Thoughts for Shavuoth

This year, I was thinking about parallels between Megillat Esther and Megillat Ruth. In both, the heroine for whom the book is named has a parental figures who is not her actual parent as a guide. This figure advises her about how to behave in a new environment for her -- Mordechai direct  Esther to remain silent about her identity, and Naomi instructs Ruth about  halachos and social norms in Jewish society in general and  told to stick with the maids working in Boaz's field. 

Subsequently, though, that same authority figure turns the tables on the heroine due to what has come to light to change her tactics and take a great risk. The heroine then has to act contrary to her nature and take action that would be considered rash and dangerous. She must subjugates her own views to that of the wisdom of the parental figure. Thus Mordechai tells Esther to risk it all to approach Achashverosh to make an effort to thwart Haman genocidal plot. Esther views that as tantamount to suicide in light of the law that anyone approaching the king without permission incurs the death penalty. Her reference to avadeti may be about incurring the sin of suicide in undertaking such a huge risk when she could just wait until summoned. Likewise, Naomi tells Ruth to do an outrageous thing - to dress up and approach Boaz while he is alone to ask that he marry her.

Interestingly, both heroines thus prove themselves worth of royalty, for the middah  of malchus in Jewish thought is not of self-assertion but of receiving. I'd venture to say that Esther (descended from the line of Rachel)  may represent the role of Moshiach ben Yosef while Ruth clearly establishes the line leading to David and the Moshiach born of that dynasty. 

https://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-anti-hero-and-heroine-in-book-of.html

A note on this one: https://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/06/force-of-habit.html this is the problem with breaking the habit of attending shuls and bais medrash. Once one gets out of the habit, the norm of not going is established, and many places are not reluctant to return. I get the concerns about health they cite, but they're saying this even as businesses are reopening, and there is talk about opening camps. It's all a matter of what people feel is essential to their lives, and once you start getting used to doing without something, you can do without. 

But you can't do without your livelihood, so people will push for their businesses to operate despite the risks, just as many of us have continued going into stores for food all along (where I can assure you all social distancing goes out the window no matter how few are allowed in the store at a time or how many arrows are stuck on the floor -- force of habit of how people are used to shopping over many years).

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