[Avodah] Another approach to Ruth's geirus

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 29/05/17 17:32, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> R' Zev Sero wrote:

>> It seems obvious to me that the issue was discharging
>> Machlon's and Kilyon's obligations, and Ruth was such an
>> obligation. Whether or not she was ever his lawful wife, he
>> owed her, and unless she was taken care of his obligations
>> would not be settled.
>> Thus, even if you wish to say that M&K thought their marriages
>> were legitimate, it's not necessary to believe that Boaz
>> agreed with them.

> I honestly don't know enough about this whole "redeemer" business to
> respond intelligently. I wish I did. This geulah is probably too
> complicated to explain in a few paragraphs, so instead, here's a
> related question which is probably simpler:
> 
> What obligations are you referring to? If Ruth had not converted, then
> there was no kiddushin.

I don't see how this matters.  Machlon was shacked up with this woman 
for ten years, and left her high and dry.  She was now in Beit Lechem 
living in poverty, and everyone who saw her would say "there's Machlon's 
widow, poor thing".  Thus seeing her settled was an unsettled obligation 
that Machlon had left behind, so taking care of it was part of the 
goel's duty, just like paying off his credit cards and returning his 
library books, so that nobody should be left with a claim against his 
memory.


> I'm certainly not aware of any obligations that the husband's 
> relatives would have. I can see obligations that the Goel would have
> towards the husband himself [...] My question is: *What*
> responsibility? What responsibility does the Goel (whoever he might
> be) have towards Ruth, if Ruth's conversion was absent or invalid?
Yes, the goel's duty is to his relative, not to the relative's 
creditors.  But that duty *is* to discharge the relative's obligations, 
which he is himself unable to discharge, whether because of poverty (as 
in the Torah's example) or death (as here).  Neither Tov nor Boaz owed 
anything to Ruth, but Machlon did.


> (I anticipate an answer similar to: "Regardless of the status of the
> family, Elimelech's field was owned by both Naami and Ruth, so if we
> want the field to return to Elimelech's family, then the money must be
> paid to the owners, namely both Naami and Ruth." But if that is so,
> then Ploni or Boaz could have redeemed it right away when Elimelech
> left. Why did they wait ten years?)

Redeem it from whom?  At that point it still belonged to Elimelech.

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all