleeping off his stupor, the whole episode with the נחש and the עץ הדעת occurred. As I have previously described, the sin of Chava was making and eating a chametz bread from the fruit of the עץ הדעת, which was the five species of grain - wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats (מאיר פנים, שם). Chava then fed Adam from this forbidden bread and caused him to also sin.
This was the prototype and I have shown in my numerous shiurim how everything bread and wine related, throughout the Tanach is linked somehow to this episode. What was missing was a small, but important detail that ties up all the loose ends and beautifully links everything together. And this is the question – "How much flour did Chava use to make that chametz bread?"
Last week, with much help from Above, I was privileged to discover the answer to that question – the previously mentioned chiddush. Chava picked one איפה measure of the fruit from the עץ הדעת (in Gan Eden the five grains were not grasses with seeds that grew on the ground, but large, luscious fruit that grew on a tree that towered up to Heaven). Chava then processed this fruit – threshed, winnowed, sorted, ground and sifted (ברכות נח, א), until she finally was left with a tenth of an איפה measure (עשרון) of solet (סולת is flour that is not finely ground, like talc powder, but more coarsely ground, like sea sand).
במיעוט שקידתי I could not find this written in any of the sources, not in Chazal, nor in the Mefarshim, it was derived from hints using תורת הרמז. I will soon bring some of the proofs here (additional proofs may be found in Meir Panim, 2nd edition, soon to be released). This is just one of millions of examples of the wonders and exquisite pleasures of studying Torah and the depth of Lashon Hakodesh - the way things are intricately and beautifully interconnected.
Before the proofs, just a short explanation on the "eifah", which is a measure of volume. We will go from the smallest to the biggest (there are more measures, above and below, but these three are the specific measures that concern us). The smallest of the three measures for our purposes in the shiur is the עשרון (also called the עומר - spoiler!). As its name hints, an עשרון is a tenth of an איפה measure. Ten esronim make one eifah. The next measure after the עשרון is the סאה. There are three se'im in one eifah. You then have the largest of our three measures – the איפה. To summarize –
1 איפה = 3 סאים
1 איפה = 10 עשרונים (approximately 25 cm3 or liters)
Now gaze in wonder at the depth and complexity of Lashon Hakodesh. One "eifah" is 3 "se'ah". The gematria of "סאה סאה סאה" (3 se'ah) is the same as the gematria of "איפה ואיפה". What are the statistical chances of that? Encoded and embedded in each word of Lashon Hakodesh are all the possible links and connections to that word. Now you begin to understand how the entire תורה שבכתב and also the תורה שבעל פה were carved onto the Luchot. It was not that the entire Shas was actually "written" on the Luchot, but rather that the words of the תורה שבכתב encompass (in code) the entire Shas. You just have to learn it out using the various methodologies, (like רמז, of which gematria above is a part).
How do we know that Chava used 3 se'ah (1 eifah) of the fruit of the עץ הדעת and that she ground that into 1 עשרון? Here are some proofs (מאיר פנים, פרק טו) using various methods of gematria –
The gematria of "איפה" is "האילן" (the tree, referring to the עץ הדעת)
The gematria of "איפה" is "וַיֵּדְעוּ [כִּי עֵירֻמִּם הֵם]"
The gematria of "איפה" in ריבוע format "א אי איפ איפה" is "יין אדם ולחם" (you are familiar with this format in נ נח נחמ נחמן, for example).
The gematria of "איפה" in מילוי format "אלף יוד פא הא" (fully spelling out each letter in the word) is "בְדַם עֲנָבִים" (the consequence of Chava giving Adam wine to drink was that she was punished בדם בתולין ודם נידה.
The gematria of "ג' סאה" is "האדם חוה"
The gematria of "עשרון" is "אל תקטוף" (Don't pick the fruit of the עץ הדעת. The tikkun for this is to "pick" Hafrashat Challah from our dough that contains a minimum of an עשרון of flour).
The gematria of "עשרון" in מילוי format "עין שין ריש ואו נון" is " בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם"
These are a few of the many other proofs in Meir Panim. When you find one or two gematriot (in the various formats) that correlate, you are on shaky ground and it may just be chance. However, when you reveal a "flood" of correlations, like the above, it is like a "heat signature" that is unmistakable. The psukkim in the Torah are "communicating" with you, and HKB"H has miraculously opened your eyes to a chiddush. No words can describe the exhilaration of such an experience.
