8.19.26 – Still Looking for the Bride

Free will must be part of the Yefat Toar marriage procedure, so that the true "form" of the marriage may be revealed. Dinah, from Genesis 34, was not free. Shechem claimed to love her, but he did not permit her to return to her father and brothers while the marriage contract was negotiated. Instead, she was "loved" while being chained to Shechem's coercion and chashak. She was an object upon whom he placed his passion, but he did not trust her with free will. 

The captive woman is not just a captive of Israel—she has been chained to the idols of her heritage. For a full month, she distances herself from that idolatry. If she will not be like Ruth—a true convert who leaves her idols behind—she is not permitted as a wife and must go free, back to the realm of death. Her seed will not be sown in Israel to produce a mixed field of the Word and tares. In a way, this weeding out prevents the "seed of the woman" from reproducing idolatry. A woman who converts to cling to the Land, Covenant, and People of Israel enters into true life and freedom.

Despite the risk and warning of such a marriage producing mixed seeds, the Torah does establish this provision. Despite the possibility of rebellious, idolatrous offspring, there is some redeeming possibility in marrying a Yefat Toar. When Boaz reminds Ruth that she could have chosen any nice-looking young man because of her beauty, it signals to us that she has already become a modest, virtuous woman of good reputation—a fact later acknowledged by the elders in the city gates of Bethlehem.

Marrying Boaz did not make her righteous; he married her because she was righteous. It is only after he notices her beautifully Torah-informed hard work that he finally points out her physical beauty. Neither Ruth nor Boaz looked at outward appearance (toar), but at the heart for spiritual beauty. The righteous Israelite warrior looks for a spiritual spark of tov within the captive woman—despite her outward beauty. The "ugly month" is as much to search his own heart as hers, as she mourns the death of the religious heritage she inherited from her natural father and mother, even as she embraces the heritage of her spiritual father and mother—Abraham and Sarah.

Yeshua sent his disciples to seek out the Yefat Toars scattered among the nations because of his passion for a foreign bride. This passion was not the desire of Shechem or Amnon for natural beauty, but a passion generated for the very reason this Torah was written—for the marriage of a "beautiful captive." After 2,000 years, Yeshua still awaits a free-will decision. Not all foreign women are the same—just as Ruth and her seed were nothing like her idolatrous ancestresses and their corrupted seed, who led Israel to idolatry at Baal Peor.

Judaism acknowledges the need for the Yefat Toar in Torah to recover Israel from the nations, especially after the Assyrian deportations:

Even after all the laws of the Yefat Toar have been enacted, it is a sign that this woman was destined to be converted.

Today we may marry from all nationalities, since the conqueror Sennacherib dispersed the nations from their lands of origin, and therefore we can no longer identify restricted nations.

So if we have been captivated by a potential Groom, Step 1 has been completed. We have been saved from total idolatry and depravity. If now we sit in the Groom's House, mourning our "parents" and the things we left behind, then Step 2 is not a pretty picture. But the Groom desires us anyway—even though we cry over so many things.

So now the decision is ours. Will we finish our funeral for what we left behind and bravely take hold of the Covenant, the Land, and its People? Was the place of our birth simply the starting place—but not our final destination? Will we "marry" a holy mission and resurrect at the Feast of Trumpets? It is coming soon. Will we be part of that group?

Shalom!
Alan