“[Jacob] departed” – was he the only one who departed? Did several donkey drivers and several camel drivers not depart, and you say: “Jacob departed”? Rabbi [Ze’eira] Azarya said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon: When the righteous man is in the city, he is its aura, he is its glory. Once he emerged from there, its aura has vacated, its glory has vacated.
Similarly, “she departed from the place where she had been…” (Ruth 1:7). “She departed” – was she the only one who departed from the place? Did several donkey drivers and several camel drivers not depart, and is says: “She departed”? Rabbi Azarya in the name of Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, and Rabbi Ḥanin in the name of Rabbi Shmuel the son of Rabbi Isaac said: When the righteous person is in the city, he is its aura, he is its glory.
Once he emerged from there, its aura has vacated, its glory has vacated. There it works out well, as there was no one there other than that righteous woman. But here, Isaac and Rebecca were there. Rabbi Azarya said in the name of Rabbi Simon: The merit of one righteous person is not comparable to the merit of two righteous people.