[pngmisso]

I am studying the book of Ruth and want to know as much as I can in the Jewish cultural implications of the kinsman redeemer... relationships, duties, responsibilities etc

[ZachZ]

I am studying the book of Ruth and want to know as much as I can in the Jewish cultural implications of the kinsman redeemer.....relationships, duties, responsibilities etc

Before we get into this, can you promise us that you are looking only for the Jewish perspective, and are not trying to sell Ruth or Obed as "types of" Mary and/or j*sus?

Sorry for having to ask this but it seems that people often ask seemingly innocent questions only as a opening to proselytize.

[pngmisso]

I'm not trying to sell anything. I want to know the culture behind this as I stated and would appreciate better understanding the situation and why a kinsman redeemer was needed to purchase the property.

[Fr_Chuck]

Ruth: Customs and Laws - Tom Elseroad

Law of Redemption (Kinsman-Redeemer): (Le. 25:47-50). When we buy or sell property we think in terms of transfer of title in fee simple. When we purchase a piece of property, it belongs to you and will pass down to your heirs. Israel did not operate this way because Israel belonged to God. The God of the universe singled out a piece of real estate and calls it His own. Yes, the Lord owns the whole earth, but He has plans for a small piece of land called Israel. When Joshua enters Israel the land is granted to the 12 tribes. The land that was granted to a tribe was to stay with that tribe. This is one reason why genealogies are so important to Israel. If you got into trouble financially, you could sell your land (more like what we would call a lease). You could sell the rights to use the land until the year of Jubilee where the land returned to the original owners. The title deed (a rolled up scroll with instructions on the exterior of the scroll) typically provided the rules or procedure of redemption. In this redemption idea a near kinsman could follow the title deed instructions to buy back the unused years. (For example you would sell the land for a certain amount of time, say 7 years, and if after 3 years a near kinsman came he could pay the balance of the four years that was due and return the land to the family. This is redeeming the land. One of the titles for Jesus Christ is Kinsman Redeemer (Hebrew goel).

The Kinsman-Redeemer Requirements:

(1) Must be a kinsman;

(2) Must be able to perform;

(3) Must be willing;

(4) Must assume all the obligations.

There are 3 aspects of the Law of the Kinsman-Redeemer which operates in connection with: (1) redeeming the land (2) redeeming poor people (Le.25:35-55); (3) redeeming widows. The kinsman was a close relative that was to be the protector. (1) If a close relative is murdered, the kinsman must be the “avenger of blood” who would catch the murderer and kill him (Nu.35:6-34); (2) if a close relative lost his land through poverty, the kinsman redeemer must pay to buy it back for him; (3) if a close relative died and left a widow without children he was to marry her to raise up children in her dead husband's name. If we do not understand this idea we will not understand (1) the book of Ruth; (2) why Christ is called our Redeemer; (3) Revelation chapter 5.

Law of the Levirate Marriage: (De. 25:5-10). If you had a widow without any children (issue) she could go to the next of kin, and put a claim on him to take for wife to raise up children for the family. There were 3 conditions: (1) he had to be a near kinsman (2) he had to be able to perform (3) he had to be willing. This was not required, but was an obligation that she could put on him. If he chose to do it he would take her as his wife with the expectation of having an heir (children) for the family. If he chose not to he had to give her his shoe (a symbol of shame that he had failed to do the kinsman part). He was to go one foot bare footed for some time. This was to put him to shame. She would receive the shoe, possibly spit on him, and openly put him to shame.

Genesis 38

Law of Gleaning: The Lord made this provision for the needs of the poor. It instructs the Israelite farmer to leave some of the produce of his field so the poor can gather food (Le.19:9-10; 23:22; De.24:19-21). In this practice the poor had to work by gleaning for themselves. Thus they could maintain their honor and not have to beg for a handout. The landowner had to determine if someone actually qualified, and how much of the “corner” he would allow for gleaning. A Single woman had few ways to support herself in the days of Ruth. During the months of harvest a woman could glean for food. The law of gleaning did not require the landowner to provide food, water, or protection from the men. The fact that Boaz provided these things for Ruth demonstrates his love for her.

[ZachZ]

Here is a nice article from an authentic Jewish resource,

JewishEncyclopedia.com - GO'EL

This was a timely question... in my Talmud study class last week we went over laws relating to what someone who had committed an inadvertent manslaughter should do (like a man chopping wood has his axe head fly off and kills a passer-by). Because of the concept of go'el, the killed man's kinsmen could come after the killer, so there's a number of laws of what the killer has to do -- he's basically banished to a 'sanctuary city' until the Kohain Gadol dies, as the article below notes.