OK, so now that we have established this premise, that Chava's bread was derived from 3 se'ah (1 eifa) of grains, ground into 1 isaron of solet, we are going to embark on a journey of exploration to find similarities in the Tanach.
Our first stop is the tent of Avraham and Sarah. Avraham has just performed the mitzva of Brit Milah. Unlike regular people, Avraham is not concerned with hospitalization but rather with hospitality. Avraham is severely distressed that HKB"H decided to give him "recuperation leave", by bringing out the sun in full force and eliminating all passing traffic. Seeing his distress, HKB"H sends him three special guests – angels. Despite his post-surgery distress, Avraham is galvanized into action. He charges into the tent and furiously starts dishing out instructions to everyone in sight (including himself) to begin preparing the meal for the honored guests.
The first one, perhaps because her task takes the longest (Avraham knows well how to multitask), is Sarah, to prepare the bread. Baking bread was always exclusively the domain of the women (except in the Mikdash, and in Saidel's bakery). Bread baking takes longer than cooking meat – ask me, I give baking workshops and you have to time it exactly to be able to fit the entire process in the time slot. Avraham belts out instructions to Sarah מַהֲרִי שְׁלֹשׁ סְאִים קֶמַח סֹלֶת לוּשִׁי וַעֲשִׂי עֻגוֹת.
I have a simple question. Avraham needs to tell Sarah how to bake bread? Avraham should simply have told her – "Soreleh, we have three guests, please prepare bread for them" and Sarah would have known exactly how much to make and certainly how to make it. Avraham needs to tell her the process? Knead … make matzos (עֻגוֹת)? If I were Sarah, I would be insulted. But no! Avraham feels it necessary to tell her exactly the quantity of materials, 3 se'im! Also, what actions exactly she must perform while preparing the bread!
One of the visiting angels, Michael, had a special task to perform – to tell Sarah that she would bear a child (Yitzchak). Michael asks Avraham "Where is Sarah your wife?" Avraham answers "She is in the tent [baking the bread]". The Mefarshim say that at this moment Sarah became נידה, that her body, at age 90, reverted to its youth. As a result, the guests could not eat the bread Sarah was making (bread is not listed on the final menu of things that Avraham actually served them, Rashi, ibid.).
What is going on here?
This is not a simple visitation by the regular guests that Avraham is accustomed to. This visit has one purpose and one purpose alone – to set into motion the wheels of the process that will eventually result in Mashiach and the final tikkun for the sin of Adam and Chava. The Mashiach Ben David will be from the tribe of Yehuda. Who is Yehuda's grandfather? Yitzchak! If Yitzchak is not born, there will be no Yehuda and no Mashiach ben David!
To merit giving birth to Yitzchak, Avraham and Sarah need to do their part in the tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin. The sin involved 3 se'im, so Sarah needs to use exactly 3 se'im, not any other amount. When Chava gave Adam the bread to eat, that she had prepared from the fruit of the עץ הדעת, Adam didn't ask her "Chava'leh, what is this?" Adam knew all the trees in Gan Eden and what their fruits looked like. This was not like any fruit he had ever seen before. What bracha do you say on it? Does Adam ask Chava any questions? Nope. He places blind faith in her that she is running a Kosher kitchen and that all the ingredients are Badatz! If Adam would have asked, if he would have been more involved in what goes on in his household, he would never have sinned. Avraham does the tikkun for this. He tells Sarah exactly how to make the bread – to constantly knead it that it will not become chametz like Chava's bread, to make it into matzos, not chametz bread!
What you have here is a replay of the story of Chava and Adam, but in reverse – the tikkun for the mistakes they made. It involves women, bread and wine. Where is the wine?
