Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]law’s wife. While concerned with their own authority over the yevama
and the process of resolving the levirate bond, the rabbis display a lack
of concern about the widow’s connection to the deceased or his family.
The rabbinic construct of levirate thus testifies to the weakening of the
extended family’s control over the individual, in this case the levirate
w idow.
Almana or Yeva ma? Determining Eligibility
for Levirate and Halitza
Ordinarily, the death of a spouse ends marriage as understood by the
rabbis, and many of the links between the surviving spouse and his or
her partner’s family are severed as well. A surviving spouse is expected
to mourn the death of a husband or wife.^19 A husband inherits his late
wife’s property; a wife may collect her marriage settlement from her
husband’s estate.^20 Certain restrictions remain on the sur v iv ing partner
with regard to the deceased spouse’s family; a man may not marry his
deceased wife’s immediate relatives, while a woman may not marry her
husband’s close kin.^21 A woman is expected to wait three months before
remarrying to avoid any confusion as to the paternity of her offspring,
but after that period she may do as she chooses.^22
The death of a childless man has very different consequences for his
widow. Her ties to her husband, or to his family, are not severed by his
death. In fact, the husband’s death creates a new bond, a bond between
his wife and his brother(s). That bond, known as ziqqa, has powerful le-
gal consequences for both parties, but especially for the woman. One
might argue that she is, on some level, still her husband’s wife and that
her brother-in-law now takes the place of the deceased.^23 One could ar-
gue that the levirate widow is inherited, together with her husband’s
property, by his brother(s).^24 However one explains the levirate bond, it
forms a powerful and permanent connection between the levir and his
sister-in-law. Even if the couple undergoes the halitza ritual, dissolving
the levirate bond, they have the status of a divorced couple; they are for-
bidden to marry each other’s relatives.^25
When is a widow regarded as a yevama or shomeret yavam, a woman
who must submit to levirate marriage or halitza? First, her husband
must have died without children (or grandchildren) by her or any other
woman.^26 Her husband must also have a surviving brother, a brother