Why Shmuel Wrote The Book of Rus (Harav Yitzchak Breitowitz)

uh a little bit of an unexplored corner and that is uh a book in Tanakh that's the the story of Russ McGillas Russ we know that there are five scrolls that are called migillos migilla just means a scroll that we read at different times of the year the most famous of course is the migilla of Esther that we read on uh then we have the migilla of Russ that we read on we have the migill of Cohel Nevertheless, Ecclesiastes that is read on Sukus, the McGill of Shir Shirim, the song of songs which is read on Pesak and then Aha, Lamentations which is read on the ninth of a uh so these are called the five migillos because these are the five books of the writings that are read publicly normally other than the migillos we don't have a we have Tanakh the B the Jewish Bible is divided into three sections Torah prophets writings, Torah, of course, we read Monday, Thursday shabas and holidays. Uh prophets, we read every shabas and yum. That's called the ha to Torah. Uh but there normally is no public recitation from the writings except for the five mgillas. So the five mcgillas are the only kituim that are read in a public way. Now you might uh I'm not sure if you've had a chance to notice this in Erit Israel, but the custom here in Erit Israel is a little different than it is in Kutza or in Kutza or the vast majority of Schulz. Uh the only migill that is read from a scroll from a handwritten scroll is the McGill of Esther. The other migillos are just read from a sitter or from a kish. There is no scroll that is read. And as a result there is no braha that is recited before migill we recite the braha al- mikra migila and we also recite shakyanu but in a regular American shaw when they read Russ or they read cohelis or they read or they read there is no scroll and there is no braha. By contrast here in Eric Israel based on the minhug of the vil nagon all five migillos are read from a handwritten scroll and a braha is going to be recited before the migillas. So uh if you've been going to Schulen America and you'll see this here it'll be it'll hit you as a little unusual because you've never experienced it before and in fact before each migillah we have two brahas that we recite. One is al- mikra migill the other ishayanu thanking god for bringing us alive the only exception is on tishab when we read we make the brah mikramill but we don't say shakayanu because since is a book of tragedy we don't thank god for bringing us to commemorate that tragic day okay so that's going to be an interesting difference another difference that pertains to r per se is interesting that you know in kutz we keep shuos two days like all All the holidays are kept two days. Now the custom is as you know that the first night of Shvuos people don't go to sleep. They they're supposed to spend the night learning. Now here in Israel and in most of the northern hemisphere the night of Shvuos is approximately uh depending on when you start learning it's around uh four to six hours. That's all it is. In the southern hemisphere though it's very very interesting. I I've had occasion to be uh in the southern hemisphere for the learning session is around 12 hours. I mean it just goes on forever. Uh so but be it as it may uh when you have to dav chakras at the crack of dawn after you've been up all night you you're understandably pretty tired. So you hope doning will be as short as it could be so you could get to sleep. Uh so init a lot of stuff is deferred to the second day of shv r is not read on the first day. Russ is read on the second day. Yiskar the memorial prayer for people uh who have lost their parents is the second day. So as a result in uh the first day service is a little shorter. Init we put in everything since there is no second day of shabos. So when you're really really tired and you're really hoping dabing will be over so you can get to sleep but I assume that's not your attitude. I'm sure there's a lot of enthusiasm and the like. Uh but then you're going to get hit with both migillas uh before Torah reading and uh ykar afterwards. So that's going to be another difference that you're going to notice. But let's talk about migillas a little bit. The basic story first of all the author of Miguelus is actually a very famous person that has his own biblical book and that is the prophet Shuel Shoel Hanovi was the one who wrote the beautiful story of Russ although his authorship is not indicated in the text but this is the tradition of our that is the author of Russ now uh the story is well I'm just going to give it in in two lines but then I'll go over it in more detail is it is the story of how uh a Moabitete princess converted to Judaism condemning herself to a life of poverty and suffering. She was a princess and somehow she got married to a very very great man who was Boas and from that union eventually came David Hamelik. So the way it worked was that Russ married Boaz who was a great great leader of the generation. They had a child oed and oed had a child Yishi and Yishi had a child David. So the culmination of course David is not born here just giving you a little updating that after the story of the marriage. So it then gives