A Novel Insight into Why We Read Megillas Rus on Shavuos
(The following idea comes from Rabbi Mirsky’s sefer on Yomim Tovim)
On Shavuos, we read the story of Rus, written by the Shmuel HaNavi. Rus is one of the 24 books of Tanach. It is a beautiful story. But what is so vital about this narrative that it must be part of Tanach? Furthermore, why do we specifically read it on the Yom Tov of Shavuos?
Rav Shlomah Alkabez, in his commentary to Rus, writes “This megillah was written to authenticate King Dovid and to publicize the concept that a Moabite woman may marry a Jew. Shmuel wrote this book to pre-empt any murmuring that might threaten the monarchy of the anointed king (Dovid).”
There was indeed controversy as to whether Boaz was permitted to marry Rus. Rus was from Moab. The simple reading of “Neither an Ammonite nor a Moabite shall enter the Congregation of Hashem” (Devorim 23:4) would seem to preclude her ability to marry Boaz or any other native-born Jew for that matter. There was a dispute that raged for generations whether the prohibition included female Moabites or just the males. Boaz made a bold move to demonstrate the permissibility of such a union, even though the closer relative (a man named Tov) refused to enter into such a marriage out of fear that it was prohibited.
Shmuel, the prophet who anointed Dovid as King, decided to set the record straight and recorded Boaz’s public decision to marry this woman — in Tanach. This explains, perhaps, why Rus is read on Shavuos. The story of Boaz’s bold decision to marry Rus dramatizes his faith in the veracity of the Oral Tradition. Boaz had faith in the “Halachah of Moshe tracing back to Sinai” that the interpretation of the above cited pasuk in Devorim is “An Ammonite male is forbidden, but not an Ammonite female; a Moabite male is forbidden, but not a Moabite female.”
When a Jew sits down on Shavuos, the Yom Tov marking receipt of the Torah, he is confronted with the question of why Boaz did marry Rus. Why was he so confident that he was allowed to marry her? The answer is that he knew it was permissible because of the Oral Law. Shavuos is not merely a Yom Tov celebrating receipt of the Written Torah. As indicated by the story of Rus, Shavuos is also the Yom Tov when we celebrate the receipt of and the veracity of the Oral Torah.
The issue of the veracity of the Oral Torah was an issue in Talmudic times and it is an issue in modern times as well. When we tell people: “The Torah says such and such,” they question us because they cannot find it in the Written Torah. So much of the divisions that we have with our non-observant brethren boil down to this point: Is there an Oral Law or not?
On Shavuos, we come to this clear understanding that Torah means the Written Torah PLUS the Oral Torah. There is no better narrative than Megillah Rus to drive home this lesson.
The Vilna Gaon reads this whole idea into a few pasukim in Tehillim [119:161-162]: Dovid HaMelech writes: “Princes have pursued me without cause, but my heart has feared Your word (m’devarcha pachad leebi). I rejoice over Your Word, (sos anochi al imrasecha) like one who finds abundant spoils.” The meaning of m’devarcha pachad leebi is I was afraid of the words of Your Torah, which seems to imply that even a Moabite woman may not marry into the Jewish people. But sos anochi al imrasecha — I rejoiced over your Oral Teaching, which taught to the contrary, that the prohibition was limited only to the Moabite males.