So one might hypothesize that Avraham certainly gave his guests wine to drink (even though it was not on the list in the psukkim). Avraham never served his guests (even the regular guests who weren't angels) regular fare. He went the full nine yards and prepared culinary delicacies and cuisine that nobody made at home on a regular basis. Not just stewed meat, but stewed calf tongues in mustard sauce. Not just the regular Coke or Pepsi or Alpine mineral water, but 44-year-old Cabarnet Sauvignon, vintage of 2004 (do the math, Avraham was born in 1948 from בריאת העולם and the angels visited him when he was 100-years-old). But even if the wine was absent from the meal, it was still there, in Sarah's tent. Remember the gematria above בְדַם עֲנָבִים that equates wine with דם נידה?
Why davka is it Yehuda that Mashiach ben David is descended from? Because Yehuda is the first person in the Torah that said "I messed up, it was my fault". In the case with Tamar, Yehuda said צדקה ממני. This is the character trait necessary to do the tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin. Neither Adam nor Chava admitted any kind of guilt, they passed the buck. "It wasn't my fault, blame it on the … [fill in the blank]. The Mashiach Ben David has to possess the genetic character trait that fixes this, that is the opposite of this. We later see with the episode of David Hamelech and Batsheva, that David indeed admitted his mistake. He inherited this from Yehuda.
Moving right along, a short time later
Our next stop is the 5-storey mansion of Lot in the up-and-coming suburb of KeinSchnorrer Boulevard, in downtown Sdom. After visiting Avraham and partaking of his excellent cuisine, two of the angels Michael and Gavriel decide to head over to Sdom to enjoy (while they still can) the "pre-nuked" fare available in one of the finest households in the neighborhood.
Lot is not exactly the same ilk as Avraham. Lot is more concerned for the safety of his guests. His emphasis is not on the "lavish" menu. The passuk says that he served them a feast and baked matzos for them. We are a talking a matter of days between the angels visiting Avraham and Lot and the psukkim seem to repeatedly emphasize the "matzos", which the Mefarshim explain away that it was Pesach, hence the matzos, but as we have already seen with Avraham, that does fully explain it, same thing with Lot, there is more behind the matzos than it simply being Pesach.
As we said before, baking was the exclusive domain of the women. Even though it says in the passuk that Lot "baked" the matzos, what it really means is that Lot "saw to it" that matzos were baked – by the womenfolk in his home. He gets the credit, not for his baking skills (or lack thereof), but for his directing them what kind of bread to bake. Which women were present in Lot's home at the time? We know from the psukkim that it was his wife and his two unmarried daughters (that Lot later offered to the angry mob banging on his door). No sources detail exactly who baked the matzos, whether it was the wife, or one of the daughters, or both the daughters, or the daughters and the wife – it is a safe bet that all three were involved in part of the process, since grinding flour and baking is a laborious process. How many matzos did Lot's women prepare for the guests? At least three, like we eat today on Pesach, so too back then - three matzos were required. How much flour is necessary to prepare three matzos? The answer is 1 עשרון – that is how much solet was required to bake three matzos of the Korban Toda and in fact numerous Mefarshim say there is a minhag on Pesach today to eat three matzos made from one isaron (these are very large matzos).
Eventually, after trying to convince the rest of his family to flee with him and failing, Lot hurriedly leaves Sdom with his wife and two daughters and the two angels proceed to "nuke" the city. Lot's wife, against the advice of the angels, glances back at Sdom and turns into a pillar of salt. That leaves Lot and his two unmarried daughters. They flee to the mountains surrounding Tzo'ar and take refuge in a cave. They had to leave in a hurry, so they took basic supplies – the matzos they had just baked and perhaps a few other essential items (not wine).
Let us attempt for a moment to analyze the character of Lot's daughters. From the following episode where they sleep with their father, one might form the impression that they were not exactly "good Jewish girls" or the paragon of virtue. Look at the household they grew up in, that their father was willing to hand them over to an angry mob, to do with them "whatever they saw fit". Look at Lot's wife, the first thing she did when the angels arrived, was run out to all the neighbors to "blab", while asking to borrow salt. She was punished mida keneged mida. (BTW, this is a possible source in the Torah for the fact that the original Pesach matzos in the time of Avraham/Lot did have salt in).
