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    27 May SHAVOUS: ANONYMOUS JEWS PRODUCE REDEEMERS

    Posted at 17:07h in by
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    Megillas Rus begins
    with the narration that
    a man from
    Bethlehem in
    Yehudah went to live
    in the fields of Moav,
    because of the famine in Eretz
    Yisrael. Chazal, our Sages, criticize this
    person for abandoning his people in their
    time of need and fleeing with his family to
    Moav.
    When the Megillah first tells us of this
    person’s departure, he is mentioned
    anonymously (‘a man’). However, we do
    not remain guessing about his identity for
    very long. In the very next verse we are
    told that “The name of the man is
    Elimelech”.
    The question can be asked, why not write
    this story more ‘economically’ and tell us
    the name of the man and what he did in
    one pasuk? Why the mystery in the first
    pasuk, followed immediately by the

    revelation of his identity in the second
    pasuk?
    It is interesting that the very same type of
    sentence construction occurs in a different
    place in the Torah: “And a man went from
    the House of Levi and he married the
    daughter of Levi” [Shemos 2:1]. The
    Torah later identifies these mysterious
    individuals as Amram and Yocheved, the
    parents of Moshe. So, again, why the
    initial anonymity? Why not say straight
    out “And Amram went and married
    Yocheved”?
    The Baal HaTurim in Shemos points out
    that these two places are the only times in
    Tanach where the Torah uses the
    expression “And a man went” (vayelech
    ish). The Baal HaTurim comments that
    the pasuk “A man went from the Tribe of
    Levi” brought about the first
    redeemer (Moshe) and the pasuk “A man
    went from Bethlehem Yehudah” led to the
    final redeemer (Moshiach – who will

    descend from Dovid HaMelech, a
    descendent of Rus).
    The Shemen HaTov elaborates on this
    Baal HaTurim. The person who produces
    the Redeemer can be an anonymous
    person. One does not need to be the great
    leader of his generation — an Amram or
    an Elimelech — to produce the Redeemer.

    Any Jew is capable of producing a child
    who will be the greatest personage in his
    generation and in fact a Redeemer.
    One does not necessarily need to be great
    himself or have superior lineage or wealth
    or power. Any anonymous Jew can
    potentially produce the future leader of
    the Jewish people.