[ ]From Wife to Widow and Back Againfor a rabbi’s decision to trick the levir into halitza, but the Yerushalmi
seems more hesitant than the Bavli to engage in such trickery:
a. What is “halitza performed under a false premise?”
b. Said Simeon ben Laqish: Whenever they say to him, “Release her
and she will be permitted to you later.”
c. Said R. Yohanan: Last night I was sitting and learning: “Whether
he intended [to perform halitza] and she did not, or she intended
[to perform halitza] and he did not, halitza is invalid until both
intend [to perform halitza].”
d. What is “halitza performed under a false premise?”
e. According to R. Yohanan: Whenever they say to him, “Release
her and she will give you one hundred maneh.”
f. R. Mana said: If he says, “[I am releasing her] on the condition
[that she gives me the money],” she must give him the money.
g. A case came before R. Huna and he followed R. Simeon ben
Laqish. When R. Yohanan heard, he disagreed; the other
retracted and made [the levir] do halitza a second time.
h. A case came before R. Hiyya bar Ba and he said to him, “My
son, this woman does not want to marry you through levirate
marriage.” {R. Hiyya led the levir to believe that if he submitted
to halitza, he could marry his sister-in-law afterward.} After he
did halitza, he said to him, “If Moses and Samuel were to come,
they would not permit her [to you].”
i. [Concerning Hiyya, the levir] recited the verse, “They are skilled
at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good” (Jer. 4:22).
The Yerushalmi includes the same dispute between Resh Laqish and
Rabbi Yohanan as to the proper way to deceive a levir whose sister-in-
law does not want to marr y him. In contrast to t he Bavli, which assumes
that the court is tricking the levir into halitza, the Yerushalmi considers
t wo possibi l it ies: t he cou r t may ment ion a pay ment a s pa r t of its t r icker y
or the levir may suggest it himself as a condition of his agreeing to hal-
itza. In the latter case, the money should be paid. The Bavli compares a
woman to a person in flight, but the Yerushalmi treats her like a person
who has entered into a contract with the levir and should be required to
comply with the agreements she makes.
Both the Bavli and the Yerushalmi relate a case in which Rabbi Hiy ya