Ruth Reveals a Message To Stay With You Forever

Two [clears throat] women they come from a tremendously royal sovereignty and aristocratic house. Two women, young ladies that were full of opulence, very popular, very known. And they had their whole future in front of them. And they had went ahead and made a decision, a very strong decision to go ahead and leave the castle, to go ahead and marry two Jews. To go leave and go marry two men, Jewish men, and to leave the castle. Their father was the most powerful king in society. His name was Eglon. And he was considered one of the top. He was one of the top of the of the whole in the whole entire world. >> [clears throat] >> And unbelievably, here they have it. Somewhere they will call it Nefesh. They went out to go ahead and marry people. And leave the castle. Soon after not so long afterwards, their father-in-law passes away. Their father-in-law passes away for whatever reason. And not much after that, within a year, their own husbands, both of them, who were both brothers, also passed away. Two sisters that were married to two brothers. And here they are, they also passed away. They also ended up dying. Three women, three men, all three men are out of the picture. And we're left with three women who are caught between a rock and a hard place. They were stuck in a pickle. They weren't sure what happened. Here we have it. We were not long ago what we would call a princess, someone of high esteem, someone that was looked up to. Now we are Almonots. Now we're widows and have nowhere to turn to. And a decision was left to be made for them what to do. So their mother-in-law, her name was Naomi. Came and told them, "Look, I understand. It was very nice of you. You married my children. I know the time it was good and everything like that. But I got punished." She said, "It's all my fault." Naomi was a very smart woman. She said, "The reason this happened to me is because I left Israel. I ran away from Israel." I'm saying this on purpose. when Eretz Yisrael we all made the move, some were here. And she said, because I left Eretz Yisrael at a time where it was hard for everybody else, and I could say I ditched everybody behind me. Of course, Elimelech, her husband, was a man who was very who was very of high esteem. He was a very wealthy man, very powerful man. And as they say, they were portions of the seaboard, they left them in a time of need. And she realized that she went and took homage in Moab, left to Zarets at a time when maybe she really shouldn't have done it. And now she got punished for it. And therefore, Naomi made a decision that she's going to do teshuvah and go back to her homeland, go back to Eretz Yisrael, and make up for the mistake that she made a few years beforehand by leaving in the first place. Even though by going back, it's going to have what we call in Hebrew bushut. Wow, this is going to be quite embarrassing. People are going to see me, and at best, I'm going to get sneers, looks, people wondering what happened to you, all of a sudden you're back, hmm? And people wondering back, or if you get at worst, when you get to the people who are the, you know, the real tactful people that we're quite familiar with, so they will start coming and saying, you know why your husband died, right? You understand what happened. I hope you realize that what you did kind of this is you you got [clears throat] the connection, right? You understand. Your children in this, obviously people with the zero tact to do such a thing. But to get ridiculed and criticized for the action that she did, but she decided it was the appropriate thing for me to do. I should be going back to my homeland, go back for making up for the sin of what happened. I'll put it in parentheses, you should know that someone told me, it was just now Yom Yerushalayim. And that's when the Six-Day War concluded, this incredible miraculous Six-Day War that happened where we conquered Yerushalayim, as you know. People were we're standing after the fact, but people don't realize before the Six-Day War, they were literally prepared for a holocaust, a second holocaust. They thought literally hundreds of thousands of people were meant to die. When I'm not going to go into the details of what the war and the scales of the war was all about, but they were literally prepared for an all-out attack and it wasn't so simple. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, who was the Rosh Yeshiva in the Mir at that time, told the American bachurim, and he told all the American bachurim back then, said, "You should know, my bachurim, whoever decides to leave this is before the Six-Day War, yeah. Whoever decides to leave now, you and Elimelech are in the same parsha. You and Elimelech who Elimelech who left Eretz Yisrael, you did the same thing as Elimelech. Elimelech left in a time of dire straits. This is a time when we have to stick together in Eretz Yisrael. Now, we know we're also familiar with the wars that we're surrounded by, but that's a time when you go ahead and have the hard skin to be able to to stick into the to the guns." But al kol panim, here it is, Naomi makes his decision that she's going back. Now, Naomi's being fair. She tells her two daughter-in-laws, "Look, honey, I love you all. You guys are great daughter-in-laws. You were very good. You were loyal. It's time to go back. There's nothing for me. I have nothing to give you anymore." The Torah in Naomi state to where you your your hometown." "You make them happy as you sit with my team in my day." You guys are good. I give you I quit you. You have no obligations to me. I understand you came when it's good and you're leaving when it's bad and I got it. But you don't have to feel bad about it. I'm good. I totally understand why you would go back. You turn to Shmuel who gives him a bracha. You should find menucha. You should find another husband. The Tisha B'Av gave him a kiss and they all cried together. And they all cried together. And they all cried together. All of them cried together. Ruth, Orpah, and Naomi. All three of them cried together about this sad turn of events that happened in their in this in this occurrence about what happened. >> [clears throat] >> That's once. Now, we have a second time. They go ahead and they're both loyal. Orpah and Ruth are both loyal. To my mother, no, we want to go with you. They both said it. both were very loyal to them. And Naomi says a second time and she says, "Benotai, she calls them my daughters, you should go back. I have no more children in my stomach. I'm too old to have any more children. There's no chance. I don't have any more money. I don't have a husband. I