However, appearances are deceptive and we get a hint to this from another of Lot's daughters – Plotit. The Midrash says that it was law in Sdom that you were not allowed to give tzedakka to schnorrerim and give food to guests. Sdom was officially a "visitor free" zone. Instead of a large sign at the entrance to the city saying "Welcome to Sdom", the sign read "NOT Welcome to Sdom. No trespassing, on penalty of meeting a very horrible end!". Despite the sign, people did try visit Sdom, because it was a VERY rich city. All the inhabitants were billionaires. All the poor souls who either could not read signs, or were just too dumb and wandered into Sdom by mistake, did not make it out alive. They starved to death. One day Lot's daughter Plotit saw a beggar on his last legs and had mercy on him. While on her way to draw water, she slipped him a sandwich. The beggar managed to survive, despite all the other Sdom inhabitants' efforts to the contrary and when they investigated, they found it was Lot's daughter Plotit who was "breaking the municipal by-laws" of Sdom, by feeding unwanted guests. To punish her, they stripped her, lathered her body with honey and shackled her to the roof of her house. Millions of bees descended on her and stung her to death. Nice people! It was her cries that prompted HKB"H to destroy Sdom זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִּי רָבָּה. From this we see that (at least one of) Lot's daughters were of a higher level than we might think at first glance. In fact, Rabbeinu Bachyei says that they were exceedingly צנועות, that the שבע מצוות בני נח do not forbid father-daughter relationships and Lot's two remaining daughters did what they did from pure motivation, לשם שמיים, thinking the entire world had been destroyed and they were the sole survivors, like in the time of Noach.
Lot's two daughters decided that each in turn would give Lot wine to drink, and while he was intoxicated, they would sleep with him and thus ensure the survival of, what they thought, was the remainder of the human race. Where did they get the wine? You might think they brought it with them when they fled Sdom, but the Midrash says otherwise. According to the Midrash they found it in the cave. This was not Cabernet Sauvignon, vintage 2004 years from בריאת העולם., this was vintage "Zero" years – because, according to the Midrash, this bottle of wine was placed there during the six days of Creation, specifically for this purpose.
Again, we have the same repeating theme – women, wine and bread (matzos in this case). And not just any women, wine and bread – very specific circumstances. Pious, modest women (R' Bachyei), wine that was created by HKB"H Himself and matzos made from 1 isaron of solet. Do you hear any bells ringing?
And again, we have the same mechanism at work. It began in the house of Avraham and Sarah and it continued in the house and the cave of Lot and his daughters and the purpose remained the same. To effect the tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin and set the wheels in motion for the Mashiach ben David. In Avraham and Sarah's home the foundation was set for the father of Mashiach ben David - Yehuda, descended from Yitzchak. In Lot's cave, the foundation was set for the mother of Mashiach ben David.
From the union between Lot and his daughters were born - Amon and Moav, from whom two iconic descendants would be born - Na'ama Ha'Amonit (wife of Shlomo Hamelech) and Rut Ha'Moaviyah, the great grandmother of David Hamelech.
And so it continues. It continues with Rivka marrying Yitzchak, and all the miracles that were present in Sarah's tent continue with Rivka. Rivka coerces her son Yaakov to masquerade as Eisav and receive Yitzchak's blessing – when? On Pesach, again involving matzos and wine (and the Korban Pesach/Chagiga). It continues with Rachel and Leah, Rachel divulging the simanim to her sister Leah that she would not be shamed at the wedding with Yaakov. What simanim? חלה, נידה, הדלקת הנר.
Again we have the recurring theme of women, wine (niddah, blood likened to wine, above) and bread – hafrashat challah, taking a portion from and reciting a bracha on dough that has at least …… 1 isaron of flour! I could go into more details with Rivka, Rachel and Leah, like I did with Sarah and Lot's daughters, but I want to fast forward to the clincher, so suffice it to say that both Rivka, Rachel and Leah, laid the foundations for the birth of Yaakov, the 12 Tribes and Yehuda, the father of Mashiach ben David.
I now want to skip to the last instance of wine, women and solet, but not before pausing for a moment to include something from this week's parsha Naso, that is intricately related.
In Naso (see the passuk in the beginning of the shiur), the Torah details the halachot of Sotah, a woman suspected by her husband of committing adultery (the "woman" component).
