Ruth chapters 3 and 4: the nighttime meeting between Boaz and Ruth and... it works! Desolation and despair is replaced with birth and gladness.
Rabbi Gamliel presents on ch.4 with the beautiful insight that if Shoftim teaches us that individual acts of evil can metastasise into society wide calamities, Ruth teaches that small acts of kindness can become waves of societal regeneration
A wonderful book, superlatively taught.https://www.sefaria.org/Ruth.4?lang=bi

Ruth chapters 3 and 4: the nighttime meeting between Boaz and Ruth and... it works! Desolation and despair is replaced with birth and gladness.
For ch.3 my fantastic colleague, Margot Botwinick, co-director of JLIC @ IDC Herzliya shares thoughts on Naomi's reversal of Bereishit in her daring suggestion that Ruth seduce Boaz.
https://www.sefaria.org/Ruth.3?lang=bi

Rabbi Dr Sam Lebens presented ch.2s audio, focusing on Boaz's role in Ruth's conversion. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ruth.2?lang=bi

One megilla down, four to go! Today begins the story of Ruth, the widowed young gentile woman from Mo'av whose kindness and loyalty leads to King David and, according to Jewish tradition, to mashiach. Most of you will have already heard many ideas on Megillat Rut. In my recording today I focus on the deceptively simple question of when the story took place to understand its overall place in Tanakh and how this quiet pastoral story of kindness moves Jewish history forward. My audio is based on a longer written piece which all are welcome to read here https://joewolfson.com/2014/06/01/why-rut/

Text here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Ruth.1?lang=bi

https://929.org.il/lang/en/today

Shir HaShirim #8 - the final chapter of this beautiful love song, but an unexpected ambiguity of distance and not togetherness concludes the sefer.
My fantastic colleague, Shira Kahn, JLIC co-director at Princeton, shares beautiful thoughts based off of the fascinating readings of Ibn Ezra and the Malbim where the Song of Songs is a metaphor for the individual soul encased in the physical body. Text here:
https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.8?lang=bi

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.6?lang=bi, https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.7?lang=bi

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.5?lang=bi

Kohelet 7 - see the works of God, for who can fix that which has been perverted.

What does our tradition have to say about human-induced damage to our environment? What can it add to the discussion on climate change? I think a midrash on our chapter contains one of the most powerful answers. The full text of the midrash can be found in this article I wrote a number of years ago: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-tu-bshvat-midrash/

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ecclesiastes.7?lang=bi

Shir HaShirim 4 and 5: songs of love, longing and missed opportunities.
Yonatan Rahmani provides commentary, alongside beautiful chanting on chapter 4. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.4?lang=bi

Kohelet #6 - the paradox of plenty as Kohelet grapples with too much abundance and success
Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo marshalls insights from Rashi to the Dalai Lama to the head of the Bank of Israel to shed light on the challenges facing a hedonist. Text here:
https://www.sefaria.org/Ecclesiastes.6?lang=bi