you a little bit of lineage going from Russ Bas all the way to David and uh it is the story of devotion. It is the story of commitment. It is the story of loving kindness and compassion for her widowed mother-in-law because remember that Russ's mother-in-law came and she lost her husband. She lost her two children including Russ's husband and Russ came back to live with Naomi and Erat Israel not thinking she would get married and not thinking uh she would ever get out of poverty and God bless them. So I want to ask two questions really and the questions are not the same. People confuse them. Question number one is why did Shel Hanavi write the story of Rus? Why did he write the book? Question number two is why do we read the book onus? That's not the same question did not write Russ to be read on. He wrote to us because he said this was part of the Bible that had to be recorded later later and it's much later later the custom devolved that we recite we read on. So these are two different questions. So when if you ask me why did Schmo write and people start telling you uh because it's connected to that's already a mistake in thinking because Schmool's writing the book had nothing to do with the simple answer why Schmool wrote the book was to provide and this is going to be a little complicated to provide legitimacy for the Davidic monarchy. Remember that Shuel is the last of the judges. Remember after Yeshua died. So for more than 300 years there was no centralized king. There were different judges who took over at various times. That's why what is the second book of the Naveim called? The first book is after the Torah is the book of Yoshua and the second book is the book of Schaim. different types of judges. Some of the judges are well known. Some of the judges are not well known. The well-known judges including one woman the judge Dvora then Shimshon Samson right some of the judges are well known other some of the judges like had very short tenures and we don't know a lot about them. Uh but the period of the judges lasted more than 300 years around 350 years. The last judge was none other than the great prophet Shimuel. And Shmo was extremely great. Shamuel was considered to be equal in greatness to Moshe and Aaron put together. You know how old Shu was? Shu only died at the age of 52. Amazing. a righteous person of the madrega of Moshe and Aaron died at 52. It's interesting his yard site is the same day as Yomu Shallay, right? Uh the 28th of Eeyore, this month, just uh in I guess a week or so, uh is the day in the six day war back in 1967 when we recaptured the old city of Jerusalem, which had been in Jordanian hands since 1948. We recaptured it and even more importantly we recaptured the temple mounts and the abil and the kosal Marabi the western wall to be able to govern by the western wall. So this became, yeah, it's not so much celebrated in the yeshiva world. One could ask why, but this became the Israeli holiday called Yom Jerusalem, right? The 5th of ER a few weeks ago, goes back to 1948. And that is the Israeli day, Yomhatz, Independence Day, which is also not celebrated that much in the Shiva world, but be it as it may. But Eeyore has these two Israeli holidays. One is Yomat the 5th of ER that's 1948 and the other is Yomalim the 28th of ER coming up uh which is 1967 and I'm bringing this up just as a little bit of I don't want to call trivia because there are no accidents that the 28th of ER is the art site of Sho Hanabi. So Yu Shallayam is the art site of Shal Hanavi and the like. Uh you may know that if you drive far enough just go on the street called Navi keep on driving towards remote it becomes golden mayor at some point but eventually you actually reach the grave of Sholanavi it is a grave that it's a tower from the time of the crusaders and you can visit the kev of hanavi buses go there etc. It is a mockim of tila and the like. Sometimes uh the she used to take guys there. I haven't been aware of it recently but maybe one of the times you'll be zoka to be misspel at the grave of hanavi. Now why why do I say is the last judge? For a very simple reason in schol's lifetime the Jewish people went to him and they demanded a king. They said, "We want a king to judge us like all the nations of the world. We want to be like everybody else. We want a king." Now, if you remember the book of Shoil, which is Shoil's own book, Shmo tried to discourage them from having a king. Sho said, "You don't want a king. He's going to tax you. He's going to take your children into slavery. He's going to create armies. He's going to wage wars. You don't want a king. Hashem should be your king. Hashem's Torah should be your king. What do you want? A human king who will be a dictator. So Shm tried to discourage them, but they refused to accept his Muser. So as a result, Shm anointed the first Jewish king. Now who was the first Jewish king? King Sha Hamel. Saul was the first Jewish king. Now Saul is from the tribe of Binyamin. Now Yakov had said on his deathbed lasser Yehuda that kingship should belong to the tribe of Yehuda. So Shaw by definition was a temporary monarchy. Shaw was king for only two years and a shortly after Shmu's death sh was killed in a war against