Let's examine for a brief moment the Korban Sotah. The psukkim tell us that the suspected Sotah has to bring a special Mincha (bread offering) made from 1 isaron of barley solet. In this respect the Sotah and the Omer are the same, they are both made from 1 isaron of barley flour. According to the Rambam the 1 isaron of solet for the Omer is made from 3 se'im of barley (הלכות תמידין ומוספין, ז, יא). I have not managed to find a source that says how much barley the 1 isaron of solet for the Sotah is made, but it follows that it is also from 3 se'im. This is the nature of the grain, that there is a lot of wastage in the grinding process. So the "bread" component of the Sotah is 3 se'im of raw materials and 1 isaron of solet.
What about the "wine" component. Seemingly there is no wine component in the Sotah, but actually there is and it is related to the vessel in which the bitter water is prepared - made from חרס, cheap earthenware that is subsequently broken. Why חרס? The Gemara (סוטה ט, א) says the reason is to punish the woman for serving her lover wine in expensive goblets. Also, the parsha of the Sotah is followed by the parsha of Nazir, who has to refrain from drinking – wine!
Again, the recurring theme, wine, women and solet. The Korban Sotah takes things a step further though, it contains elements that were not present in our previous examples, like using pure water from the כיור, mixed with earth from the floor of the Mishkan and into which HKB"H's name is erased from a קלף. In fact, the Korban Sotah is a much more detailed tikkun for the first Sotah, Chava, who committed adultery with the נחש, and therefore the details are more intricate.
The Zohar (פר ' נשא, קכד, ע"ב) says that the first time a Korban Sotah was administered was at מרה, to test the fidelity of Am Yisrael before receiving the Torah, that they did not commit adultery with the Egyptians. The result was that they were all given the certificate of fidelity, except for one woman, Shomit Bat Divri (wife of Datan), and the Torah specifically mentions her name. However, there was another form of the Sotah also administered to Am Yisrael and this was the Korban Ha'Omer. If the Sotah is intended for an individual, the Omer is intended for the entire nation. In fact, the Omer is a "Korban Sotah" on a national level (מאיר פנים, פרק טו). The flour components of both are identical. The timing is identical – the Sotah is administered when the suspected adulterer is at the lowest level. The Omer is offered when Am Yisrael were at their lowest level, at the 49th rung of טומאה when they left Egypt. They both resemble the level of a בהמה which is why barley is used, since it is animal fodder. Unlike the Sotah, however, the Omer has oil and Levonah added, because Am Yisrael were mostly pure, only one woman was impure, so this is reflected by adding oil and Levonah to the Omer. The Sotah and the Omer have the same purpose – to restore peace between husband and wife and between HKB"H (חתן) and Am Yisrael (כלה), in preparation for the "wedding", receiving the Torah on Har Sinai. This is why Naso is always read in proximity to Shavuot (either the Shabbat before or after).
There are other examples of our recurring theme, but I want to fast forward to the final instance that will be discussed in this shiur, as it has direct relevance to Shavuot.
Rut and Boaz were the product of generation upon generation of building the foundation for Mashiach ben David, starting with Avraham and Sarah. Rut is descended from Lot/Moav and Boaz is descended from Yehuda (יהודה, פרץ, חצרון, רם, עמינדב, נחשון, שַׂלמה, בועז)
Were it not for that visit of the angels to Avraham at the beginning of the story, not only would the father's side (Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yehuda) not have been born, but neither would Rut have been allowed to marry Boaz. The only reason she was, is because of a halacha that the angels learned from Avraham during their visit. Michael asked "Where is Sarah, why did she not come out to greet us?" Avraham replied, "Sarah is in the tent, because out of modesty, it is the man's job to greet guests, not the woman's". This halachic ruling had direct bearing on Rut.
The reason the prohibition exists for not marrying a Moabite, is because "They did not come out to greet you with bread and water, when you left Egypt". If the job of greeting is limited to the men and not to the women, then the sin was that of the men and not of the women and therefore the prohibition of marrying Moabites is limited to the male Moabites and not the females. This was the question Boaz asked the Beit Din of Shmuel HaRamati before marrying Rut "Am I allowed to marry her?" and the ruling was – based on Avraham's psak halacha, that the prohibition applies to עמוני ולא עמונית מואבי ולא מואבית.