don't have children for you to marry them. There's nothing to go back to. I'm going back to a place without a home. I'm really There's nothing no reason for you to be so loyal and so and and so asset on the fact that you're coming after me." Vatishtak and and and that's what happened, okay? So, what happens? Over here comes the fork in the road. Over here comes the decision that happens. Vatomer Naomi Shavna Benotai Lehen Ki Zachanti Leish Havahen Tishaverna and then it says in Pasuk Yud Daled and this is the key Pasuk I want to get to. Vatishena Kolan Vatifikena Od They cried again together. Vatishek Orpa Lehamota U'Ruth Davka Ba. >> [clears throat] >> Re'ur Orpa gave a kiss to her mother-in-law and Ruth was Davka Ba. She clung to her. She stuck to her. She stuck to her guns and she stuck with her in the end of the day. I'll explain to you the differences the Meforshim already tell us. The difference was Orpa, she was very aesthetic She was very correct. She did something very socially Beseder Gamur. She was socially correct. She was mannerly about it. It doesn't make sense. I was here for the good. But the person's husband dies and I'm going to leave you. I'm going to ditch you. It's not It's not etiquette. I understand it's not appropriate to do that. So, she said, "Do you want me to stay?" Naomi says, "No." The connection [clears throat] of Orpa to her mother-in-law Naomi was one of a Tishakna. It was a kiss, a external type of connection. It was one of of manners, of a being appropriate, doing things according to what's the dignified way. I'm not talking about someone on a low level. Very nice. She did something that was appropriate. But in the end of the day it ended at a kiss. It ended at something external. Ruth took a different turn. Ruth didn't just kiss her, the dove gabba, she clung to her. She clung to her mother-in-law. She was committed, she was connected, she was internally set and invested in her mother-in-law. She chose this religion and I'm here to stay and I'm not budging. That was the difference and it's I forget even call it slight difference between her sister Orpah and Ruth. It came from this slight difference of of a tishakna. I give a kiss and I give a a gedanka thank you to the religion. Or I go ahead and I'm dove gabba. I go ahead and I'm dovic to it very much. And having said that, we have the next possuk. And we have the next possuk that says that Orpah left and she uses this Naomi as number three on the list as the third time she says in the final time. We learn many alachos of of of conversion from Ruth. Many of the alachos in Gittin and Yevamot learn of how to do convert someone. One of them is you have to speak three things. You have to go ahead and say something three times. And we learn from here cuz the so Naomi tried to budge her off three times. In the third time, she said to her these words. That tishakna, that afterwards she went ahead and she told her, "Look, your sister went back also." It says "Ki Yevamot al shuma acharech ki kol asher telchi elech uvaasher she says you you Yevamot your sister went away, so why don't you just come along also and go ahead and go with her also. You should also take the same turn and go ahead and leave also." That was what That's what she said. And what happened in the end? In the end of the day, Ruth stuck to her guns. Vatomer ki al elech asher tachli aliyah that she said I'm not going to and I'm not going to give in and I'm going to go asher tamuti amut. She go we learn here many ideas. First of all, she told me you know there was mitat bet din. If you do something wrong, you can get killed in bet din. And she told him about the idea of the 613 mitzvot asher telchi elech I go wherever you go." And she told her that you're not allowed to go to special places. We learn it all from these pesukim. Okay, al kol panim, we learn from everything here that when a person has a certain amount of a commitment to go ahead to geirut, that's what Ruth did at this stage. She stood al shalah, she stuck to what she needed to do, and therefore, even at the expense of no husband, even at the expense of no kids, and even at the expense of not having a roof over your head, maybe a roof like this, not such a real roof, right? And that's all she had. And even at that expense, she was willing to go ahead and make uh and make the sacrifice. This is the difference, if I could say, between Ruth and Orpah. A slight difference. Uh Ruth Orpah was very dignified. Any uh you know, any person would say what she did was socially correct. It was so appropriate. She got the issue and she went. There was nothing wrong. Chazal come along and tell us a whopper. If Chazal didn't say it, I'm not going to get into all the details of what Chazal say, cuz it's a little bit too harsh. But the Midrash Rabbah and in Ruth Rabbah says, when Orpah turned around and left, Orpah, it's from lashon oref. Oref is the back of a neck. She turned her neck, she went all the way down. Me igrah ramah from the top lebirah amiktah to the bottom of the pits. It says that she completely when she went off, she went off. She was osek in many promiscuous and horrible things that the Torah goes ahead and enunciates over there. Very bad things, and she ended up giving birth to a child who was a big ogre known as Goliath. Goliath, familiar with him? Uh that was one of her children. They actually mention some other ones, but I know we're familiar with Goliath, so I mentioned him. But because of her turn of events, she actually went to the bottom. She actually went to the bottom, and she completely went back to her old grayish ways. She completely went and went even topsy-turvy, even worse than she was before. As Chazal tell us. That's where the camera focuses on Orpah. But meanwhile, if we go back to the other side of the camera, when we're looking at Ruth, when we're looking at Ruth and what she was doing, there she was, like I said, living in a status of a neophyte, a little bit of being poor, not having much. I can tell you that she was picking grains, you know, like chilling beans that you put inside your chilling, one by one, going ahead and taking from the sadeh, from the field. And she, you know, she was looking for a shidduch. What would be a shidduch? A shidduch would be that you would be able to have someone from the family to be able to connect. There's something known as yibbum, levirate marriage, as we're familiar with, that she wanted to be able to marry someone from the family. So, I'm not going to go through the whole megillah, but the megillah goes through the idea of her trying to get another husband to reenact the fact that her husband died, so at least she can