This is very much in line with the explanation of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (RAMBAN), the great 13^th century Torah scholar, as to why, when Hashem introduces Himself to the people of Israel in the First Commandment, He says "I Am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of the Land of Egypt," rather than "I am the L-rd your G-d Who created the universe and all that is in it," which would seem, at first glance, to be an even greater accomplishment. RAMBAN says that the difference is that the Creation had no human witnesses, and therefore its truth would have to be accepted as a matter of faith, whereas the Exodus was an observed event, and in fact had millions of eye-witnesses!

The second occurrence of the expression is in Shemot 20:22, after the Jewish People had been witness to and had actively participated in the Giving of the Torah. There Hashem says to Moshe to tell the Israelite Nation "You have witnessed that I spoke with you from Heaven." This refers again to the Ten Commandments. On Rosh HaShanah, in the introduction to the "Shofarot" Prayer, we find a poetic depiction of "Matan Torah," the "Giving of the Torah:" "You revealed Yourself in the cloud of Your glory, to Your holy nation, to speak with them. From Heaven you allowed them to hear Your voice, and Your holy utterances, from flames of fire."

"Torah min HaShamayim," that the Torah was given to us by G-d, and was not the creation of a single individual or a committee of individuals or the product of a historical process, is a cardinal principle of Judaism. But it was created in its present form for Man and was given to Man, by the One Who fashioned him. And Torah, over and above all else, is the "Proper Study of Man."

We pray that Hashem, "Our Father, Who Is a merciful Father, the One Who shows mercy, will have mercy on us, and instill in our hearts the ability to have insight and to be enlightened, to hear accurately, to study, to teach, to guard (against violating its prohibitions), and to do (its positive commandments) and to fulfill (the spirit of its laws) all the words of the study of Your Torah, with love." (from the Siddur, the Hebrew Prayer Book, the blessing preceding the Kriat Sh'ma of the Morning Prayer)

The meeting at Sinai between G-d and the Jewish People is portrayed in Jewish Tradition as a "wedding," so to speak, between G-d and Israel. The marriage contract, the "K'suvah," was the document of the "Ten Commandments," the basis of the Written Torah. The wedding was witnessed by the entire Jewish People assembled at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

At the end of Megillat Ruth, Boaz gathers witnesses to be present at his wedding with Ruth, the converted Moabite princess. The Written Torah prohibits the intermingling by marriage of the People of Ammon and Moav with the Jewish People. This is because of the cruelty shown by those two nations towards the Jewish People when they denied them bread and water when the People of Israel wished to pass through their territory on the way to the Promised Land. And also because Balak, the King of Moav, hired Bilaam, the Midianite Prophet, to curse the Jews, because being able to determine G-d's moments of "anger", and direct that "anger" somehow against his intended victims, was that unholy prophet's specialty.

But the Oral Torah makes female Moabites an exception to that rule, because they played no part in those anti-Jewish decisions. And when Boaz, one of the Judges of Israel, who were the leaders of the nation at that time in history, married Ruth, he was affirming the validity of the Oral Law, as an equal part in the marriage contract between G-d and the Jewish People. This affirmation of the Oral Law (in addition to teaching that a quorum of ten witnesses is required at a Jewish wedding) was the burden of the testimony of the witnesses to the wedding of Boaz and Ruth.

In the exegesis, the interpretation, of the Bible, one of the methods used is analysis by "Kri," "that which is read," and "Ktiv," "that which is written." Usually, of course, the "Kri" and the "Ktiv" are identical. When there is a difference, usually the difference involves the presence or absence of a relatively minor or auxiliary letter such as "vav" or "yud," which may indicate fine shades of meaning.

In Megillat Ruth, however, there is extensive use of "Kri" and "Ktiv." When Naami advises Ruth to meet with Boaz in the middle of the night, dressed in her finery, at his threshing floor, Ruth agrees to follow these very odd and seemingly immodest instructions by these words, according to that which is read; that is, the "Kri" "I will do everything you have told me. But, in the actual text of the Megillah, what is written; namely, the "Ktiv," the word for "me," "ei-lai," is completely missing.

We see additional evidence of Ruth's characteristic lack of ego when she returns from her fateful meeting with Boaz and, in the course of giving a present from Boaz to Naami, she says to her role model that "Boaz said to me, 'Don't go empty-handed to your mother-in-law.' "Again, in the actual text of the Megillah, the words "to me" are absent.

Getting back into the mode of looking at the weekly Parshah, we find in Parshat Naso an account of the Laws of the "Nazir." He or she is the individual who takes upon himself or herself restrictions against deriving any benefit from the fruit of the vine, and obligate themselves not to cut their hair nor to allow themselves to become ritually unclean, for a period not less than thirty days and possibly as long as his or her entire life.

The Torah, very definitely not an advocate of asceticism, does not in general approve of withdrawal from the pleasures of life which are permitted by its laws. "The 365 prohibitions of the Torah weren't enough for you?" And that is why the Torah requires the Nazir or Nezirah to bring an Expiation-of-Sin Sacrifice, because of the inappropriate and excessive self-denial.

According to Shimon "HaTzaddik," Shimon "the Righteous," the only legitimate Nazir he ever encountered was one very handsome and comely man who told him that he was a shepherd and happened one day, when he was drawing water, to see his own reflection in the water of a stream. When he felt narcissistic impulses rising within himself, and great stimulation of his evil impulse, he said to himself, "Wicked person, how dare you become proud of that which is not yours, what will ultimately lie with the maggot and the worm? I swear that I will not allow you to bring me to ruin." Whereupon, Shimon HaTzaddik kissed him upon his forehead.

Ruth, the Moabite princess who converted to Judaism, knew how to deal with the issue of assertion of self-interest. When Naami tried to dissuade her from joining the Jewish People, Ruth held her ground and said, "Entreat me not to leave thee." She had chosen to change her national identity and her religious affiliation, and she would not be dissuaded!

And it was appropriate that her descendant, "David HaMelech," "King David," understood and was able to express the two sides of Man, when he wrote the words, "When I contemplate Your heavens, the work of Your Fingers, the moon and the stars which You have established, (I ask) 'What is man that You should take notice of him?' And yet, You have made him but a little lower than Yourself, and crowned him with honor and glory."

Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU