The impact of a righteous person on his surroundings is perceptible, and when he departs from his place, his departure is profoundly felt.

[After discussing a verse concerning Naomi and Ruth, the midrash continues:] Likewise you find with Jacob our patriarch when he departed from Beersheba. Was he the only one who departed from there? Didn’t several camel drivers depart and several donkey drivers depart from there also? And yet you say: “Jacob departed” (Genesis 28:10), indicating that only he departed. The explanation is that when a righteous person is in a city, he is its radiance, he is its glory, he is its splendor; when he departs from there, its radiance leaves, its glory leaves, its splendor leaves, its praiseworthiness leaves. (Rut Rabba 2)