Left over from Shavuot
I was supposed to say a few
words of Torah last week at the Beit Knesset Hanassi’s Shavuot Ne’ilat HaChag.
I prepared a devar Torah that I’ve now written up for Avot Today and I’ve posted
it below. In the event, I didn’t speak on this topic at all: I shelved it in
favour of a dispute that broke out between two of our grandkids as to who owns
ice cubes when one child pours water into an ice cube tray owned by the other. Anyway,
without further ado, here’s …
Shavuot raises fascinating issues
for Pirkei Avot enthusiasts such as myself, since there is no obvious interface
between Pirkei Avot and Megillat Ruth. None of the 60 or so rabbis who are
name-checked in Avot cite any verses from Megillat Ruth at all—and yet most of this
short canonical book is about middot and mussar: the very stuff
of which Pirkei Avot is made.
We don’t have to venture very far
into Megillat Ruth before we find somewhere that Pirkei Avot comes into play. The
very first verse is redolent with Avot-related issues:
וַיְהִי, בִּימֵי שְׁפֹט
הַשֹּׁפְטִים, וַיְהִי רָעָב, בָּאָרֶץ; וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה, לָגוּר
בִּשְׂדֵי מוֹאָב--הוּא וְאִשְׁתּוֹ, וּשְׁנֵי בָנָיו
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 Bethlehem Yehudah went to live in the fields of Moab, he,
and his wife, and his two sons.
The Malbim (Geza Yishai on Megillat
Ruth) explains the departure of Elimelech in a way that is both more favourable
to him, and less so. He is don lekaf zechut to the point that, in the
Malbim’s eyes, Elimelech feared that the angry poor would descend on his home
and loot it, adding that he only intended to stay away until their rage
relented and that he established his home in the sedei Moav, the countryside,
rather than in a settled area where bad influences abounded. According to the Biur
Hagra though, this ploy failed since Elimelech’s sons Machlon and Chilion
assimilated into the local culture.
Having initially pointed to a
plausible ground for Elimelech’s flight, the Malbim identifies a downside to
his actions: even if Elimelech was justified in leaving Bet Lechem, he was the
only wealthy man there to do so: all the others stayed put. This causes two Pirkei
Avot problems: (i) he is falling foul of Hillel’s precept of standing solidly together
with one’s people, al tifrosh min hatzibbur (Avot 2:5) and, (ii) since
he is apparently happy that others should give tzedakah to the poor
while he doesn’t, he is deemed as being mean and stingy in terms of the Avot 5:16.
Should Elimelech have, remained in
Bet Lechem Yehudah, opened his house to the poor and fed them? Yes, says PA and
yes say many traditional commentaries—this is something we should all do.
Perhaps unsurprisingly most modern commentators say “yes—but no”. Thus R’ Yaakov Hillel—who usually takes a stricter
line wherever he can—says that in our generation we must be extremely careful.
Why? Because we live in affluent times and “most people cannot handle a
lifestyle that deviates greatly from contemporary norms”. Other rabbis
recommend limiting this hospitality in other ways: for example, it should not
impose a burdensome workload on one’s wife, and the tzniut of the
ladyfolk of one’s home should not be compromised by the presence of a ceaseless
stream of hungry male visitors.
A further question that the opening
verse of Megillat Ruth invites is whether Moab was an acceptable place for a
Torah scholar to move to in the first place. At Avot 4:18 Rabbi Nehorai
teaches:
הֱוֵי גוֹלֶה לִמְקוֹם
תּוֹרָה, וְאַל תֹּאמַר שֶׁהִיא תָבוֹא אַחֲרֶֽיךָ, שֶׁחֲבֵרֶֽיךָ יְקַיְּמֽוּהָ בְיָדֶֽךָ,
וְאֶל בִּינָתְךָ אַל תִּשָּׁעֵן
Exile yourself to a
place of Torah; do not say that it will come after you, because it’s your friends
[who are learning partners] who sustain your Torah: so don’t rely on your own
understanding.
There is no suggestion that Moab is a makom
Torah and no hint from Megillat Ruth that Elimelech’s Torah learning might followed him
there. Incidentally the Pele Yo’etz, in his sefer Elef Hamagen, lists
various differences between the two most important things in a man’s life,
which are his Torah and his wife. One such difference is that, when a man
leaves town his wife will follow him—while the Torah won’t. We learn this from
the sad case of R’ Elazar ben Arach (Shabbat 147b), who actually followed his
own wife and relocated at the popular health spa of Diomsit, forgetting all his
Torah in the process.
I shall conclude with a moral-driven message for
the wealthy which we learn from the tale of R’ Yose ben Kisma at Avot 6:9: it’s
better to be a poor man and live in an Ir gedolah shel chachamim and soferim,
a citadel of Torah, than to have literally assets in the millions but live
elsewhere. If Elimelech had only appreciated this, he would have stayed put and
the course of Jewish history would have changed.
And that’s why we should all be grateful to be
living in Rechavia now, a corner of Jerusalem that is literally sprouting chachamim
and soferim and where the general level of security, health and affluence
is relatively high.
May the Almighty in his wisdom confer upon all the
rest of Israel the many blessings and chasadim that he has conferred on
us here and now, and may we see this in our own lifetimes.
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