So why did we read this on Shavuot? Great story. I love this story. It’s a great lesson of life: pray to God and let God do what He wants to do. Don’t get upset when it doesn’t work out, because He’s still making it work out for you in a different way, the way He wants it to work out for you. And it’ll always work out better. It’s a great lesson for me. I’m very comforted. But we’ll just have to address Shavuot.
You remember I asked a question. It says she came back from Bethlehem, and then it says it again. Remember the next pasuk (verse)? It says she came back with Ruth, where they came from and where they came to, but there’s one extra fact in this pasuk that it didn’t tell us before. It tells us when they came back. When did they come back? Listen to this story. They came back when? At the time that they cut the barley. Okay, now you know when they came back. Who knows when they cut the barley? What kind of random time is that? Tell me. They came back at 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock, January 6th. They came back when they cut the barley. It’s like in the older days in Syria: nobody knew when they were born. “When was your birthday?” “Three days after the storm, two days after the Mabul (the Flood).” They don’t know when they were born. They have events.
But actually, we know when the cutting of the barley is. We know because it’s on our calendars. Just as the secular calendar tells you all the dates of all the different things that happened, the Jewish calendar tells you barley-cutting day. You know when it is? The second day of Pesach. Let me explain to you. On the second day of Pesach, there’s a ceremony called the cutting of the barley. That’s what we count the Omer (sheaf offering) for on the second day of Pesach. Why do we count the Omer? Because we’re counting on the day that they cut the barley. So she came back basically on Chol HaMoed Pesach (the intermediate days of Passover), at the beginning of Ketzir Se'orim, when they cut the barley. And that’s what it tells us in the second pasuk: the 16th. Is that a significant day? The 16th—if it were Shavuot, then it would be good; that’s why we read it on Shavuot. It’s not Shavuot; it’s Pesach, so should we read this on Pesach? No, we do enough on Pesach.
Okay, now let’s go back into the history books and see what happened on the 16th of Nisan. I don’t want to go all the way back, all the way back, to Avraham Avinu. Sarah is barren; she has no children. The angels come to tell Abraham the good news: a baby was going to be born. When did they come? Well, we know when they came because it says that when they showed up, Abraham made them. And after that, it says one of the angels who came to visit Abraham went to destroy the city of Sodom. So which day was the city of Sodom destroyed on? The 16th of Nisan. That day in history, the 16th of Nisan, is the destruction of Sodom. But wait, who was saved on that day in Sodom? Lot. Lot—who’s Lot? What? Lot? Lot does nothing. LOT’s an airline. What’s with Lot? Lot does nothing. Lot is not worthy to be saved. Lot is the one who abandoned Avraham Avinu. He moved to Las Vegas. He was living with Avraham Avinu; he moved to live in a terrible place.
So the Gemara says, “No, no. Lot wasn’t saved from Lot.” But Lot had a diamond in his belly. So God saves. Sometimes God saves you for the merit of your forefathers, and sometimes He saves you for the merit of your descendants. Lot got saved for what was ahead of him. Because eventually Lot would give birth to a baby boy. His name would be Moab. Moab would be the father of Ruth. Ruth would eventually be the grandmother of David because she married Boaz.
So look what’s happening. Naomi is coming back, and she says, “Look what happened to me. Someone in my family died.” So the pasuk repeats it and says: you think you came back for nothing, but God says, “You came back on the 16th of Nisan.” On the 16th of Nisan, I saved Lot. Mashiach (the Messiah) was born on that day. That’s when I saved Lot and I saved my wife, so this girl Ruth can be born. You think I did that miracle for nothing? And you come back on the same day. On that day means the events that began on the 16th of Nisan by saving Lot are now continuing. “You don’t see it yet. I’m bringing the Mashiach, and you’re complaining to me, ‘I’m bitter.’ I’m finishing a story of the 16th of Nisan.”
Sure enough, the next day, she’s already engaged. She has a ring on her finger. Before you know it, she was already pregnant with Boaz’s child.