Before getting this psak halacha, this chiddush, from the Beit Din, the prevalent halacha was that even the women were forbidden. This is what Naomi says to Rut, "What good will it do if you accompany me back to Eretz Yisrael – nobody is going to marry you, they are not allowed to marry you". Despite this Rut followed her.
Let's take a closer look at the story of Rut and Boaz. See if you can spot any similarities to the rest of the shiur above.
Most Mefarshim regard Elimelech in a negative way, that he got what he deserved, for not giving צדקה, that he and both his sons died. The Midrash tells us that Elimelech was the gadol hador and that there was a famine. Whether it was a food famine or a Torah "famine" is not clear. Either way, Elimelech decided to leave and go to Moav. There are some Mefarshim however, who say that Elimelech unknowingly acted out of a "calling" based on Ruach Hakodesh, with the express purpose of extracting the "diamond in the rough" that was Rut, out of Moav. If not for his son מחלון marrying Rut, that would not have happened.
The question is, if Elimelech and Boaz were brothers (some say Boaz was Elimelech's nephew), both are descended from Yehuda, why was it davka Boaz that was destined to be the father of David Hamelech and not Elimelech and his sons. The megilah could have ended נחשון, שַׂלמה, אלימלך, מחלון, עובד, ישי, דוד? The answer is that there is another character trait that the Mashiach ben David has to possess and that is a deep feeling of responsibility for his people. Elimelech abandoned his people and moved to Moav, instead of davening for and helping his generation during a crisis. Boaz, who the Gemara (Bava Batra 91a) says is the shofet אבצן (in sefer Shoftim), remained behind to care for them. Boaz was a ניצוץ of Avraham, (the gematria of בעז is אברם העברי) and it was davka from the union of Boaz and Rut that David Hamelech had to emerge because they were the tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin (the gematria of בעז ורות is ומעץ הדעת).
Rut returns with Naomi and the time of the year is Pesach, the time of the barley harvest. Naomi is penniless and sends Rut to their only chance of survival, Boaz.
Boaz sees to it that Rut is allowed to gather barley sheaves in the field with no harassment from the other male workers in the field. The passuk (2, 17) says that Rut harvested about 1 eifah measure of barley. Ring any bells?
Again you have the woman, the solet. What about the wine? Boaz tells Rut to dip her bread in vinegar (2, 14) like all the other harvesters do (to give the bread flavor). Vinegar is wine that gone sour.
When Rut sneaks into the threshing floor and lies down by Boaz's feet, Boaz wakes up in the middle of the night and the passuk says וַיֶּחֱרַד הָאִישׁ וַיִּלָּפֵת (רות ג, ח). Boaz was fearful, but what does it mean וילפת? If you reorder the letters of וילפת you get "פת לוי", the bread of the Levi'im. What is the bread of the Levi'im (bnei Kehat/Beit Garmu)? The Lechem Hapanim of course. Boaz was not sure what the outcome of this encounter with Rut would be. It was בחצי הלילה and we know what happened in Egypt בחצי הלילה, something terrible (for the Egyptians),מכת בכורות , but for Am Yisrael it was the Geulah. Boaz was uncertain if there was going to be a good or a bad ending.
But then he saw be'Ruach Hakodesh the Lechem Hapanim and he was calm. Why did the Lechem Hapanim calm him down? Because the Lechem Hapanim is מלכות, the lineage of David Hamelech. There is an intricate connection between David Hamelech and the Lechem Hapanim. Boaz realized that this encounter with Rut would result in David Hamelech and all was as it should be.
In the morning, the passuk says that Boaz sent her home with וַיָּמָד שֵׁשׁ שְׂעֹרִים (רות ג, טו). What does 6 se'orim mean? And why davka 6? Rashi's first and natural assumption on that passuk is that it means 6 se'ah of barley, but since he believes that 6 se'ah is not appropriate for a woman to carry, he gives an alternative, philosophical explanation. However, what if it actually means 6 se'ah of barley, but after being ground into 2 esronim of flour?! 2 esronim is easy to carry (about 3-4kg). Why 6 se'ah of barley, because 6 se'ah of barley is two portions of 3 se'ah – one portion for the Omer and the second for the Sotah. Do you know how many times the word barley is mentioned in the whole megillah? Six times!
