[Avodah] Another approach to Ruth's geirus

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Ben Waxman wrote:
> I always assumed that of course they married non-Jews. Their
> very names show that the two men were problematic personalities.

Yes, but see Bava Basra 91a: "Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said that
Elimelech, Machlon, and Kilyon were gedolei hador..." An excellent
introduction to this problem is in the Overview to ArtScroll's Ruth,
pages 48-52.

R' Zev Sero wrote:
> There was no yibum; marrying Ruth was seen as part of the
> mitzvah of redeeming her husband's land.

It doesn't matter whether you call it "yibum", or you call it
something else. My point is that there is no connection between Rus
and Boaz unless Rus was indeed married, and if there was no geirus
then she was *not* married and not connected to Boaz.

> 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.

Good question, especially since my post explicitly allowed for "an
unknown machlokes". The problem is that the machlokes would have to be
one where Machlon, Kilyon, Ruth, and Boaz all held that Ruth's
marriage was valid, with only Naami holding it to be not valid.

My understanding is that Avoda Zara 36b allows for the *possibility*
that it is muttar *d'Oraisa* to marry an Avoda Zara woman who is not
from The Seven Nations. And Ruth, being from Moav, was *not* from
those seven. But at the very most, that gemara would allow (on a
d'Oraisa level) sexual relations, and even doing so "derech chasnus" -
as a marriage. It does NOT go so far as to consider Ruth as part of
the extended family such that Boaz would have any responsibility to
her. I would want a source for that.

Granted that there might be some "unknown machlokes" which would
consider Ruth to be part of Boaz's family, even if she did not convert
at the beginning of the story. But I think such a suggestion would be
venturing into fantasyland. Here's why: Even if it is mutar d'Oraisa
for a Jewish man to publicly marry an Avoda Zara woman (who isn't from
the Seven Nations), the children from such a marriage would not be
Jewish, and that's d'Oraisa. In other words, even if the marriage is
legitimate, the children are not part of the man's family. And if the
children are not part of his family, then kal vachomer, Boaz is
certainly not part of his family. So unless you can show a valid
source that Boaz held (or even *might* have held) by patrilineal
descent, then I can't see RZS's suggestion as reasonable.

Akiva Miller