[ ]Brothersbrother — but the reason for the union will actually have nothing to do
with the deceased. Such a union, argues Abba Saul, looks much like an
incestuous union between a man and his sister-in-law.
The acknowledgment that a levir’s motives for agreeing to a levirate
union might be “inappropriate,” that is, having much more to do with
his feelings for his sister-in-law (or hers for him) than his sense of duty
toward his brother, is voiced in two mishnayot in t he fif teent h chapter of
Yevamot. There we read:
If a woman and her husband travel abroad with their son, and she
returns and says, “My husband died and then my son died,” she is
believed. [If she said,] “My son died and then my husband died,” she
is not believed, but we are concerned about what she has said, and
she performs halitza rather than levirate....
A woman is not believed when she says, “My brother-in-law
died,” so that she can remarry, nor [is she believed when she says,]
“My sister died,” so she can marry [her sister’s husband]. A man is
not believed when he says, “My brother died,” so he can marry his
[brother’s] wife, nor [is he believed when he says], “My wife died,” so
he can marry her sister.^42The second of these mishnayot is cited at Bavli Yevamot a, where the
Gemara explains why a woman is not permitted to enter into a levirate
marriage on the strength of her own testimony to her husband’s death.
The Gemara states that there is concern that the woman may be lying
in order to marry her brother-in-law, whom she loves.^43 If the Bavli ac-
knowledges that a woman may be attracted to her brother-in-law and
eager to enter into a levirate union with him, it must also be aware of
the possibility that the brother-in-law is attracted to her. This would ex-
pla i n t he Mish na h’s reject ion of a ma n’s test i mony when t hat test i mony,
if accepted, would allow him to marry his sister-in-law. These discus-
sions express concern that family closeness may lead to inappropriate
attachments between in-laws. If brothers lived together or near each
other, there would have been ample opportunities for brothers-in-law
and sisters-in-law to spend time together and develop feelings toward
each other, positive or negative. The relationship between a brother-in-
law and sister-in-law may have been a particularly complex one when
the latter was married to a childless man. On one hand, the potential