[Avodah] Elimelech's land

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 05/06/17 16:55, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> IMinsufficientlyHO, it pays to just stick to trying to find a common
> theme to all the various meanings of ge'ulah (ordered in a way that
> strikes me as a progression):
> 
> [...]
> 
> - the go'el of yibum, unless go'el is the term only when he's not an
>    actual halachic yavam. (Eg Yehudah, Boaz)

Where is the word found in this context?   My position is that the use 
in Megilath Ruth is an instance of the next meaning.

> - the ge'uilah of nachalah (Vayiqra 25:25) - and of people (ibid v 48)

This one.  AIUI the underlying theme of this mitzvah is discharging ones 
own obligations, or those of a relative who is unable to do so himself. 
When one has sold the family patrimony, one must buy it back so that 
people will no longer look at one as someone who had to do that.  If one 
can't, then whoever in the family can afford to do so must buy it back, 
to clear ones name.

Included in this is a sub-obligation that if one is aware that a 
relative has to sell family land, and one can afford to buy it, one must 
offer to do so, so he is never subjected in the first place to the 
ignominy of selling it out of the family.   (That, as near as I can 
tell, is what was happening in Ruth.  Naomi and Ruth, having claimed 
Elimelech's property for their ketubot, were now purportedly looking for 
a buyer, and turned to the family to give them first refusal.)

By extension this also includes discharging other obligations, not to do 
with the family land, such as ones obligation to a woman whom a relative 
has left destitute, so that her state will not be a disgrace to the family.




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