In fact what Boaz is doing here is performing a Korban Ha'Omer and Korban Sota on Rut! Just like before the wedding on Har Sinai between HKB"H and Am Yisrael, they had to first bring the Omer and the Sotah at מרה, so here too, before Boaz's wedding with Rut, she has to undergo a similar process, because this is not any old wedding.
Before he marries her, Boaz must make sure that Rut is indeed is worthy of giving birth to the Mashiach ben David! Centuries upon centuries of preparation have laid the groundwork for this moment and there is no room for error. Only after Rut passes this test does Boaz marry her, aged 400. It is a short marriage – one night, during which she conceives a son עובד, the grandfather of David Hamelech.
Rut is זוכה to live a long life. She lives to see her great grandson David become king, and her great great grandson, Shlomo after him. There is a special seat of honor next to Shlomo's throne for Rut.
The last link in the chain is complete. The dynasty of David Hamelech is born and with it the promise of Mashiach ben David and the final tikkun of the sin of Chava and Adam Harishon.
Why do we read Megilat Rut on Shavuot? There are all kinds of reasons given – David Hamelech was born and died on Shavuot and this is essentially his story. Another reason given is that Shavuot is called the time of the wheat harvest in the Torah- ְחַג שָׁבֻעֹת תַּעֲשֶׂה לְךָ בִּכּוּרֵי קְצִיר חִטִּים, and the story of Rut takes place during the wheat harvest - וַתִּדְבַּק בְּנַעֲרוֹת בֹּעַז לְלַקֵּט עַד כְּלוֹת קְצִיר הַשְּׂעֹרִים וּקְצִיר הַחִטִּים וַתֵּשֶׁב אֶת חֲמוֹתָהּ (רות ב, כג). But to my mind this is not a correct reason.
Megilat Rut has nothing to do with the wheat harvest, except for a tiny mention in one passuk, that if you were not paying attention, you might miss it. The focus is most decidedly on barley, not wheat. The word barley is mentioned six times in the megillah. The barley harvest is on Pesach. Why don't we read Megilat Rut on Pesach rather?
The reason Megilat Rut is read on Shavuot is specifically because of the barley, but not because of the harvest. It is because barley is a main element in the Korban Ha'Omer and the Korban Sotah and these two are the precursor to receiving the Torah.
On Pesach we bring the Omer and then begin a count of 49 days to cleanse us of the impurity of Egypt. What does Naomi say when she returns with Rut? "Don't call me Naomi, call me מָרָא." What happened in מרה after Am Yisrael left Egypt? They underwent the test of a Sotah, in preparation for Matan Torah!
In order to receive the Torah on Har Sinai we had to complete the tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin and to verify that this was indeed the case, the Sotah was conducted at מרה. The Sotah reunites and makes peace between the husband and the wife, between HKB"H and Am Yisrael.
This is the "secret" theme of Megilat Rut, beneath the surface, the completion of the circle that began with Chava.
Besides the three elements - wine, women and solet, there are numerous other factors (for example the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim) which contribute to hastening the Mashiach and serve as tikkun for Adam and Chava's sin. For me, however, there was always a missing piece that tied everything neatly together, which this new chiddush does.
Not always do all the three elements converge, like they do in the above cases. Sometimes they act on their own, as a partial tikkun for only one aspect the sin. For example, the Menachot in the Beit Hamikdash. It is not incidental that all the Menachot are made up of multiples of 1 isaron of solet, because they all address and serve as tikkun for the same root element of the sin – the 1 isaron that made up Chava's bread and, again, the additional 1 isaron for the bread she fed to Adam. This is echoed in korbanot like the Shtei Halechem brought on Shavuot, consisting of two loaves of chametz bread, each made from 1 isaron of solet, one symbolizing the bread that Chava ate and the second that she gave Adam to eat. The Shtei Halechem is a tikkun for that and it works in conjunction with the Torah we receive on Shavuot to neutralize the yetzer harah that instigated the sin. It is echoed in the Lechem Hapanim, each loaf of which is made up of 2 isaron measures of solet, one for each of the breads in the sin, and so on.
