Shavuot 5778-The first part of the Book of Ruth revisited

On a recent trip to Israel there came into my possession a sefer on the Book of Ruth by Rabbi Eliahu Akiva Rabinowitz of Poltova Poland (published in 1888).The author was an outstanding Gaon , of whom it is written (in the introduction by his grandson), that he finished Shas Bavli every month. His commentary is called Chessed Lemeshicho and his analysis of Elimelech is so revolutionary that I felt it was important to bring this to the attention of the public who will be spending time learning the Book of Ruth as part of their Shavuot learning program.

א  וַיְהִי, בִּימֵי שְׁפֹט הַשֹּׁפְטִים, וַיְהִי רָעָב, בָּאָרֶץ; וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה, לָגוּר בִּשְׂדֵי מוֹאָב--הוּא וְאִשְׁתּוֹ, וּשְׁנֵי בָנָיו.

1 And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem in Judah went to sojourn in the field of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

ב  וְשֵׁם הָאִישׁ אֱלִימֶלֶךְ וְשֵׁם אִשְׁתּוֹ נָעֳמִי וְשֵׁם שְׁנֵי-בָנָיו מַחְלוֹן וְכִלְיוֹן, אֶפְרָתִים--מִבֵּית לֶחֶם, יְהוּדָה; וַיָּבֹאוּ שְׂדֵי-מוֹאָב, וַיִּהְיוּ-שָׁם.

2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem in Judah. And they came into the field of Moab, and continued there.

ג  וַיָּמָת אֱלִימֶלֶךְ, אִישׁ נָעֳמִי; וַתִּשָּׁאֵר הִיא, וּשְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ.

3 And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

ד  וַיִּשְׂאוּ לָהֶם, נָשִׁים מֹאֲבִיּוֹת--שֵׁם הָאַחַת עָרְפָּה, וְשֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִית רוּת; וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם, כְּעֶשֶׂר שָׁנִים.

4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and they dwelt there about ten years.

ה  וַיָּמֻתוּ גַם-שְׁנֵיהֶם, מַחְלוֹן וְכִלְיוֹן; וַתִּשָּׁאֵר, הָאִשָּׁה, מִשְּׁנֵי יְלָדֶיהָ, וּמֵאִישָׁהּ.

5 And Mahlon and Chilion died both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband.

Rabbi Rabinowitz asks the obvious question: how could such a leader as Elimelech, who had been blessed by God with such wealth and material blessing, turn his back on his own people? Furthermore, how could he go to the land of Moav from which originally Balak came (who hired Bilam to curse the Jews) and the Moabites were described by the Torah as being totally inhospitable to the Jewish people when they were in the desert? Also, if you will claim that he was afraid that he would be forced to give Tzadakah to his suffering brothers, then why wasn’t he stopped from leaving by the leaders of the people, to enforce their powers of making him give help to others? It must be that he left freely and the question is why? Also why mention it happened in the time when the ‘judges judged’(or as some say ‘were judged;) why not just say ‘it happened in the days of the judges’. What is the extra message from this strange description of the time period when this story took place?

Rabbi Rabinowitz begins to answer his questions by explaining the basic premise of any electoral system. In an election each party tries to gain favor with the people (usually by promising/distributing favors etc) and each party hopes to gain a majority to elect its leader in the forthcoming election. He argues that the book of Ruth is happening when a new shofet/judge needs to be chosen by the people (similarly we find with Yiftach that the elders went to him to offer the position to him to lead the people).This is expressed by the phrase’when the judges judged’ as if to say that the Jews were judging as to who would become their new judge.

 Elimelech wanted very much to gain the powerful position of Shofet so as to become eventually the King with the ultimate power (as we see in the story of Avimelech, son of Gidon, who tried to do the same thing in the most ruthless way possible(see: Shoftim ch.9). In fact Elimelech is not chosen , even after all his efforts to be elected and he became very angry with the people. The whole premise of Elimelech’s desire for power is deduced from his name: ‘Eli Melech’ which can be read as’Ailai Melech’ –‘to me is the kingship’ (such an interpretation of his name is found in Midrash in the name of Rabbi Meir).

He vents his anger by leaving Eretz Yisrael and he takes his family with him so as not to be forced in any way to help fellow Jews who are suffering from the famine all around. He goes to Moav, who he knows would like the chance to conquer Israel and he begins to shower favors and money upon the Moabites (he took his money with him). He immediately becomes ingratiated to the King of Moav and hopes to be able to return and take the kingship of Israel by force with the help of his new friends.

However he dies and his plans are now passed on to his sons, who begin to have similar aspirations(hence their names which also suggest destruction and annihilation, which is essentially the path they were on). At this point they marry the Moabite princesses (Ruth and Orpah, both descended from Eglon, King of Moav), and they insist on keeping conversion out of the discussion as this would jeopardize their plan to befriend the Moabites .They stay there for 10 years trying to build their powerbase , but before they can return to Israel they also die.

With this approach, the whole story takes on a more realistic approach and we can see why Elimelech was so angry as to leave Israel in a time of crisis, which was not what we would expect of him as a recognized noble of the Jewish people. This also explains the choice of Moav as his place to go to, to gain their favor to help him with his plans of becoming the King in Israel with their help. It explains the phrase of ‘when the judges judged’ and gives us a great insight into the kind of tribal infighting that was going on and which eventually leads to civil war in the tragic episode of ‘pilegesh begivah’(chs.19-21 of sefer Shoftim).

I find this approach to the beginning of the story very refreshing as I have always wondered about Elimelech who is presented by Chazal as the ‘gadol hador’ and yet he fails in the most basic expectation of helping the Jewish people. I recommend this commentary as he continues to explain the story in his unique style and I hope to convey more of his teachings to my students IYH next year at SCW when we study the Book of Ruth together.

Rabbi Ian Shaffer        Chag Sameach            SCW/5778