marry his relative, who was Ploni Almoni, his name was Tov. That was his name. Al ko panim, even though she tried, he wasn't willing to go through with it. And here we have another wrench in the whole story. And we're getting to a point here. Another wrench in the story. Because Tov didn't want to marry her, you know why? Not because she wasn't a special woman, not because of, you know, she was very, I said, all the all the my luck, everything. Why didn't he want to marry her? Because there was a problem with her yichus. We have a halacha in in in We have a halacha that's brought down about a Moavi, that if someone is from Moab, you're not supposed to marry someone from Moab. Now, back then there was no Gemara, there was no Shulchan Aruch, there was nothing. Everything was baal peh. And the halacha is Moavi v'lo Moavis, meaning you're not allowed to marry a male Moavi, someone from Moab, which we don't know where where they are anymore, but you are allowed to marry a female. For whatever reasons, there's reasons why, obviously not for now. A Moavi you are allowed, but they didn't know this halacha. They knew Moab is off limits. So, Tov was not interested in this idea of getting married to a woman who was a Moavis. He wasn't interested in marrying this Moavis, and therefore, he decided against it. He decided against it and didn't go. So, another pegida, no family. All right, she left her family, she's poor, and now nobody wants to marry me. I mean, dammit, I got a problem with my yichus now. Why did this this conversion wasn't really worth it? I don't know what I'm getting I got myself in a real pickle here. What am I going to do? I In the end of the day, towards the end of the Megillah, what happens? She ends up doing Yibbum with Boaz. He was the Godol Hador. And he was her senior by a few decades. He was like some 40-50 years older than her. He was a senior by many decades. And she did Yibbum with him. She had leverite marriage with this thing. And lo and behold, the next day Boaz dies. Whoa, another one in the Well, jeez. Naomi and Boaz dies. The The woman The man that she finally is marrying Boaz She was the Godol Hador, Hashuve Mensch. She got a good shidduch because Naomi told her what to do, etc. And then boom, he dies on her also. This doesn't look good for the shidduch list. I mean, when she's going to start going out now, they're going to see on the resume I I don't know what's going to be next. It's a little bit of a problem. >> [clears throat] >> But the idea that Chazal tell us, you should know and you should know people were laughing in the area. They were saying, "Oh, we know what happened. Oh, it was inappropriate. It was probably wrong. Maybe Boaz was wrong." So, Chazal tell us that Hashem really the gzeira on Boaz was meant to die earlier. He wasn't a young man at all. He was really meant to die earlier. But Hashem, kaveyachol, it was kept alive in order to make this Yibbum with Ruth in order that he would be able she would be able to carry the future baby of Dovid Hamelech. To be able to eventually produce She was eventually, as we know, the grandmother the great-grandmother of Dovid Hamelech. And that's really how the end of the Megillah ends. But to quote the Chazal, "Lo Yivalu Naomi." And then it says she had Peretz and Chetzron and Aminadav and then eventually Dovid Hamelech. "Ishai holid et Dovid." Eventually, she had Dovid Hamelech. Okay, and that's what happened. Now, let's let's just get the picture here for a minute. I don't know how many times you've read um Megillat Ruth. But um in the end of the day, you know, when we read Megillat Esther, she also had it a little bit tough. It's an opposite. So, we only have two sefarim that are named after women. One's Esther and one's Ruth. Esther had a different problem. She went the other way. She went from poor to being in the castle, right? She went from the castle out of the castle, Ruth. The other way around. The only problem Esther had to be married to some ogre, an oversized drunkard who was a good-for-nothing guy. So, yeah, she also had it tough. But at least Esther saw the final picture. She was able to see the success story that was held as a result of her being in the castle. Baruch Hashem, we're able to be Purim and appreciate and she was able to appreciate everything that happened because of her of her of her of her bravery, of Esther. So, she got a gold medal. Ruth, when the curtains closed in this whole story, yeah, like what did she get out of it? Did she when she passed away or when things went on, did she finally realize that she was a heroine? Did she realize she's going to have a whole megillah written after her? This is the only non-Jew that you have a whole safer written after her, 24 books. We have in Tanakh and one is named after a woman who wasn't Jewish and she converted. You don't have something like that very often. Did she realize that she's going to get her name in the books and eventually David Hamelech is going to come, that she's going to have her late claim to fame? Probably not. I'll tell you what she was doing. She was sitting penniless. She was sitting without a husband. Baruch Hashem, eventually she had a couple children. And then, in the end of the day, uh in the end of the day, what happened? She gave a call to her old sister Orpah. So, Orpah, how are things going? She hears music in the background. She hears, you know, she knows about the the the the the the the fancy Rolls-Royce that she's driving around in the in the and the and the and the fancy houses that she's sitting in, and everything's doing fantastic for her, and she's going, "Did I make a right decision? I'm not sure. Like, does it make sense what I did here?" I mean, look at what happened to her. She went the other direction. I understand she's not in a good spot ruchniyus-wise. Are we familiar sometimes with the story that sibling we might have? that's a good role model for us, but wow, they're doing really well. They're really being matzliach. They're enjoying life as we have it, and here I am on my own. It's just me and Naomi, you know, like what else what else do I have to say for myself? And again, like I said, where's she going to get these kids into cheder? You remember Moavi v'lo Moavi? Do you know I was a boy? Oh my gosh, where am I going to get him into school now? I'm really in trouble. >> [clears throat] >> So that is uh that's uh that's what happened over here. So what is the nekuda of the split between Ruth and and and Orpah? When we have this story and I finished, I concluded here, showing you the contrast between these two women, what was the difference and the slight difference that was the difference