By Moshe Feiglin
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 Beit Lehem in
Judah went to sojourn in the field of Moab, he, and his wife, and
his two sons. 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 Beit
Lehem in Judeah. And
they came into the field
of Moab, and stayed
there. And Elimelech
Naomi's husband died;
and she was left, and
her two sons. 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. And Mahlon and Chilion died both of them; and the
woman was left of her two children and of her husband. (Ruth 1:1-4)
The Scroll of Ruth opens with a description of a leadership crisis
during the era of the Judges in ancient Israel. (Elimelech was one of
the leaders of Israel at the time). The mentality of the leaders at the
start of the Scroll is not connected to Jewish identity or Jewish
destiny in the Land of Israel. They did not believe in the unique
role of the Nation of Israel and when the going got tough, they sold
out their compatriots and bought themselves passports to the nearby
land of Moab.
When Israel's leadership lacks the basic understanding of the
unique destiny of the Nation of Israel and the vital role of the Land
of Israel - when holiness is completely uprooted from Israel's
existence - everything turns upside down. The Nation of Israel's
presence in the Land of Israel becomes a temporary real estate
venture, while its existence in foreign lands becomes permanent
and sanctified. In fact, the Nation of Israel's very physical reality
becomes just some more merchandise that can buy another day of
quiet - quiet for the people standing at the top of the heap of
concrete that used to be someone's home. They feel perfectly
comfortable trading in the Land's real estate and even in the lives of
its inhabitants.
When nothing is holy - not the Nation of Israel and not the Land of
Israel - it is fine to give the Nazis the children of the poor just to
buy a few more days of quiet in the ghetto. It even makes sense.
The Judenrat and the Jewish Police were Jews who had basically
removed G-d from the equation. When that happens, all that is left
is simple arithmetic. 10,000 children will be sent to the crematoria
but - for the time being - tens of thousands will be saved. It makes
sense, doesn't it?
When nothing is holy anymore, when the land is not holy, it is fine
to destroy Jewish homes and towns and surrender our land to the
Arabs. Just like the children of the poor who were hunted down by
their brothers to fill the Nazi transports, the settlers are the sector of
society that has proven that it is incapable of fighting its
brothers/destroyers. And if their destruction means another day of
quiet, another day of holding the government together - and maybe
it will even somehow allow us to save Jerusalem - then it is all very
logical, isn't it?
It always begins with the outposts. But just as in the case of the
Nazi transports - when the leadership betrays the nation - the
enemy's appetite gets larger and larger. The end is a given.
Destruction for all.
The Scroll of Ruth does not describe what happened to the common
people who remained in Judea after they had been abandoned by
their leaders. What we do know is that the "leaders" who betrayed
their people are just passing names in the Scroll - forgotten or
derided. But after they left, they were replaced by true Jewish
leaders - leadership of faith and loving kindness - leadership that
got the Nation of Israel back on its feet again.
Shabbat Shalom and Shavuot Sameach.
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