Musar к Рут 1:17

I have explained at length that "evil" is distilled from "good,” that it has only been created, נברא, for the sake of the good, i.e. הטוב. Without רע, "evil," there could not have been such a concept as טוב, "good." G–d arranged that people should fear him; this is why the advantage of light is something that is due to the potential power of darkness. This is the deeper meaning of the Torah saying that both luminaries were created equal in size even though the word מארת is spelled defective, without the letter ו indicating the plural. The idea is to tell us that the luminary later described as המאור הקטן, the smaller luminary, is really part of the overall expression "luminaries." The טוב must be understood as the "great luminary," whereas the "small luminary" refers to darkness, חשך. When you look closely at the letters in the word מאורות (when spelled plene), you will find the words for "light" and "death," i.e. אור and מות. The word מות is separated by the letters spelling אור, light. This is a hint that light (the light of Torah) separates or neutralises the power of מות, death. The same does not apply to the Gentiles or to the wicked. They walk in [unbroken] darkness, not in light, and in the language of our sages are referred to as "dead" even while their bodies are "alive" (Berachot 18). For them death is an ongoing experience, not broken or interrupted by light. Of the righteous the Psalmist says (Psalms 116,15): יקר בעיני ה' המותר לחסידיו, "The death of His pious ones is a precious event in the eyes of G—d." Elsewhere I explained the meaning and nature of death at length. The letter מ is an allusion to the angel of death. It is the very letter from the word מפריו from Genesis 3,6 :"ותרא האשה…ותקח מפריו ותאכל ותתן". We have the letter ו and ת four times in that verse plus the letter מ. This is an allusion to Eve having surrounded herself with the angel of death from all four sides. I have written more about this in my treatise תולדות האדם. Anyone who wants a deeper understanding of this must take the trouble to read the entire introduction even though it is lengthy.

We find a clear allusion to this in 13,9 where Abraham says to Lot: "Is not the whole land before you, separate yourself from me; if to the Left, I will go to the Right, and if to the Right, I will go to the Left." The meaning of the verse is that Abraham asks Lot why he quarrels needlessly, seeing there will be a time when he will have the entire land to choose from and does not now need to take things before they are ripe. When would that time come? At the time the kingdom of David will be established, seeing that David is descended from Ruth. That same Ruth had said to her mother-in-law Naomi "only death will part us" (Ruth 1,17). Abraham meant the same thing when he spoke to Lot about הפרד נא מעלי, "please separate from me." According to Rabbi Yitzchak Arama in his commentary on Ruth, the latter made a very significant statement, namely that when members of the other nations die, that does not create a disparity among them because all of them proceed towards an eternal void. Since every Jewish person however has a share in the world to come, death creates a disparity amongst them, seeing their shares in that World To Come are not the same. Bamidbar Rabbah 21,22 comments that any bridegroom who is "greater" than his fellow-bridegroom will be burned by the fire G–d provides for the wedding canopy of the other, [a penalty for being envious of somebody else's status, see Baba Batra 75. The whole discussion is about G–d bestowing honor on the righteous in the world of the future. Ed.]. Thus we see that not everyone's share in the World To Come is equal. Hence the division between people will occur when they die and move to different parts of a new world.