between her? And this is it, because when Ruth sought emet, when she focused and appreciated what the truth is, she went for it out of self. And she said, "This is something I have to do, and I have a conviction to do it." And she made sure to go ahead and do it. And she made sure to go ahead and chase after it. When she had it, it's not only about what I feel is correct, something that maybe we've grown up if I feel this is what I should be doing, I should be doing it, and what I feel is should be done, but sometimes I have to do what's correct because it's correct without asking any questions about it. It's not only about my ratzon, about what I want, but what needs to be done. That was Ruth's conviction. When she made that decision, that this is what's the appropriate thing to do, that let her drive like a horse. She went straight, and nothing could budge her right or left. Well, like I'm I I'm purpose cuddled up the story in order to make us realize how many challenges this woman had, and she still went through with it, and she didn't go off the derech. Her sister did. She didn't go off the derech, and the reason is because when she saw the truth in front of her, she was willing to go ahead and leave her comfort zone. She was willing to go ahead and make self-sacrifice because it was the right thing to do. And even though I don't always want to, and even though I've questions in my head about it sometimes, but if it's the right thing to do, I'll take the driving force and I'll do it because I know it's something I have to do. The possuk says in Mishlei that if a person wants real yiras shamayim, you should chase after it like money. Remosha finds it as, "Come on, chase after you can't get a better moshol than that, chase after like money b'emes." I mean, I don't know about you, I come from Los Angeles, I know that moshol is a perfect moshol, right? When somebody wants money, he will do anything to be able to get richer and richer and richer. They will not stop and bank at anything. They're not willing to sacrifice to wake up early in the morning, they'll go sleep at night if they're going to close that deal. They'll do anything, they'll fly here and fly there to make those big deals. If a person's willing to make a commitment that strong, then that commitment will go and it will go ad asof. It will be able to take him to the end. That was the difference between Ruth and Orpah. Orpah was correct. She was socially correct. She was okay. She was right. But until things get uncomfortable. When things get a little bit uncomfortable, it's already a place that's saying, "I don't know. Should do I do I ad kan? You know, I I was doing I'm doing a good job, but it seems to be that it's just not a it's it's already enough. I'm not sure if I should really be there anymore. I really think that maybe it's time for me to start making uh you know, cutting corners if I can in certain places and being able to go ahead and relinquish things as it is. That's the difference between a Ruth and an Orpah. And you should know it's a really subtle difference, but it's a subtle difference which sometimes we have to acknowledge in ourselves. If a person has to think about themselves, "Am I an Orpah?" Stop it. Don't call me an Orpah. "Am I an Orpah or am I a Ruth?" Ruth was the one that went ahead and decided this is something I'm going to do, and she went ad asof to go ahead and do it. And I said she was willing to give up on her standards, her comfort zone in order to be able to get there. The Orpah mahaloch, and I think we're quite familiar with this, is the mahaloch of ad kan. There's a certain level of how much I can really, you know, give up or once it starts getting a little bit underneath the seat and maybe I'll just leave. I don't really have the comfort basis to be able to do it. When it comes, if I could talk about the Halachas of Tzniut without getting into too much detail, but obviously the understandings of that much has to be that they don't like this color and that, that's already too much. I think the Rabbis exaggerated. It can't be that it could be that time if I speak to the men about having a Keviut I learn and I try my best and I try to do it. But when you tell them no, you have to have a seder and there's a Halacha Lema'aseh, I'm afraid to say this in a room full of women, but anyways, Halacha Lema'aseh that you have to have a Keviut Itim that you never give up. Meaning if you miss it, you have to make it up double time next time. Like any job, you have to go ahead and make up the time that you miss out. Is my Davening too quick? Yeah, but I'm very busy. You don't understand Rabbi, I just don't have time for this. Is my Davening too quick? Stop it, right? Is it already I understand it's uncomfortable, but the place of growth, the place of commitment, the place of Gadlus, of greatness is Davka in the place where it's a little bit difficult, where it's not supposed to be. I recently heard someone say there was a um Gvir so they got a bunch of wealthy people together in one of these um it was a it was a little banquet, it wasn't a big thing on in a house a house thing. When they had them all together and Moshe Wolfson was there and they go ahead and they did a bidding and everybody donated the amount that they needed to the uh to the Yeshiva. They gave a certain amount whatever it was to the to the Yeshiva. And when it was done, they said, "Okay, thank you very much." So Rav Wolfson got up, Rav Wolfson Moshe Wolfson, he was a big guy. He was a big guy, he just passed away not long ago. And he got up, he said, "Great, Yishar Koach to everyone. Everybody gave as much money as you're comfortable giving. I want everyone now to give as much as you're not comfortable giving." That's what he said. That's already ah, now is when you're going to get S'char. The previous one you get a little S'char. I don't know how much S'char you get. So now you're going to get much more S'char doing it. Next time they did the bid everyone bid half. You understand from the from the last No, I have to make sure to get around that problem. But sometimes going to the place where you're uncomfortable, that's the place that sets us between Orpah, she none of Orpah she went she gave her neck she fell off the off the edge. She went and fell off the edge and Orpah means someone's going to fall off the edge by doing it. But when a person is already given to my own decisions, when it's up to me to decide what's correct and not correct and it's not up to him up above, when it's him to set those standards, so then you're already stepping away from Ruth. Should I get a filter on my smartphone? I said this example for last, don't