[ ]Mapping the FamilyThis passage proposes a distinction between descendants and ances-
tors, and between direct descendants and the descendants of individu-
als who married into a family. Rabbi Hanin allows for no cutoff point,
forbidding to Ego all of his female ancestors, while Bar Qappara limits
the extent of the prohibition to great-grandparents. Rav extends the pro-
hibition to all of Ego’s direct descendants, but acknowledges that the
prohibition against sexual relations with a daughter-in-law does not
apply to her descendants by a man other than Ego’s son. Such a prohi-
bition is too drastic, as it would create a kinship web that might effec-
tively make marriage impossible, as seen by the hyperbolic example of
Abraham and Sarah, the “parents” of the Jewish people. Even with some
cutoffs, the discussions in the second chapter of Yerushalmi and Bavli
Yevamot offer very broad definitions of family, extending prohibitions
against sexual contact to at least three generations of ancestors and in-
finite generations of descendants.
Conclusions
Biblical texts that deal with levirate marriage focus on the obligations
of one member of a family, the levir, to another, his deceased brother.
There is also an emphasis on obligations to family continuity through
preservation of name and property. This obligation naturally rests on
men, who have both the power and, at least in theory, the greatest stake
in continuing the family line, and emphasizes men’s duties toward male
kin. The role played by Tamar and Naomi, and to a lesser extent Ruth,
in promoting the survival of their late husbands’ names, suggests that
women were seen as essential partners in promoting family continu-
ity. In patrilineal societies, it is wives from outside the patrilineage who
become the vehicles for transmission of patrimony,^121 and this factor is
perhaps acknowledged through the advocacy of Tamar and Ruth, whose
outsider status is underscored in Genesis and the Book of Ruth.
Discussions of kinship structure in rabbinic texts indicate that fam-
ily connections generate obligations and duties as well as restrict sexual
relations between family members. An individual mourns for his close
kin and supports them when they mourn. Certain rules and restrictions
are grounded in the assumption that a person naturally favors his kin. A
man cannot serve as a judge or witness in a case involving family mem-
bers, because he cannot or will not be seen as impartial or unbiased. A