[ ]From Wife to Widow and Back Againof the woman. The levirate widow is at the mercy of her husband’s broth-
ers, who can decide to marry her or release her at any point after her
husband’s death.^84
What is striking in reading Mishnah Yevamot is that the power that
a levirate widow does have is subversive. She does not have the power
of other widows, the power to choose a husband. Instead, the Mishnah
imagines the yevama exercising power in unusual ways, making a vow
not to benefit from her brother-in-law or claiming that her brother-in-
law has failed to consummate their union. The halitza ritual highlights
the unusual ability of the levirate widow; in a ritual that is necessitated
by the levir’s decision not to perform levirate marriage, the yevama
removes her brother-in-law’s shoe, spits at him, and denounces him.
Each of the acts that comprise halitza is, on some level, embarrassing
for the levir; the yevama becomes the instrument of his humiliation.
In all three instances — vow, claim, or halitza — t h e yevama is a vocal
witness to her brother-in-law’s inadequacy or lack of family feeling.
Her voice — whether declaring her brother-in-law’s abandonment of
his responsibilities or complaining that he has not consummated their
union — is the voice of protest against her brother-in-law’s decision re-
garding levirate.
One can imagine that the voice of the yevama as described in the
Mishnah was problematic for the rabbis. We can surmise that the Tosef-
ta’s insistence that the yevama’s consent was required for the declara-
tion that initiates levirate marriage represents the sages’ attempt to in-
troduce a more acceptable way for the yevama to indicate her interest or
lack thereof in a levirate union. The Bavli’s response indicates another
approach to the out-of-control yevama (or, rather, the yevama in con-
trol). Faced with a woman who attempts to exercise the role assigned her
by the law or to use the law to her own end, the sages assert their role in
resolving levirate bonds. The sages’ response to certain situations rep-
resents their insistence that they, not individual women, are the guard-
ians of the law.^85
The Mishnah describes the woman as the active party in the halitza
ritual. That description is built on Deuteronomy a nd is not cha l lenged
by the rabbis. The degree to which the sages assign the woman the ac-
tive role in halitza, while restricting the levir to the passive role, is illus-
trated in an aggadic passage at Bavli Yevamot b: