How a Snack Made History: Boaz, Ruth, and the Original Viral Moment     

In 2007, an employee of a New Jersey Dunkin Donuts named Dustin Hoffmann (not that one) made news when the store was nearly robbed by a serial robber who jumped on the counter grabbing the cash out of the cashiers’ register. The twenty-something Hoffmann fought back. Grabbing the man’s arm with one hand and a large coffee mug with another, he quickly and repeatedly smashed the crook’s head with the mug and successfully thwarted the crime.

When later asked about the incident, Hoffmann said that what galvanized him into action was YouTube: “What was going through my mind at that point,” he said, “was that the security tape is either going to show me run away and hide in the office, or whack this guy in the head, so I just grabbed the cup and clocked the guy pretty hard!” He then said, “There are only a few videos like that on YouTube now, so mine’s going to be the best. That’ll teach this guy!”

On Shavuos, we read the Book of Ruth–one of its main themes is kindness. Boaz, one of the most prominent people in his generation, marries Ruth, a poverty stricken convert. One of his first interactions with her was when he gave her food –specifically roasted corn. The Midrash (Ruth Rabbah 5) says that If Boaz would have known that G-d would write about him, “And he picked for her roasted corn,” he would have served her fatted calves. 

Seriously? Boaz was kind and known for his compassion; would someone like that  really have done even more if he knew the mic was on and the camera was running? Would he really have acted differently if he knew G-d would mention him for all posterity? Rav Yaakov Kamenestsky answers that the Midrash doesn’t mean to imply that PR would have changed his behavior;  ego wasn’t the issue, it was actually the opposite. He was humble and thought of himself as small and insignificant  on the great world stage. He saw his behavior as a small act of kindness, no big deal. He failed to recognize the cosmic impact small deeds can have.

Boaz thought he was giving a little tzedaka, sharing a small amount of food. Little did he know that his interaction with Ruth was the beginning of a relationship that would yield the Davidic dynasty and ultimately the messianic era.

Indeed, Ruth and Boaz were truly a match made in Heaven. Ruth in her soft-spoken manner did what she thought was a small chesed. She refused to leave her mother-in-law alone and pledged to accompany her. Boaz, rather than looking the other way, embraced the chance at sharing the produce of his field. Together, these two individuals who saw themselves and their actions as pedestrian and inconsequential altered all of human destiny by planting the seeds for Moshiach. Indeed, the Midrash notes how G-d Himself took notice of their humility and declared, “Boaz did his, and Ruth did hers, so too will I do Mine!

Our actions have cosmic implications. The small acts of kindness we engage in can make the biggest difference not only to ourselves, but to all of humanity. In 1963, meteorologist Edward Lorenz introduced what he called the Butterfly Effect. He showed that the flapping of a butterfly’s wing in Australia can cause a tornado in Kansas. That might be an exaggeration but it demonstrates how small, seemingly insignificant changes in initial conditions can lead to significant and unpredictable differences in the outcome of complex systems. His thesis is part of a greater theory called Chaos Theory, which  is applied in mathematics, programming, microbiology, biology, computer science, economics, engineering, finance, philosophy, physics, politics, population dynamics, psychology, robotics, and meteorology.

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks applied chaos theory in one more realm in his book To Heal a Fractured World–he called it the “chaos theory of virtue,” which suggests that small acts of kindness can have immeasurable consequences on the world.

Boaz and Ruth each did one act that changed the world, and so can we. Who knows what opportunity we will be presented with or what chance we will encounter that can literally change the world–and perhaps that’s why we read it on Shavuot.  

On the day that we celebrate the giving of the Torah, Ruth reminds us that the Torah is not yet complete. It is a work in progress because we continue to write it through our actions. There is a Megillas Ruth and a Megillas Esther and other books in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible)  but there are new ‘books’ being written every day that record our small acts and the ways they have changed the world, even without our knowing.

We can become the heroes of tomorrow about whom the next book is written through our small acts of kindness.  The camera is always on.  You never know which small deed you do that can have cosmic implications. 

(Source:  https://www.rabbiefremgoldberg.org/the-camera-is-always-on-you-could-go-viral)