the Philistines. But even before Sha was killed and while Shu was still alive, Shu told Sha that because of his sins, he has forfeited the right to be king. What was Sha's sin? because he was commanded to eradicate Amalik and he spared the king of Amalik and that king went and impregnated a woman and from that woman Hmon came later you know many centuries later but said to Sha because you did not keep the word of God has taken away the kingship from you and has given it to a better person. So, Sha did finish as king. He was killed shortly thereafter, but he was already told he would be replaced. Who was the one that replaced him? It was of course David. And that itself is a very dramatic and moving and beautiful story. Hashem tells Shuel, "Go to the city of Blem Bethlehem." Basle and go to a man called Yishi. And I will tell you which of his sons shall be king. And he tells So Schmo comes to Yeshi and says, "Bring out your s bring out your kids. I got to look them over." And he brings out seven of his eight children because King David they thought he was the youngest. He was so insignificant they left him with the sheep. So seven sons are there and each one is like handsome and tall and strong. And Shul thinks this must be the one. This must be the one. And God says don't look at appearances. Look at the heart. and none of these seven are the one that I choose to be king. So says to Yishi, "Hey, do you have any other sons that you didn't bring out?" Shmul didn't even know. And Yishi says, "Yeah, there's a little there's a kid." By the way, he wasn't he wasn't a kid. He was 28 years old. I mean, he wasn't uh like five years old, but there's a guy. He's just taking care of the sheep. He's not really, you know, you don't you don't want him for sure. And Shul says, "Hashem told me, bring out all of your sons, not seven out of eight." So he summons David from the sheep. And of course, David is in the lifetime of Saul, David is anointed. And if you know the book of Shmoil, which is not the book we're discussing technically, you know that Sha became in the in in the in the little time that Shaw was uh still alive, he became insanely jealous of of he pursued him. He tried to kill him. He tried to get rid of him. And the irony, it's such a even as a matter of literature, it's such a gripping story. David's best friend was none other than Sha's own son, Yonasan. And Sha couldn't stand that. Shaw kept on telling his son, "This is the one that's going to take away the kingdom from you. He's going to take away everything from you." How could he be? How could you be his friend? In fact, there's even a scene where Sha threw a spear at his own son in rage. like the spear missed just missed Yonasan. It is lodged in the wall. The tragedy was Yonasan got killed with his father in that war against the pitched him and David Malik gave a beautiful eulogy over the loss of Sha and the loss of Yonasan. Okay, now here is the thing. So David became king uh at the age of 30. Actually he was anointed at 28 but Sha lived two years. So David became king in 30 and David ruled for 40 years from 30 to 70. In fact that itself is an interesting story. Again I will get back to Russes. This is actually good background information. Adarish was supposed to live a thousand year. Well, well, before he ate from the tree of knowledge, he would have lived forever. But even after he ate from the Sadas, Adarishan should have lived a thousand years. Adarishan in fact only lived years. There's a 70year deficit. So, how do you explain that? So there's a medish that said Hashem showed other marish all of the future souls that were going to be born and he saw the beautiful soul of David Hamelik that was destined to be in the world for only three hours there wouldn't have been a David that the shama would have been in the world three hours harish said I hereby donate 70 years of my life so that David can live 70 years in this world. And that is why Adam Harishin only lived 930 and David Melik lived 70. Again he became king at 30 and he reigned for 40 years and he was succeeded by Schlommo the Davidic line and eventually Mashiach will come from David. Now remember David Hamel is the great grandson of Russ and Boaz had a son Oette. Oed and his wife had a son Yishi. Yishi and his wife had a son David as well as other other sons and the like which means Mashiach who will come from David will come from Russ if you come from David you come from Russ because David comes from Russ now when David became king David had many many enemies many many people who hated him many people who were jealous of him many people who despised him and I don't just meanter external enemies like the Philistines and the like. Of course, he had them, but he had many, many Jewish people who didn't like him. Some of them were Shaul's friends and family. They felt, although that's wasn't true, that David stole the kingship from Saul. Okay? So, David was a man who had many enemies. If you read to hill, you have to understand this a little bit. You know, read David is always saying to God, save me from my enemies. Save me from the people who try to destroy me. They treat me like a dog. I have no place to go. I am trapped. I am suffering so