What attracts Boaz' attention to Ruth?

What aspect of Ruth's persona is significant to Boaz?

And how does Ruth embody the character of Abraham in contrast to her ancestor, Lot?

This is a story that takes place on the backdrop of the period of the Shoftim. And yet, its message is very different to that book. What is Ruth trying to add that hasn't been said in Shoftim?

In Chapter 8 the couple manage to express their love and to experience their togetherness in the fullest manner.

And yet this is a difficult chapter. It is made of sub-units, whose connection is difficult to decipher.

We read through the chapter, expressing the questions and offering a possible reading for the end of the book.

Chapter 7 begins with the other women beckoning the woman-lover, the "shulamit" as she is called, to return and dance with them. Rashi and the Midrash reads this as a invitation to integrate and acculturate into foreign cultures. But the "shulamit" insists on her independence. As they describe her physical form, the Midrash sees each detail as an allusion to an aspect of Jewish uniqueness.

After the traumatic separation of the couple, chapter 6 has the "dod", the king proclaiming that the woman is "my only one, my dove, my perfect one."Music. Evyatar Banai. Yafa Ka-levana

This is a scene of missed opportunities; as after a period of (apparent) separation, the beloved comes looking for the woman, but she fails to understand and appreciate the moment, the opportunity, and the couple don't achieve reunion.

Hazal speak of this scene as the lackadaisical response to Cyrus's invitation to rebuild the Second Temple. But possibly it refers to any moment in which we are too lazy to respond to God's summons.

Music: Hanan Ben-Ari https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG8Xs0Bd9ek

The depictions of the bride are rather strange, when her hair is compared to a flock of goats, her neck to a tower, and her stomach to a pile of wheat. Are we describing the anatomy of a woman, or possibly the geography and beauty of the land of Israel?

Music. Mattisyahu. Basi LeGani

After the lovers' two unsuccessful attempts to realize their love, chapter 3 depicts the grand wedding of the young woman with the king.

In the first song, the woman is ready to move ahead, the "dod" is more hesitant. In the second song., the "dod" is all excited; the "ra'aya" - the woman - is expressing doubts and excuses. This is the nature of unripe love.

We begin ch.1 by seeing how the lovers - the young woman and the man - are depicted by Shir Hashirim. What might this express about God and Israel?