Рут 3:8 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Ibn Ezra

“And it was in the middle of the night” [3:8]. It was in the middle of the night and the man awoke and was startled. A woman was lying at his feet. He said to her: who are you my daughter? She responded: I am Ruth your maidservant and you should put the corner of your cloak over your maidservant, since you are a savior. Our sages write that Boaz saw a woman at his feet. He grabbed her by the head to see if she had hair. He said: this is no demon, because demons don’t have any hair. He said to her, who are you and she replied, a woman. Do you have a husband? She said, no. Are you ritually clean?⁶²A reference to the ritual cleanness associated with the menstrual cycle. She answered: I am clean.⁶³Yalkut Shimoni, Ruth, Remez 605. Our sages say that there are three whom the Evil Inclination wanted to entrap, but they vanquished the Evil Inclination. One was Joseph, the second was Paltiel, and the third was Boaz, who is mentioned here. I do not want to write about Joseph, since it is found in the Humash.⁶⁴The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. Genesis, 39:1–20. The story of Paltiel is that King Saul had a daughter named Michal and he gave her to David as a wife. Saul became angry with David and took Michal away from him and gave her to someone named Paltiel, who was very righteous. He had to take her even though David had not given Michal a divorce. However, the righteous man lay every night with a sword between him and Michal and did not touch her, since he had sworn to God that he would conquer his Evil Inclination.⁶⁵B. Sanhedrin, 19b. The evil inclination came to Boaz the whole night and said to him, you have no wife and she has no husband. She desires a husband and came to the barn piously and you will commit no sin. Boaz immediately swore by God that he would not touch her. With this, he vanquished the Evil Inclination. Therefore, every person should learn that when the Evil Inclination wants to convince someone to commit a sin, he should immediately swear to God that he does not want to commit the sin and the Evil Inclination cannot do anything to him. However, the person who transgresses the oath, the God punishes him with great pain. Therefore, the Torah in the Ten Commandments does not write concerning any of them that one will be punished if they transgress any of the commandments, but concerning worship of foreign gods and swearing falsely, God did explicitly write the punishments. He compared these two sins, worship of foreign gods and swearing falsely, to each other. However, to perform a commandment, a person may swear and also to vanquish the Evil Inclination.

The man was startled. He thought it was a demon and wanted to scream, but she held him and encompassed him with her arms.

"וילפת (and turned over):" From the Nifal (passive) verb form, like in 'ילפתו ארחות דרכם' (their paths are twisted). The meaning is twisted or turned. Similarly, 'וילפת שמשון' (Samson turned). It does not mean joy. The idea is that he turned from one side to the other.

And [he] turned about. וַיִּלָּפֵת =] and he was seized, as in, “And Shimshon grasped וַיִּלְפֹּת.”⁷Shoftim 16:29. Alternatively, “his skin Hardened [like a turnip= לפת] from fright.” (Maseches Sanhedrin 19b)

And behold there was a woman. He placed his hand on her head and recognized that it was a woman [and not a demon].⁸Because demons have no hair. Alternatively, he realized from her voice that she was a woman, or he saw her by the light of the moon.