much. Right? Open up open up to him at random. There are of course joyous psalms for sure, but there's so many psalms where David is talking about his agony, his loneliness, his fear. What is that talking about? That's kind of talking about not so much the external enemies but the many many enemies who tried to either physically kill him or destroy him or delegitimate him. So David is a very at least in the initial years of his kingship a very very very belleaguered and attacked king. Mahavdil gazillion Abdullah somewhat like Trump in some ways right everyone's likes to attract attack Trump and whatever again I don't obviously I'm not comparing David to to Trump okay now the thing is one of their attacks is the following and this is going to explain why Ruth was written the Tyra says in parasi that an Ammonite and a Moabitete cannot enter the congregation of God. That's a P loaviashem. Now again, we have to have a little history here. What is the origin of the nations of Ammon and Moaf? It's in the you know Lot Abraham's nephew was living in Saddam. SOM got destroyed but in the merit of Abraham's prayers lot and his family were saved. So Lo ran away from Saddam as it was being destroyed with his wife and his two daughters. His sons-in-law refused to go. Loe's wife looked back and as the says she turned into a pillar of salt. So Lot finally reaches the mountains where he could be safe and it's Lot and his two daughters. That's it. They look out at the landscape of Saddam and all they see is desolation and smoke. Load starters actually thought the whole world was destroyed. It was only Saddam that was destroyed that area. It's like you know all these Twilight Zone things where uh you know you wake up in the morning and you're the only survivor the whole world got destroyed by a plague or nuclear war, right? That a famous science fiction image, but you somehow you know you're the only one that's alive. So they thought the same thing. They're looking out as far as their eye can see. They see desolation. They see smoke. They see ashes. They see sulfur. They thought they're the only human beings alive. So what did they do? The oldest daughter got her father drunk and she slept with him. She got impregnated by him. And nine months later, she had a boy. She had a child that she called Mo of. That means from my dad. Not a very modest name. This is from my father. Okay. The next night, I mean, Lo by the second night must have known what was going on here. The second night, the younger daughter gets him drunk and the same thing happens. And nine months later, I guess a day after the first birth, she has a a kid called Ammon from my people. Slightly better. Those two boys who were conceived in incest became founders of the nations of Ammon and Moav who inhabited east of the Jordan. Eric is west of the Jordan. They were east of the Jordan. Ammonites and Moabites. They were generated in incest. However, I hope you see from the way I described the story that their motives were not permiss promiscuous. Their motives were actually lash shay because they thought there was no one else in the world and they thought under those circumstances if we would not propagate erroneously so that would be the end of the human race. In fact, Mosha Feinstein used to tell the story about a man that he knew in Russia who died a horrible death, a horrible choking death. And as the man was dying, he managed to tell Raf Feinstein, Revosa Feinstein, a story that this was punishment because he disparaged Load's daughters. He was once talking about Lo's daughters as being immoral and being prostitutes and committing incest. And that night he had a dream where two radiant women whose faces were shining who looked angelic came to him and he asked them in the dream who are you and he said we're Lo's daughters and we came to tell you that what you said about us is total slander Mozy Shamra sheer and the fact that he saw their countenance shining with divine light showed him that they were held to be righteous people in heaven and he told Jeosha Feinstein that he died that he was going to die a horrible death because he was attacking the righteousness of bloat's daughters. Now here's the thing. The Torah says later in Dvarim that we're not allowed to marry a Moabitete or an Ammonite. Now, that doesn't mean if they didn't convert. If they didn't convert, of course, you can't marry them. They're rather what the Torah is telling me is even if they convert and they're Jewish, if they come from Ammon and Moab, they're not acceptable. Okay, that's they converted. Now, you might think superficially, oh yeah, well, sure they're not acceptable because they got generated in incest. That's not the reason. The fact that they were generated through incest, that would not have been a disqualification. The disqualification is a totally different reason. And the Torah gives two reasons, neither of which is connected to the incest part of the story. And that is when we were east of the Jordan and we were going to cross into Erit Israel. So we wanted to go through the Moabitete territory just to get to the Jordan River. And we asked the Moabites for permission to go through and the Ammonites as well to go through their