To quickly review an old question: If Rus and Orpah converted at the
*beginning* of the story, then how could Naami send Orpah back to her
people? But if Rus converted at the *end* of the story (without
Orpah), how could Machlon and Kilyon have married non-Jews?
Some answer this question suggesting that there was a sort of
"conditional" conversion at the beginning, and while Rus later
affirmed her conversion to be sincere, it was revealed that Orpah's
was never valid to begin with. I have never understood this answer,
because of the ten years that elapsed from the supposed conversion
until it was retroactively nullified. (By analogy, suppose (chalila)
that Jared and Ivanka would split up, and Ivanka would claim that she
was only putting on a show all along. Who would believe her? Those who
currently accept her geirus as valid, would anyone accept such a bitul
of it?)
Today I came across a different approach to the question. Like any
other area of halacha, hilchos geirus has its share of halachic
disputes. For example, which parts of the process require a beis din;
perhaps a beis din is needed only l'chatchila, or is it me'akev? Or:
If the conversion candidate admits that he/she has mixed motivations
(such as being interested in a Jewish spouse, but also sincerely
l'shem Shamayim), is this acceptable or is it posul even b'dieved?
Pick either of those questions, or make up another one of your own.
Let's say that both Orpah and Rus converted at the beginning of the
story. Let's also say that everyone was up-front and sincere about
whatever they claimed their motivations to be, such that no one was
surprised ten years later. In other words, there was no disagreement
about the facts of the situation. But there WAS a machlokes among the
poskim of the time, about the halacha to apply to that situation.
Machlon, Kilyon, Rus and Boaz all held like the poskim who said that
the conversion was a valid one, at least b'dieved. But Naami held like
the poskim who ruled it to be invalid, even b'dieved.
Thus, Machlon and Kilyon were able to marry these women in good
conscience. For ten years Naami held Orpah and Rus to be non-Jewish,
but there wasn't much she could do about it, because their husbands
held that they *were* Jewish. When the husbands died, Naami finally
had the opportunity to express the view of her poskim. Orpah accepted
Naami's advice (for whatever reason), but Rus was committed to
continuing her new religion (for whatever reason). At this point,
perhaps Rus had a second geirus to keep her mother-in-law happy, or
maybe not. 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.
A possible hole in my suggestion appears in pasuk 2:20, where Naami
explicitly admits that Boaz is one of "OUR" relatives, and one of
"OUR" redeemers. This would not make sense if Naami rejected the
validity of the original conversion. However, this occurs AFTER pasuk
2:11, in which Boaz tells Rus (I am paraphrasing): "I know your whole
story. Don't worry. I hold your geirus to be valid, and I hold you you
be a relative." In the final analysis, Naami goes along. Maybe she
decides to accept Boaz's shitah l'halacha, or maybe she merely goes
along as a practical matter, given the fait accompli that both Boaz
and Rus hold that way.
Have I left any loose ends here? Previous approaches have focused on
uncertainties of intention. This approach says that everything that
happened in Moav was clear, and the only gray part was a machlokes
haposkim, but we know which shitah was followed by each character of
the story.
I invite all comments.
advTHANKSance
Akiva Miller