Рут 2:5 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Ibn Ezra

“And Boaz said” [2:5]. And Boaz said to the servant who was supervising the reapers, to whom does the young woman belong? Our sages ask about the verse, was it customary for Boaz, a Judge over Israel, to ask about every young woman? However, our sages say that the good Boaz saw in the young woman great modesty and good deeds. Therefore, he asked who was she? The first thing that he saw was that all the women bent down to collect the wheat and one could see their bare legs from behind, which is a sin. However, Ruth, the modest one, squatted down and when she collected an ear that lay on the ground, she sat down. For standing ears, she stood up. The other women rolled up their skirts and tucked them under their belts. She did not roll up her skirt and let it hang, out of great modesty, so that one should not see her bare legs. He also saw how all the women played with the reapers and Ruth did none of this. Therefore, Boaz asked, the young woman is very modest, who is she?⁴⁵Yalkut Shimoni, Ruth, Remez 601.

To whom does this maiden belong. Was it the practice of Bo’az to inquire about women? Rather, [because] he saw her modest and wise behavior [he was curious about her. He observed that] two ears she would glean but three she would not glean;⁸As prescribed by the Mishnah (Pe’ah 6:5). The Torah in Vayikra 19:9 awards the fallen ears of grain and forgotten sheaves to the poor. Thus her exemplary behavior and her knowledge of the law caught the attention of Bo’az and he therefore inquired about her. and she would glean the standing ears while standing and the lying ones while sitting, in order to avoid bending over.⁹Maseches Shabbos 113b.

Whose maiden is this? He thought she might be a married woman. Perhaps he asked the young man because he saw her dressed in a foreign manner, and also because appearances can change due to the climate. And the homiletical interpretation is well known.