worry. Should I get my filter on a smartphone or not? Should I have a smartphone? I'm already afraid to say that cuz I might not make it to the end of this year. Right? Should I have a smartphone or not? Fine. If I if I have to have one, should I get a filter on my smartphone or not? How many times have I heard, "Rabbi, you don't know how slow it is and how much I can't get to the things I have to get to. I have to do but there's this type of thing or that or this or that. It doesn't make sense for me to have one." This is a difference between am I deciding Emes and channeling it like like a tunnel and making sure this is what I need to do or am I doing what needs to be done not because it needs to be done because I feel that's what's right to be done or where I'm comfortable doing it and that's a very big difference like I said. Am I how iron clad a person is depends on this decision and that's exactly the lesson that we learned between between Ruth between Ruth and and Orpah to make sure to have this type of difference. It's a place where things are status of perfection. Sometimes simple is beautiful. Sometimes not being so complicated, not being so things has special to it. Give me a simple example. Let me just say like we used to have an old Maytag machine. You know these Maytag machines that like a dryer, right? Maytag machine. It had a button. That's like the whole machine. I'm saying I'm putting a little bit of a knob. Didn't have anything. It never broke. Ever. It didn't break. It lasted forever until we didn't have room for it cuz Israeli houses don't really have room for these things. But become it just these things don't break. The simplicity of it is you know, I'm being old-fashioned here to say, they don't make them like they used to. You know what I'm saying? Like those old cars that just never broke down. They just went and now with all the technology and everything that is things just don't seem to last. It's kind of like that with people also. People became so much more complicated that they don't last. It's not easy for us to hold our cup over water to be able to survive, to be able to keep it up, to be dependable, to be able to be there. But that the simplicity of it is a root. It's able to get us to a place where I'm able to go and up and I when I when I read the Megillah fruits, I get such a chizuk from this idea to be able to see a woman that come on chos v'shalom anyone should suffer such things who suffered a lot and she never once complains, she doesn't bicker, she doesn't carp, she doesn't have anything negative to say except for the fact that she's so happy to be Jewish. That exactly is her uh serenity. Like I said, you know, I'm sure she gave a few calls over to her nice dear sister and gave found out what's going on over there on the other side of the ocean and this and finding out and still she was there. And you know what the the difference is? Because Naomi was vatishek, I'm sorry, Orpah was vatishek and she was vidavka ba. She was clinging to her. She had an internal connection to what was right. When she knew it was right, it didn't matter what she was giving up. She was willing to give it up everything. But she saw her sister with big lights, money, entertainment, it didn't make a difference to her. Because as long as she knows it's right, it doesn't make her budge. It doesn't make her doesn't make her doesn't make her lose from what is there. And where does the final battle come out? You ever know this? I don't know if you guys knew this, by the way. There was once upon a time there was a story brought down in Shmuel between known in English as David and Goliath. You heard of that story once? David and Goliath. Did you guys realize they were our cousins? They were first cousins. One came from Orpah and one came from Ruth, first cousins. At each other's throats. Do you have any first cousins you're at each other's throats? Right? They were there one once removed. Etc. Goliath was removed by one. They were first cousins. Now, David and Melech, his stature was not so, you know, probably like mine. My name is David, right? They didn't have It wasn't exactly a muscle man. Goliath was six arms tall. He was a huge monster. He was an incredible creature. Not only that, he was so full of uh godliness and he was so full of his ego that he scared everyone out of the west. We all know psychologically you can do battle also, as we understand. You watch in the old boxing matches, before they even go into the match they're already scaring the guy off by saying what they're going to do to him, right? That's exactly what Goliath did. He said, "Tznu li ish v'nilchama yachad." Tznu li ish, "Give me a man and I'll fight with him." Chazal say what he meant by ish is give me God. Give me Hakadosh Baruchu. "I'll fight even I I can fight anything. Nothing can stand in my way. I can go ahead." He was mocking everyone and everybody was scared stiff of him. 40 days he was standing up there to do that. They say those were the 40 days that Orpah was stayed with Naomi. Can I get those 40 days he was standing up there? He was mecharev u'megadef and he said, "Ani Plishti." It was all about me, myself and I. If you don't mind me saying, he inherited it from his mother. You understand? He got it from his mother. It's a little bit of being devoted but aesthetically correct. Being manly, but in the end of the day it's about me. It's about paying attention to what I need. And comes along this little putzkele, his name was David and Melech, with a slingshot with five five little rocks. This man had iron from top to bottom. He had He had He had a sword that no one could carry. And you understand, David and Melech came, I don't have to go through the scene, I'm sure you're very familiar. And what did he say? "Ata ba li uh you're coming to me becherav u'veachnit u'veakidon." You're coming to me with armor and javelins and swords. "V'anochi ba lecha b'shem Hashem Tzva'ot Elohei Ma'archei Yisrael asher charafta." And I'm coming to you in the name of God which you're making fun of. I'm coming to you this little guy over here, but I'm coming to you in the name of God. And what happens? I think you guys know the end of the story. One rock, one rock and he knocks him out. You know, you sit in the story and say it could have been two rocks or three like it could have been a little bit of that like a little bit of swinging and miss or something. And like, you know, woo and I got him and then he ducked and he like, you know, like a little bit more adventurous. In a good TV show it would have been a little bit more exciting. What's that? One rock dead. Oh, that was boring. Like that wasn't exciting. But