''Goel'' (), in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

, is a person who, as the nearest relative of someone, is charged with the duty of restoring that person's rights and avenging wrongs done to him or her. One duty of the ''goel'' was to redeem (purchase back) a relative who had been sold into slavery. Another was to avenge the death of a relative who had been wrongly killed; one carrying out this vengeance was known as the ''goel hadam'', commonly translated to English as "avenger of blood." The term ''goel'' is also used for other forms of redemption. In the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

, God is called the redeemer of Israel, as God redeems his people from captivity; the context shows that the redemption also involves moving on to something greater.

Duties of the goel

The obligations of the goel include the duty to redeem the relative from

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

if the latter had been obliged to sell himself into slavery (); to repurchase the property of a relative who had had to sell it because of poverty; to avenge the blood of his relative; to marry his brother's widow to have a son for his brother, in the case that the brother had no son to pass on his name (); and to receive the restitution if the injured relative had died (). regulates the duties of the ''goel hadam''. The congregation must judge the case before it puts a murderer in the hands of a ''goel''. More than one witness is needed for conviction. In case of accidental manslaughter, the slayer can save his life by fleeing to a city of refuge and staying there until the death of the

High Priest of Israel In Judaism, the High Priest of Israel (, lit. ‘great priest’; Aramaic: ''Kahana Rabba'') was the head of the Israelite priesthood. He played a unique role in the worship conducted in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, ...

. Ransom is not accepted for murder. Revenge cannot be taken on the offender's children or parents (). gives the order in which the nearest relative is considered the ''goel'' in the case of redeeming a slave: brother, uncle, male cousin and then other relatives. The same order was probably observed in the other cases, except in marrying a sister-in-law.

The blood-avenger in rabbinic tradition

Jewish tradition has also attributed the blood avenger role in modern times to a

prosecuting attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

, who pleads on behalf of the victim in the case against the criminal. Thus, he is responsible for bringing the offender to court, finding evidence against him, presenting the case, and collecting damages from the offender. His task is also to argue against any attempts to pardon the sinner. It is presumed that the court would be the party who would avenge the wrongful death via the imposition of the death penalty, though Deuteronomy 13:9 suggests that the witness to an offence and afterward the whole of the people would carry out the penalty of death by stoning.Deuteronomy 13:

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References

External links

*Donald A. Leggett
The Levirate and Goel Institutions in the Old Testament With Special Attention to the Book of Ruth
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081114115852/http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/08-Ruth/Texts/Books/Leggett-GoelRuth/Leggett-GoelRuth.pdf , date=2008-11-14 Doctoral dissertation at the Free University in Amsterdam. Cherry Hill, N.J. 1974, Mack Publishing Company. Jewish courts and civil law Book of Ruth

Duties of the goel

The blood-avenger in rabbinic tradition

See also

References

External links