moshe stempel
shavuot - thoughts on ruth
On Shavuos night, R' Bamberger discussed Megillas Ruth. The ideas of
the vaad were taken from his sefer Shiras HaLevi. Due to the profound
importance of this sefer of Tanach, it is important that we have a
basic understanding of what this sefer is about and why we read it on
Shavuos.
Megillas Ruth tells the tale of a prominent Jewish family that was
destroyed through greed. Elimelech, the head of the household, was the
greatest sage of his generation. He was also fabulously wealthy. He
lived in Eretz Yisroel during a time of great poverty. Every day hordes
of needy Jews would come knocking on his door begging for charity.
Elimelech was concerned that his vast wealth would soon be depleted if
he had to support the entire Jewish nation on his shoulders.
In order to shirk his responsibilities, Elimelech fled to Moab. With
him he took his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Machlon and Kilyon.
Machlon and Kilyon wed two Moabite princesses, Ruth and Orpah.
G-d punished Elimelech severely for his lack of compassion on his
suffering brethren. Elimelech lost his great fortune and died from a
terrible disease. A similar fate befell his two sons.
There is a powerful lesson that can be gleaned from this narration.
When G-d blesses us with wealth or talents, it is our responsibility to
use those blessings to help other people. If we fail to use
our blessings in life properly, G-d may take them away. This was
Elimelech's tragic mistake.
When Naomi was about to take leave of her two daughters-in-law, Ruth
and Orpah, she gave them the following blessing: "May G-d grant you
peace and may you find peace." This blessing is difficult to
understand. If G-d will give them peace, why should they have to find
it?
R' Bamberger explained that there is a profound lesson to be derived
from this pasuk. Many people make the mistake of thinking that they
can be happy only if they win the lottery. However, there is probably
nothing that is further from the truth. Many studies have been done to
analyze the lifestyle changes of lottery winners. The findings were
shocking: Nearly all of them divorced their wives immediately. Many of
them got involved with drugs and lost all of their winnings on poor
investments. Some of them got so depressed with how badly they screwed
up their lives that they committed suicide.
What we see from these studies is that our happiness ISN'T governed by
how much we have. Rather, it is up to us to find peace with the
specific circumstances that G-d presents us with.
The gemara in Mesechta Nedarim tells of what happened to Orpah after
she departed from Naomi. The gemara records that she cohabited with 100
men on that night. In fact, she conceived Goliath on that night.
How can we understand how she sank so low so quickly? Just moments
earlier she had been kissing Naomi and refusing to part from her.
R' Chaim Shmuelevitz derives a powerful message from this incident.
When a person stumbles in a sin, his evil inclination tries to convince
him that he is a sinner. If he can commit one sin, he can commit an
even graver one. This is what happened to Orpah. When she returned to
her former lifestyle, she was caught in a downward spiral that led her
to forgo any sense of morality that she ever possessed. We must strive
never to fall into this trap of the evil inclination.
R' Shmuel Shalom Bender spoke on Megillas Ruth last year on Shavuos. R'
Shmuel Shalom Bender is a maggid shiur in Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far
Rockaway. He began his words with the following pasuk in Parshas Ki
Tetzei:
"A person from Ammon or Moab shall not be permitted to marry into the
Jewish people because they didn't greet you with bread and water when
you left Egypt."
This pasuk was the source of the controversy over Boaz's marriage to
Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite. Therefore, Boaz was forbidden to marry her.
However, the Sanhedrin at the time determined that the pasuk was only
referring to MEN from Moab. The reason was that it would have been
immodest for the Moabite women to have presented the Jewish people with
food and drink. Thus, the prohibition didn't apply to Ruth.
However, it remains difficult to understand why the Sanhedrin's reason
was adequate. If the Torah doesn't want us to marry people from Moab
because they lack the trait of kindness, why should it matter that the
women were technically excluded?
Ruth demonstrated that the trait of kindness wasn't entirely lacking
among the Moabite women. Ruth gave up the life of a princess in order
to help her mother-in-law, Naomi. We are supposed to learn from her
that the middah of chessed is essential to acquiring the Torah. This is
why we read Megillas Ruth on Shavuos.
Moshe Stempel helped edit Great Jewish Letters by Rabbi Moshe Bamberger.