In contrast with Elimelech’s selfish escape, Rus’s chesed glows
“A man went out from Beis Lechem in Yehudah to dwell in the fields of Moav” (Rus 1:1).
O
ne day, the neighbors noticed that the house was locked, shuttered, and shrouded in gloomy silence. He had left. He’d taken his wife and sons and disappeared.
The whole town gathered and stood numb before the locked door as the last of their hope evaporated. There was no one among them now to avert the crisis. It was here to stay, and for how long, no one could say.
For the man who slipped away like a thief in the night was the person they looked to as their leader. He’d been asked to govern, and had declined to take the executive’s chair. The people knew he had the requisite talent to resolve the crisis, but he had turned a deaf ear to their pleas. They’d begged him to rehabilitate their failing economy and formulate a plan to combat the hunger that was plaguing them. But he ignored them. He’d come to the conclusion that the situation was irreparable, and having arrived at that conclusion, he decided to put himself first.
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