the answer was this wasn't a battle a physical battle at all. This was a confrontation of ideologies. That was going on here. It was a difference of an ideology. Who is going to succeed? The one who is focused on the me, myself, and I. The one who does things correctly. I'm not telling you about Russia now even though he was a Russia. I'm not talking about that guy Russia. The one who's focused a lot more on is it good for me? Am I within my comfort zone? Am I am I doing okay? Is it within my standards? I don't think so. Or is it a one who's coming to Russia? If it's the right thing to do David imitating his great grandmother Ruth went ahead and did the same thing. And he focused on what was correct in order to get to the place that needed to be gotten to. That is the difference that we are learning about this beautiful Megillah that we call Megillat Ruth in a most appropriate time when we learn it of course on Shavuot because yes, Shavuot is a time where we talk about which for some people they see it as a sacrifice. Is it difficult to remember that I have to have 613 mitzvot to have this burden of all of all this extra things on top of me. It's not easy to do that and therefore some people might take seven and go ahead and leave. As opposed to other people see it as an opportunity. They see it as a place of the dove kebab to make the connection to make a relationship to be able to be able to go ahead and do it. You understand? And that is this idea when we see the Megillah to be able to appreciate this difference. I'm going to give two stories which show this contrast and then we'll finish. Set it? One is brought in Rabbeinu Yerucham, Reb Yerucham, the great Mashgiach in the Mir, mentions a beautiful idea and he says over there in Parshas Vayeitzei, "Tamar also was a she also had a nobility, right? Tamar was also going to be one of the mothers, obviously before before Ruth, one of the she was going to have royalty which will have the children which will eventually will lead to Melech Hamashiach, to having David Hamelech also." We know the story with Tamar and Yehudah. I don't have to go into the whole story. Yehudah, of course, is the man of majesty. And going through that whole entire story, she did something against her nature. She was so tzenuah, her own father-in-law didn't know even know what she looked like. And she was doing yibbum. It was yibbum again, levirate marriage again repeats itself. Here is levirate marriage, yibbum, and over there by Tamar's also yibbum, okay? Tamar also went against her grain. She was a very tzenuah woman, I'll give you that, nobody even knew what she looked like. She obviously dressed like you know those women who dress from top to bottom completely covered. And at the same time she had to do something and dress up in a way that was against her nature, but she did it, as we say, leshem shamayim because she knew it was the appropriate thing to do and that's what she needed to do. Rashi tells us an incredible thing. The wife Listen to this. The wife of Potiphar, when she was busy seducing Yosef Hatzaddik, when she was busy all the time, the Gemara the pasuk almost makes a comparison. Rashi says these words, "Maseh maybe she might say Tamar in this whole maseh Eishes Potiphar lomor maseh leshem shamayim avzeh leshem shamayim." Both were leshem shamayim. The wife of Potiphar also was doing it leshem shamayim. I mean, Yosef was a good-looking guy, but she still did leshem shamayim because she knew that she was supposed to have a child from Yosef Hatzaddik. In the end of the day, Yosef Hatzaddik did marry Potiphar's daughter. He ended up marrying Potiphar's daughter. Osnat was Potiphar's daughter. So, she saw she was going to have a lineage from Yosef. She just didn't see 100% straight. It was really her daughter that was going to have it. Having that, I feel bad for Yosef for his mother-in-law to have such a mother-in-law. But, anyways, when when when that happened, this event between uh Yosef and Potiphar, so the question is, ask Rabbeinu Yerucham, what's the difference between Tamar and Eshet Potiphar? Eshet Potiphar doesn't get into the books. She's not in the good books. She's treated as a resha'it. What was the difference between Eshet Potiphar and Tamar? You know what the difference is? When there's a cooli of suri, that's the lashon. When the when when the tough happens, when the difficult when the nisyono happen, Tamar is being led to the fire. She has two beautiful kids who are going to be the continuation of malchut in the world. They're the ones who will bring Melech haMashiach eventually in her stomach, and they will all be killed when she's put into a cauldron of fire, and she doesn't say a word. And she's right. She knows she's right. She knows she's what she did was correct, and if Yehuda knows, he'll know also. But, she's not going to be mevaizeh pnei chaveiro barabbim. When you do something right, you do it at a seif. Just like Ruth. She was invested. I'm doing it because the right thing to do. This is not easy to jump into a fire. Don't try it at home, right? It's not something comfortable that someone wants to do, especially when like I said, I have a feeling it would have been easier if she already gave birth into the seder, so she's willing to sacrifice her life mesirus nefesh. But, now that she has the children, that's it. Her whole dream, her whole sheifut, everything she wanted was just to be able to have the lineage of the malchut come from within her. She was dreaming about this like Rachel Imeinu, the same type of idea, and it's all going to go to shambles. Why? The al ta'aseh pnei chaveiro barabbim. Don't embarrass someone in public. If that's the halacha, I listen to it. She called the rabbi, the rabbi said that's the halacha. That's it. I listen. I don't have questions. I don't have I don't have ta'anos. I don't have complaints. I don't have anything. This is blue blood. This is Malchus. This is where we see royalty. Royalty does not come I apologize for any English people here by some idiot Charles that inherited from his wife and he himself is a promiscuous good-for-nothing. I hope no one took that offensively, right? That's how that's not that's not what we see as monarch monarchy. Monarchy by us are people who are act as Malchus, who treat as Malchus. They do what's right because they emit and they are kingship because we see Malchus as those that are connected to Kodesh Baruch Hu Keter. They wear the Keter al roshom cuz they are intimately CONNECTED WITH DOVE KAVOD. THEY'RE CONNECTED TO KODESH Baruch Hu. When they have that real drigas Kodesh Baruch Hu they do everything right. They do things cuz it's right even