daf bit: Sotah 47

[cellio]

In this week's portion we read that Balak, king of Moav, made 42 offerings to God. Rabbi Chanina said that on account of these, 42 children were cut off from Israel (the children who taunted Elisha as he went out from Jericho and were killed by bears, II Kings 2:23-24). But Rabbi Yehudah disagreed in the name of Rav, saying that on account of the offerings, Balak merited to be the ancestor of Ruth, who produced Shlomo. And Rabbi Yosi ben Choni said: Ruth was the daughter of Elgon the son of Balak. (47a)

Rabbi Chanina holds that Balak got to destroy his enemies a tiny bit (albeit with a delay) because he had earned some merit, while the others hold that he got reward (that doesn't come with a price tag). While the message that evildoers may still have merit in them is commendable, I'm not so thrilled with Rabbi Chanina's interpretation that merit takes the form of heaven-sent destruction to someone else.

Usually when people talk about Ruth's descendents the focus is on David; here the g'mara highlights Shlomo (Solomon) instead.

(Hey, what were the odds that the weekly torah portion and the daily daf would sync up like that? I had to choose this part once I saw it. :-) )

Comments

[aethereal-girl.livejournal.com]

Just at a guess, it's possible that since Balak made sacrifices to God, his reward was to have a descendant who built the Temple, where similar scarifices would be made. Hence the emphasis on Shlomo rather than David.