Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]t ives by ma r r iage, t he women closely related to h is w i fe a re not a s “close”
to a man as his blood relatives; they are nonetheless his relatives.
The opening mishna of Yevamot underscores the complexity of
family relationships. Every individual in a family has different roles;
w it h i n h is i m med iate fa m i ly, a ma n may si mu lta neously be h is pa rent s’
child, his wife’s husband, his child’s parent, and his siblings’ brother.
The Mishnah assumes the possibility of marriage within an extended
family, such that a woman may be her husband’s niece and her father’s
sister-in-law; these marriages make levirate marriage complicated, if
not impossible.
Multiple marriages between members of two families result in indi-
viduals being classified in a number of ways. When one of these roles
mandates levirate marriage and another makes levirate marriage im-
possible, does one role take precedence over the other? Does the order in
which events — marriages and deaths — occur influence the possibility
of levirate marriage? These are the problems addressed at Bavli Yevamot
a. The Bavli considers a case in which two brothers are married to two
sisters. If one of the brothers dies, the sur viving brother cannot perform
levirate marriage, because he is forbidden to marry his wife’s sister. The
Bavli asks whether the commandment to perform levirate marriage
might supersede the prohibition against marrying one’s wife’s sister:
a. Granted [such supersession might be possible] when the
deceased had married [one sister] and then the surviving
[brother] married [the other sister], for since [the requirement
of levirate] supersedes the prohibition of a brother’s wife, it
should also supersede the prohibition of a wife’s sister. But when
the surviving [brother] married and then the [now] deceased
[brother] married, the prohibition of the wife’s sister preceded
[her status as his brother’s wife, and thus a potential partner in a
levirate marriage].
b. And even if the deceased married [first] — granted [levirate
might have been a possibility] when the [now] deceased [brother]
married and then died, and only then the surviving [brother]
married [the other sister], so that [the first sister, his widowed
sister-in-law] was available to him in the interim [before his
marriage to her sister], but when the deceased [brother] married,