Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Chukas-Balak

Foreign National

June 25, 2026

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Ze’ev Granek

Mo’av said to the elders of Midian, “Now the congregation will chew up our entire surroundings, as an ox chews up the greenery of the field.” Balak, son of Tzipor, was king of Mo’av at that time.

Bemidbar 16:19

Rashi, quoting Chazal, says that Balak was actually from Midian and ineligible to be king of Mo’av, but fearing an imminent attack by the Jews, Mo’av appointed Balak king to replace the recently killed Sichon (Bemidbar 21:24). The Maharit asks that this contradicts the Gemara, which says (Sotah 47a) that Rus descended from Eglon, king of Mo’av, a descendant of Balak, and it says (Yevamos 76a) that Rus was only permitted to marry Bo’az because the issur for a Mo’avi convert to marry into Klal Yisrael applies only to males. If Balak was not actually a Mo’avi, why did Rus require that dispensation?

The Maharsha (Sotah 47a) answers that the two statements are indeed divergent views. The view cited by Rashi holds that Rus did not descend from Balak, but the Gemara in Sotah holds that she did and that Balak was a Mo’avi.

The Piskei Tosfos answers that Balak’s daughter married a Mo’avi, and because lineage for non-Jews follows the father, Eglon and Rus were Mo’avim.

The Yikra Deshichvi answers that although lineage for non-Jews generally follows the father, neither a patrilineal nor a matrilineal Amoni or Mo’avi may marry a Jew. Although Balak was not a Mo’avi, perhaps his wife was, and that made their descendant Rus a Mo’avis.