though it's uncomfortable. Even though I really didn't want to come to this year today but I'll still make the sacrifice to do it, right? We're glad you guys made it. That's why I said it, right? Even though I go ahead and do it because it needs to be done and that's what I do and that's the difference as opposed to says Rebbe Nachman what happened with the wife of Eshet Potiphar? When the going got tough, the tough got going. She sent Joseph to prison. She put him there for life. He was there for life imprisonment according to her. He got out 12 years. He got out 12 years. In her head she put him there for life because of what she did she went ahead and put him away. She didn't want to get caught. She was almost going to get caught for what she did and this she was worried. So she saved her skin and she messed up Joseph. Why? To save her skin. Orpah at its best. Again Orpah comes back. She's trying with some shamayim but only as long as it doesn't step on my shoes. Don't get in my way. When it comes to that I need Goliath at a Kodesh Baruch Hu come and David Melech comes b'shem Hashem. This is a battle of ideologies. This is a difference that we have to learn when we see this in Megillah. When we see the story of Tamar. When we see all of Malchus coming to being. David Melech I tell you when you read Tehillim and then you read the stories of what he did you don't know it's the same person. David Melech was so subordinate to Kodesh Baruch Hu but he was a powerful man. His wars were better than any wars, even better than Bibi. Yeah, he was really on top. He was very much in all his wars. How did he get to say you read till and the answer is they're connected. That's what Malchus is about. Being able to put two put these two things together all in one shot. And that is the appreciation that I have when I read this Megillah. And this is the appreciation for all of Klal Yisrael. This is how we are able to survive. Mark Twain, the one of a rabbit anti-semite by the way, he said all things are mortal except for the Jew. You know why I said all things are mortal for the Jew? Because we are invincible. We are you can kill Jews, but you cannot kill Judaism. Judaism is here to stay. I could even promise it even though I don't promise ever. But we know it's here and it will never last. How did we make it? What let us be around these past 2,000 years? It's not normal what has been around here. There is only one thing that's kept us. It's this koach that we've gotten from Ruth, from Tamar, from David Hamelech. This capability of being stone bars. We are strong as anything and we don't budge. We're stubborn mules. That's how we are. That's how you are I'm sure you're familiar with this as well. But that's how it is. And it comes from a place that even though we've seen it all, we've been through every type of gola that's been around, but the sod of dover is what we read in Shmot in the parsha of Matan Torah. Ve'atem hadvekim Bashem Elokeichem. Again, the dovel bar. Ve'atem hadvekim, you are the ones that cling to Hashem kol hayom. We are the ones that cling to Hashem. We have When you have intrinsic ideologies, when you have emet, you don't budge. When it's decided behind what society tells me, then you can't survive. When society disappears, I disappear. When America tells me that whatever you think is correct, so you have the meshugaim that we have that's that's dancing around there in America. It's absolutely not normal what the extremists have had. The extreme things that happened is because when you advertise that there is no real truth, so the truth is whatever I think, so let me be real about whatever I think. You follow? I'm trying to point out that this is what we're celebrating on this beautiful day of Shavuot. This is why we read Megillat Ruth on Shavuot because this all goes to the same connection. The idea of seeing them at focus and all of the with a tremendous amount of and plowing through it without hesitating and going from side to side. That is how we are able to do it. I'm going to end with my last story. One of my favorite stories. My wife is familiar with this and I've even, you know, I've I've I've put it up already on the sheer. But in my opinion, this is just an epitome of Ruth coming out in our day and age. It is the yard site in two days of a great man, a person I was able to speak to a couple times and a fantastic man. His name was Uri Zohar. Now with Uri Zohar, I think you'll already be able to see the connection to what I'm saying right now. He He passed away about 4 years ago. >> [clears throat] >> I know and probably many of us in this room are baalei teshuvah or we came a long way and baruch Hashem we've all done it and I'm proud of every single one of us that have been able to to make the to make the thing. But a man at 40 years old who was already set in his ways. He was sitting in a double penthouse on the beaches of Netanya. The man had a contract with Hollywood for a million dollars. That doesn't sound a lot, right? In the eight late 70s. Do you know how much a million dollars was in the late 70s in 78 77? That's a lot of money. It was a lot of money. It's already three more zeros nowadays, right? It's a It's a It was It was quite a bit of money back back then. He had a contract back then, but what was impressive about him and I know this from people from like you know, I kind of also come from the baal teshuvah type of scenario and I come from a very modern background and Israeli also. And I I spoke to my direct relatives who were around at that time who were older than me and they said it was a whopper shot. It wasn't just another baal teshuvah that happened. This person was number one, not number two, and not Kehilu and not being expressed. He was a number one in the entertainment industry. He was a comedian, he was a talk show host, he was on television and radio. Back then that's what there was. He was an actor and he was a film producer all in one shot. They They called him Johnny Carson, Woody Allen, Robert Redford. Probably some people know what I'm talking about. I don't know either. It doesn't matter. Don't worry. It's fine. They call him everything in one big shebang all in one shot by one person. He was extremely talented that even like I said even in America they were willing to take many of his talents. And this is a big nakuda of everything. He was the semel, the the hierarchy of the Israeli non-religious society. He was like the star of the epitome of success. The goal that every chilone Jew wants to reach. This is the person that you want up. And to go ahead and do what he did wasn't just like, oh, it was a punch in the guts. It was destructive