GO'EL

Next of kin, and, hence, redeemer. Owing to the solidarity of the family and the clan in ancient Israel, any duty which a man could not perform by himself had to be taken up by his next of kin. Any rights possessed by a man which lapsed through his inability to perform the duties attached to such rights, could be and should be resumed by the next of kin. This applied especially to parcels of land which any Israelite found it necessary to sell. This his go'el, or kinsman, had to redeem (Lev. Xxv. 25). From the leading case of Jeremiah's purchase of his cousin Hananeel's property in Anathoth (Jer. Xxxii. 8-12) it would appear that in later Israel at any rate this injunction was taken to mean that a kinsman had the right of preemption. Similarly, in the Book of Ruth the next of kin was called upon to purchase a parcel of land formerly belonging to Elimelech (Ruth iv. 3). It would appear from the same example that another duty of the go'el was to raise offspring for his kinsman if he happened to die without any (ib. 5). This would seem to be an extension of the principle of the Levirate Marriage; hence the procedure of "ḥaliẓah" was gone through in the case of Naomi's go'el, just as if he had been her brother-in-law. The relative nearness of kin is not very definitely determined in the Old Testament. The brother appears to be the nearest of all, after whom comes the uncle or uncle's son (Lev. Xxv. 49).Another duty of the go'el was to redeem his kinsman from slavery if sold to a stranger or sojourner (Lev. Xxv. 47-55). In both cases much depended upon the nearness or remoteness of the year of jubilee, which would automatically release either the land or the person of the kinsman from subjection to another.

As the go'el had his duties, so he had his privileges and compensation. If an injured man had claim to damages and died before they were paid to him, his go'el would have the right to them (Lev. v. 21-26 [A. V. vi. 1-7]). The whole conception of the go'el was based on the solidarity of the interests of the tribe and the nation with those of the national God, and accordingly the notion of the go'el became spiritualized as applied to the relations between God and Israel. God was regarded as the go'el of Israel, and as having redeemed him from the bondage of Egypt (Ex. vi. 6, xv. 13). Especially in Deutero-Isaiah is this conception emphasized (Isa. Xli. 14; xliii. 14; xliv. 6, 24, et passim).

Avenger of Blood

However, the chief of the go'el's duties toward his kinsman was that of avenging him if he should happen to be slain by some one outside the clan or tribe. This custom is found in all early or primitive civilizations (comp. Post, "Studien zur Entwickelungsgesch. des Familienrechts," pp. 113-137). Indeed, it is the only expedient by which any check could be put upon the tendency to do injury to strangers. Here again the principle of solidarity was applied to the family of the murderer, and the death of one member of a family would generally result in a vendetta. It would appear that this custom was usual in early Israel, for the crimes of a man were visited upon his family (Josh. vii. 24; II Kings ix. 26); but at a very early stage the Jewish code made an advance upon most Semitic codes, including that of Hammurabi, by distinguishing between homicide and murder (Ex. Xxi. 13, 14). It was in order to determine whether a case of manslaughter was accidental or deliberate that the Cities of Refuge were instituted (Deut. Xix.; Num. xxxv.). In a case where the elders of the city of refuge were satisfied that the homicide was intentional, the murderer was handed over to the blood-avenger ("go'el ha-dam")to take vengeance on him. Even if it was decided that it was a case of unintentional homicide, the man who committed the deed had to keep within the bounds of the city of refuge till the death of the high priest, as the go'el could kill the homicide with impunity if he found him trespassing beyond the bounds (Num. xxxv. 26, 27).

In other legislations grew the principle of commuting the penalty by a money fine, known among the Anglo-Saxons as "wergild," which varied in amount according to the rank of the person; but such a method was distinctly prohibited in the Israelite code (Num. xxxv. 31).

It would appear that the custom of the blood-avenger still existed in the time of David, as the woman of Tekoah refers to it in her appeal to the king (II Sam. Xiv. 11), but no further trace of it is found. Later the concentration of the population in cities gave fuller power to the courts of justice to punish cases of murder. The term "go'el" thus became entirely confined to the spiritual sense of "redeemer." It is probably used in that way in the celebrated passage in Job xix. 25: "I know that my redeemer [go'el] liveth." In the Talmud it is used exclusively in this manner.

[pngmisso]

Thank you for your responses. They have been helpful