territory to get to the east bank of the Jordan so we'll cross it. And we asked them for food and water and we offered to pay them for the food and water. And they refused to give us food and water and refused to give us safe passage. And because of their cruelty and because of their ingratitude because after all Ammon and Moab come from Lot and Lot was Ara's nephew. And look at all the kindness that Ara had shown. So the Torah says because of their cruelty, because of their lack of compassion, because of their lack of gratitude, they are not fitting to be part of the Jewish people. And therefore even if they convert and halically they're Jewish they don't marry into they can marry amongst themselves but they cannot marry into khalis. So that's reason number one they did not give us even though we offered to pay they did not give us food and water. And then there's a reason number two that applies more to Moab than Ammon that the king of Moab was the one who hired Bum to curse us and destroy us and God changed Bum's curses into blessings. But since the Moabites try to curse and destroy us, they cannot enter the congregation. So again, it's not because of the incest. The incest is not even a negative factor here. It's because of the lack of compassion, the lack of gratitude, selfishness, and hatred that they were excluded. Now, so here is what David Hamel's enemies kept on bringing up again and again and again. Hey, this fellow David, he's Jewish. Yeah, he was born a Jew, but he's a Moabitete Jew because his greatg grandmother is Russ the Moabitete. And the Torah says a Moabitete or an Ammonite here it's Moabitete cannot enter the congregation of God. He's not even a regular kosher Jew. How could he be king? And this notion that because David Amelik is descended from R the Moabitete, of course, that would also taint his father and his grandfather, but they're all tainted. And this was an accusation brought up in Schmal's own lifetime when Schmal is alive and it later resurfaced again and again and again. So what Shu Hanavi wanted to record since he was the one who anointed David before he left the world he wanted to set out the story of the fact that Russ's marriage was to the leader of the generation Boaz was the God had and therefore it was hically legitimate and the reason is because of a loophole and the loophole is that the prohibition against Moabites Marrying into Claw Israel only applies to male Moabites. It does not apply to female Moabites. Now, yes, David is male, but dubbed is descended from the female Moabitete. So, it's going to be permitted. What's the logic of that? So the Gmoru Vamus explains the logic of that is that if the Moabites are condemned because they did not give us food and water when we needed it, that's only a condemnation of the men because you can't expect women to go out and greet a foreign army passing through. So the defense of Dovetin is that the Moabitete taint in his lineage is on the female side. And Shua want us to establish this by indicating hey this marriage was approved by Boaz. Boaz was the God had. And therefore what was Shu trying to do? was trying to legitimate the ye the lineage of David Hamel via the that female Moabites are permitted and that would be established by Boaz. It wasn't just an affair. Boaz the great guttle was the one who married her. Now, Schmool was not completely completely successful in this because as I indicated even after Shmu's death, people would keep on bringing up the accusation over and over again. But this was Shu's purpose in writing Russ to legitimate the lineage of David Hamel and his right to be king. Okay, everyone understands the background background here. legitimate the yeus of David Hamel based on the as the Gmor Darians may moave that the prohibition is only the male Moabitete convert and not the female. Now this actually explains why when Shmo recounts the narrative he leaves out a particular detail that Khazal tell us in the medish but left it out that is when Russ returns to Arch Israel Boaz is already a very very old man and he had just lost his wife almost like his wife died right before Russ shows up as if God is preparing the scene and Boaz is very old. Boaz in fact had 60 children all of whom died. So Boaz is a widowerower. Boaz suffered tremendous bereiement. But he's with Russ. He marries Russ and she gets pregnant and oed and King David. They all come from that. But the medish tells us Boaz lived only one night. He married Russ. He consummated the marriage that night and he was dead the next morning. He he was literally dead the next morning. Now does not tell us that. The medish tells us that. Why Schmool doesn't tell us that is because this would be a detail that would be largely misunderstood because remember everybody thinks you're not allowed to marry a moabitete even a woman. But Boas the gut had says no women are permitted and I'm going to show you this because I'm going to marry her. He marries her publicly to proclaim the female Moabitete is permitted. And what happens? He drops dead the next morning. Now the reason why he dropped dead is the opposite. He should have died a long time ago. God kept him alive for that purpose. But people would misinterpret