[ ]BrothersThe focus on the levir’s right to choose his course of action also re-
veals a shift in the understanding of the levirate obligation. The To-
rah presents levirate as the fulfillment of a man’s duty to his deceased
brother. Failure to marry one’s sister-in-law and provide children
for one’s brother is seen as abandonment of one’s obligation to one’s
brother. It might also be constructed as the obligation of a man toward
his widowed, childless sister-in-law, although that emphasis is absent
from Deuteronomy and Genesis . In contrast, rabbinic literature
describes levirate as a religious obligation rather than a familial duty.
As a result, resolution of the levirate obligation or bond, through either
levirate marriage or halitza, allows the levir to fulfill his obligation
to the tradition. Halitza, which in Deuteronomy symbolizes a failure
to honor one’s obligations, serves for the rabbis as an appropriate re-
sponse to a religious obligation. In conceiving of levirate as a general
religious duty rather than a commitment to the deceased or to the ex-
tended patrilineage, the rabbis deemphasize fraternal and familial ob-
ligations. In doing so, the rabbis allow the individual to satisfy his own
desires — to marry or not marry his childless brother’s widow — while
satisfying their understanding of his religious obligations.
Brothers in the Hebrew Bible
Family relationships are central to the Hebrew Bible. The nation of Is-
rael has its origins as the family of the patriarch Jacob; the emphasis
on the familial cohesiveness of Israel is emphasized by the marriages of
the three patriarchs to women within their extended family.^1 Wit h in t he
context of “nation as family,” brothers can be individuals who share a
father and mother, or they can be complete strangers who affiliate with
the nation Israel. Our focus, for the purpose of discussing levirate mar-
riage and the family, is on the former, but it is worth reviewing the ways
in which the word “brother” is understood in biblical texts.
The word “brother” is used in several ways in the Hebrew Bible. The
word can denote a fraternal relationship between two men with the
same father and/or mother. Biblical Hebrew makes no linguistic dis-
tinction between full brothers (brothers who share two parents) and
half-brothers (brothers who share only one parent). The second use of
the word is broader, indicating kinship. Thus Abraham describes his