The Power of Compassion: The Book of Ruth, Part 2

The Zohar teaches that where there is a lack of compassion, stern judgment takes over and spills the blood of Moshiach. When the Israelites entered the Land of Israel after 210 years of slavery in Egypt and another forty years of wandering in the desert, they were preoccupied with establishing their own estates. They forgot about compassion, one of Torah's principal requirements of them. Ruth's mission on earth was to bring Chesed, or compassion, back to Israel, and with it to bring Moshiach. Therefore, Ruth is not only the great-grandmother of Moshiach but the key to the rectification of the entire world.