it. People would interpret it as ah God punished him. And that's how David's enemies did interpret it. God punished him. You see, great man, but he made this Moabitete mistake and God strikes him dead. So felt that that would not help in the meaning of the story. So eliminates that particular detail. Okay. So this is a little hakic background that you need to know why there's a story of now. Ra is a very beautiful story on many many levels. It's kind of a simple story although there are a lot of complications hahically in it. But this is the background. Now this is a totally different question. why we read Russ and shuos which is a later custom that was not connected to writing migillatus and here we have a lot of reasons I'll probably elaborate more on it next week uh but one simple reason actually is that is said to be the yard site of David Hamel so we read the story of how damel came to be and dash is connected to damel another aspect is that Russ is the story of a convert, a person who embraces born a non-Jew and born a princess in a royal family and she embraces Judaism thinking that she's condemning herself to poverty and suffering. Now, Matan Torah itself commemorates the day of the ten commandments, the day that we receive the Torah. Do you know that the Gmorra describes matan Torah as a mass conversion ceremony? Interestingly enough, the laws of conversion are derived from what the Jews did uh when we got the Torah, right? What are the three steps for at least for a male conversion? You have to have circumcision bris, you have to go to the mikvah, and you have to accept verbally uh that you will keep the commandments. Three steps as matan Torah we find all three steps although not not the same day. Circumcision every person who left mis every man who left misam had to have circumcision. Immersion in water. The Torah says as we prepare for the Torah we immerse in water. That's mikvah. And the acceptance of mitzvah is the famous declaration. Everything that God said not said we will do and we will learn. So the point I'm making is the Gomorrah itself says we derive the procedure of conversion from what the Jews did at the time of the receiving of the Torah. Matan Torah was a conversion. Now that's very interesting because people always ask you know when did we become Jewish? You know there are so many different answers you can give to that. But if you look at matan Torah as the conversion ceremony then in effect we were not really Jewish even when we left mitim we became Jewish upon the giving of the Torah. Matan Torah. Now if matan Torah is conversion so it makes sense does it not on the day that we celebrate matan tora to read about someone who converted for the sake of heaven because Russ is the model of how we have to become converted in our aodess if you can convert into something doesn't that imply that that already existed like if you can convert to Judaism Judaism would have had to have existed Yeah. Uh that's a very interesting question. Meaning if there was no Judaism until we accepted the Torah, what were we converting into? Uh yeah. Uh so I I think I think the answer, you know, is that indeed God created a new institution to which you can now have membership. It's like a a new club. In other words, it's never going to be that way in the future. You're right. In the future, all conversion is into is to an existing thing. This was a conversion into a new thing. you can join my new club so to speak. Uh now, uh the final idea is that Russ is also a a book about compassion, right? Russ had tremendous compassion for her mother-in-law to be with her, to take care of her. And part of the lesson we have to know is that there can be no Torah without that Torah without is empty and meaningless. And therefore it is loving kindness that enables us to be raised to say the name of Rafim. And was the guy the guide the the deepest of all talmudic thinkers I mean to this day died in 1918 right it's been a long time there's I don't think there's anyone a lot maybe some very very old people who even knew Rafay but to this very day Salvet is considered to be the deepest of the deepest of the deepest so he was not a person who was not m of learning that's for sure but he once said what did he say somethingong ong these lines. I'm not sure if this exact quote. When you close your garra to help another person, your garra remains open. And when you open your garra, because you don't want to help another person, your gamorra is closed. Meaning your Torah will penetrate you only with. And part of the lesson of Russ is that the is what enabled her to receive the Torah and that enables us to receive the Torah. Okay, so this was a a little bit of an introduction uh to the story of Russ. Uh there's a lot of technical hakic background that you need to know to really understand what's going on. Uh but this was like farewell gift to David Hamelik. He wanted to write the narrative that would legitimate David Hamelik's right to be the king of of Israel. Uh but we'll continue this next week. I have some more things to talk about. Have a good good week. Thank you for listening to this awesome production. To find out more and to partner in our mission, please visit or.edu.