[Avodah] Another approach to Ruth's geirus

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 27/05/17 23:44, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> Boaz must also have held that the original geirus was
> valid, for otherwise there would not possibly be any sort of yibum to
> speak of.

There was no yibum; marrying Ruth was seen as part of the mitzvah of 
redeeming her husband's land.  What is the point of this mitzvah?  It's 
to pay off his obligations and redeem his good name; Ruth -- whether 
Jewish or not -- was also his obligation, and had to be redeemed.  Thus 
Boaz need not have believed that the initial conversion -- if there was 
one -- had been valid.

But if you're positing an unknown machlokes (rather than being willing 
to say that Machlon & Kilyon did wrong), why put it in hilchos gerus, 
and not more directly on whether it's permitted to marry a non-Jew? 
Perhaps they held it only applies to the 7 nations, or perhaps they took 
the pasuk literally and held it only forbade Elimelech from arranging 
such marriages for them but permitted them to do it themselves.


-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all