for them. It absolutely destroyed them. I heard once from a Rosenblum who's a big magid in he speaks in many places that he says he was a bachur at the time that this happened. And [clears throat] he was by a barber at the time when he was getting a haircut and he said, "You heard what happened?" And the barber who was going ahead and telling him, "You know what happened with Orizola?" And this and that and he got worried that the guy had scissors in his hand when he was doing that. He said, Anyways, he said he destroyed me. The barber said that the man destroyed me. I don't know what happened. He said the world is coming to an end. That was the lashon he told him. He said that the barber said to him at that time. I enjoyed very much the expression that he said. Rav Rosenblum said that just like we call Rav Chaim Kanievsky the Sar HaTorah, he's the leader of Torah, the one who knows kol haTorah kulah, he refers to Rav Orizola as the Sar HaBaal Teshuvah. He's the Sar HaBaal Teshuvah, the number one Baal Teshuvah. Cuz the sacrifice he made was unreal. It wasn't something that was made as a 20-year-old or something and to make such a commitment to go ahead and turn topsy-turvy and turn everyone that direction. And I don't know if you have ever heard any of the shirim, but I want to tell you something. Some people, and I don't say this in any way facetiously, become baal teshuvah and remain baal teshuvah. They kind of like stay that way. He mamash turned a proper talmid chacham. When I say Rav Ovadia Yosef, I mean it. He was a proper ra- he really has deep intimate I I I read one day a sefer on hilchos. He doesn't have so many books. I read a sefer on hilchos. I said, "Okay, it's probably a sefer I could really on the walk or whatever, just a sefer on hilchos." It was so in lomdus. It was so in in in depth about his whole ideas and the calculations of what what he was saying. He really was a person who was if you listen to his shirim, very deep and and and and intrinsic person. And when you hear the story of his life, if you get the chance to hear it, I venture to say it's in English also, I'm not positive, I heard it in Hebrew, but you hear a man who went through troubles. I I don't want to say like Rav Ovadia Yosef, compare not compare, it seemed not far from that at least. All his money, his history. His wife, history. His children, not pashut. He had to go up and down, he had a lot of ups and downs with his children. It wasn't so simple, he had to take them to the yeshiva. He already had children at the time, he was 40 years old. And he had to go ahead and turn his life, he said there were few times he almost fell in the dip and he almost found himself falling to the wayside, almost losing out and giving up the commitment that he made. But he was able to pull through. How was he able to pull through? Today's secret. Today's ideology, what we learn from Rav Ovadia Yosef. He saw the emes, he knew what was emes and it took him all the way. He didn't look to the right, didn't look to the left, didn't look to what everybody else was saying. His friends were ridiculing him. They were putting him in the sack, they were mamash getting to him. And still he was able to go ahead and go straight to the go straight to the emes for what it is. And that is a perfect I dichotomy of of what we call when we refer to Rav Ovadia Yosef. People who are real people focus on reality. They live by reality and those are the people that really make it in the end of life. Not always when the curtains close, do you see their success. They're not going to be the ones maybe driving in the nice cars or the one that everyone's giving all the likes to and everyone's jumping up and fanning them. But they're the ones who in the end of the day are the ones that are the real success rates. The ones who when they're finished are the ones that we really look up to. And I'll end with one thing that Rav Ovadia Yosef said, one farts, one that he said for Shavuot. And it's like I said, it's Shavuot right now and it's so appropriate for the man who said it. There's a question that everybody asks why we eat milk and meat on Shavuot. Different opinions. Some people say since we learned the Torah, so suddenly we're not going to be able to eat meat cuz there are many about eating meat and what you're supposed to do. So that's why you're not allowed to do it. Other things say because the ate meat and milk together by they had meat and milk, so we say, "Oh, we'll show you how to separate between meat and milk and we're greater than the many different people. Rav Ovadia Yosef had his own different shot, his own individual shot about why we have milk and meat during why we have milk during Shavuot. And especially on the day of you know he says? All substances, if you leave them around without refrigerating them and the like, eventually with the time, they become spoiled. They go straight to the the bin. They go straight to being thrown out. I have nothing to do with juice that becomes smell it smells. I have nothing to do with wine that turns into vinegar. It's very useless these types of things. Or any types of sauces of the like, you leave them around unfrigerated, unpreserved. I don't have anything to do. There's one liquid that's an exception to the rule and that is milk. Milk, when you curdle the milk, when you wait for it to get spoiled, it's fantastic. I can go ahead now and make cheese out of it, yogurts, butters, creams, all types of puddings. There's a tremendous variety of things that you can make, yes, with spoiled milk. When I think about it, I don't like to eat cheeses either for that reason. But the cheese cheeses come from milk. That's really what it comes from and that's how it's produced from a place from here and this is the words he said because of the of it becoming spoiled who we cuddle so he gets also a the merit of being promoted of being improving and that is the lesson that we have to take for all of us ourselves. Sometimes there's sometimes there's a lot sometimes it's difficult sometimes I don't know why I made the decision that I did but sometimes with that you become as big as he became you become as big as Ruth became you become as big as he didn't even go through his whole story became you become as great as Tamar became and like I said not everyone always knows the story when they pass away but they're the ones who are really our greats and this is the whole lesson that we bring out during this time of to remember that the of the whole entire Torah is not to restrain our talents to restrain our talents but it's to channel them it's to use them for what's right to find the and take it out of set it outcome