Rus - Were Machlon and Chilion Married Through Valid Geyrus?

Full Summary

Rabbi Zweig addresses a complex textual and halachic problem in Megillas Rus that emerges from Rashi (רש"י)'s commentary. The Torah (תורה) narrative suggests that Ruth was married to Machlon, as evidenced by the later story of Boaz marrying Ruth "lehakim shem lamachlon" (to establish a name for Machlon) - following the spirit of yibum (levirate marriage). However, this creates a fundamental contradiction. Rashi explains that when Naomi told Ruth and Orpah to return to their people, she was addressing the halachic problem of eishes ach shelo hayu b'olam - if Naomi were to have more children, Ruth and Orpah couldn't marry them since they would be brothers of Machlon and Chilion, and it's forbidden to marry one's brother's widow even if the brothers never coexisted. Rashi resolves this by saying "shalona gairu" - they had not yet converted. But this creates a deeper problem: if there was no geyrus, how could there be any meaningful marriage or yibum? Rabbi Zweig explores the Rambam (רמב"ם)'s approach in Hilchos Issurei Biah (13:14), which discusses how the Beit Din didn't accept converts during the times of David and Solomon due to ulterior motives (fear of David, attraction to Solomon's wealth and success). However, private conversions (hedyotos megayrim) still occurred, with the Beit Din waiting to see the ultimate outcome. The Rambam states that regarding Solomon's wives: "chashvan hakasuv k'ilu hen goyim" - the Torah considers them as if they were non-Jews, even though they technically underwent some form of conversion. This leads to a crucial distinction between two types of geyrus: basic geyrus (which permits living with the person) and ger tzedek (full conversion with kabbalas mitzvos). Rabbi Zweig suggests that Machlon and Chilion's wives underwent the first type - a conversion that removed the issur of kanoim pogim bo (zealots attacking those who live with non-Jewish women) and permitted the relationship, but didn't grant full Jewish status. The analysis extends to a parallel case in Sanhedrin regarding Amnon and Tamar. The Gemara (גמרא) explains that Tamar was born from a yefas toar (beautiful captive woman), yet Amnon was told he could ask King David for permission to marry her. Rashi holds that one may only live with a yefas toar after completing the entire conversion process, but this creates the problem of brother-sister relationship. Tosafos (תוספות) suggests the mother was already pregnant before David lived with her, but this contradicts Rashi's explicit statement in Sefer Shmuel that Tamar was David's daughter. Rabbi Zweig proposes that according to Rashi, there are two stages: the initial geyrus of yefas toar (which permits the relationship but may not confer full Jewish status), followed by potential ger tzedek status. If the daughter later undergoes complete conversion, the principle of "ger shenitgayer k'katan shenolad dami" (a convert is like a newborn child) would sever the familial relationship, making marriage to her adoptive brother permissible. Returning to Megillas Rus, this framework explains why we learn the halachos of proper geyrus from Naomi's initial discouragement of Ruth and Orpah - these are the laws of becoming a ger tzedek. Their previous status was merely basic geyrus. When Ruth insists "ami amech, Elokayi Elokayich" (your people are my people, your God is my God), she's requesting to upgrade from ger to ger tzedek. The word "noshuv" (we will return) that Ruth and Orpah use makes sense in this context - they're not returning to a place they've never been, but rather advancing from their current status as gerim to become full ger tzedek. This resolves the linguistic difficulty while maintaining the narrative's integrity. The shiur concludes by noting that this understanding validates both the meaningfulness of the marriages (they weren't living with complete non-Jews) and the later yibum narrative (there was a real relationship to commemorate), while explaining why Chazal could derive the stringent laws of ger tzedek from this episode.