[ ]BrothersLater in the Book of Ruth, we learn that redemption of property can
be carried out by male kin with a more distant connection to the de-
ceased. Boaz is referred to as a “kinsman of Elimelech.”^16 Boaz himself
claims that the unnamed kinsman who will later refuse to redeem the
property and take Ruth as his wife is “even closer than” he himself is.^17
Clearly, Boaz and the unnamed kinsman could be at best brothers or
nephews of Elimelech, leading some scholars to claim that the Book of
Ruth allows any male relative close enough to redeem property to fulfill
the levirate obligation.^18
All of these approaches can be seen in other cultures. Some restrict
levirate to the deceased’s brothers, with some even specifying that only
certain brothers can fulfill this obligation; others assign responsibility
for t he deceased’s w idow to some ot her ma n w it h i n t he pat r i l i neage.^19 At
least one ancient Near Eastern source designates the deceased’s father
as an acceptable husband for his childless son’s widow.^20
Sources from the Second Temple period indicate that ancient Jews
understood the levirate obligation to fall solely on the brothers of the
deceased; other male relatives had no such obligation. These sources,
however, give no indication of whether the brother who is expected to
enter into a levirate union with his sister-in-law must be a full brother
of the deceased. Nor is there any specification that the brothers must
share a common father. The task of defining “brother” with regard to
levirate is left to the early rabbis. They begin with the assumption that
only a biological brother, a man who shares a parent or two parents with
the deceased, is eligible to fulfill the levirate obligation. A widow whose
husband left neither children nor brothers is not a levirate widow; she is
free to marry outside her husband’s patrilineage, and a marriage within
the patrilineage would not constitute levirate.
The tannaim a lso conclude that while the lev ir must be a brother, not
every brother can be a levir. Only a brother who shares a father with the
deceased is called on to perform levirate marriage; maternal brothers
are excluded from the obligation.^21 Even a paternal brother may be ex-
cluded from lev irate if his mother was a slave or a non-Jew.^22 The Tosefta
raises the question “May a mamzer (a child born to a forbidden union)
perform levirate marriage or halitza?” The question is answered in the
affirmative by the Bavli, although a marriage between a legitimate Isra-
elite woman and a male mamzer would in fact be forbidden.^23 Mishnah