Another important tikkun for this sin is the mitzva of Hafrashat Challah, which is performed on any dough that has 1 isaron or more of flour. The preference for this mitzva is given to women, to address the root cause of the sin of Chava. Sarah Imeinu was the first to perform this mitzva.
I would like to end with a beautiful mashal based on a story told about רבינו הקדוש, Rebi Yehuda Nanasi.
Once a couple came to Rebi and asked for his permission to get divorced. Rebi could clearly see that they loved each other and asked the reason why. They replied that they were unable to have children, and they wanted to perform the mitzva of פרו ורבו by remarrying. Rebi agreed that they divorce, but on one condition – that the divorce ceremony would be identical to their wedding ceremony. They would invite guests to a banquet at a simcha hall, with an orchestra, photographer (OK, perhaps not the photographer), flowers and the full nine yards, so that they would part on amicable terms and that it would be apparent for everyone to see. The couple agreed.
Just before the big party, the husband says to his wife "After the divorce, you will go back to living with your parents, but I still love you very much, so I want you to go through our entire house and take whatever there is that is most valuable to you and I want it to be yours to keep."
That night they all partake in the banquet. The wife says to her brother "I want you to make sure that my husband drinks a LOT and gets drunk". Her brother is up to the task and keeps plying the husband with glass after glass of alcoholic beverages. The husband gets completely drunk and falls asleep. The next morning, he wakes to find his mother-in-law standing over him staring down at him. "What is going on here? How did I land up in my in-laws' house?"
His wife enters the room and through his hangover manages to ask her what happened.
She replies "Remember you said that I could go through the entire house and take what was most valuable to me? Well, I went through the house and the most valuable possession in the house to me was YOU! So, as agreed, I decided to take you with me and keep you as promised".
They went back to Rebi and told him the story and he smiled and said, "If this is the case then you must not get divorced. Stay together and HKB"H will help you to have children", which is indeed what happened.
As we approach Shavuot again this year, we have a feeling of de ja vu. We have already been at the wedding once, at Har Sinai and despite the fact that we love HKB"H, things went wrong and we mistakenly parted ways. However, this was the chametz in the dough at work, the yetzer harah, tricking us to get a divorce. Every Shavuot, and in fact every day, we (the כלה) need to say to HKB"H, (the חתן) "We have searched our entire "house", our souls and the entire world and we have not found a more valuable "possession" than You, we want to get back together with You and try make it work!" When we do that, it will work, the problems will melt away and the "child" will be zocheh to be born, the Mashiach ben David, who is alive and waiting in every generation for HKB"H to send Eliyahu Hanavi to tell him to step forward and redeem us. All we have to do is say to HKB"H – "We choose You!"
The Korban Sotah is not a "bad" korban, its true purpose is not "exploding" womens' bellies. Its true purpose is restoring peace between husband and wife. Similarly, the elements of the Korban Sotah and the mechanisms of the tikkun we perform daily, today without the Beit Hamikdash and even more intensely when we have the Beit Hamikdash, serve to restore and maintain peace between Am Yisrael and HKB"H.
All three megillot that we read on the שלושת הרגלים give off a different "vibe", which is why we read them on the different festivals, at different times in the year. All three megillot have a punch line. The last passuk always sums up the entire megillah and the primary message it is trying to convey. Amazingly it is the same message.
Shir Hashirim on Pesach ends with the words על הרי בשמים – referring to the 3rd Beit Hamikdash on Har Hamoriah.
Rut on Shavuot ends with וישי הוליד את דוד – referring to the Mashiach ben David.
Kohelet on Sukkot ends with the words כי זה כל האדם – referring to the three mistakes that caused the sin of the עץ הדעת and their tikkun. כי – not serving Hashem besimcha (the letter "כ" resembles a smile – מאיר פנים, פרק יד). זה – the unity and mutual responsibility of the Twelve Tribes (זה in gematria is 12). כל – being satisfied with your lot שמח בחלקו (מאיר פנים, פרק יג). האדם – Adam Harishon.
All three megillot have the same punchline – Adam and Chava's sin and their tikkun - the Mashiach and the Beit Hamikdash.
