Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]consent. Their attempts to resolve this anomaly by “normalizing” levi-
rate marriage have an impact on the status of the levirate widow. She
becomes less a vehicle to provide her husband with posthumous heirs
and more a person entitled to make a decision about her future. Another
way the rabbis respond to the anomaly is to assert their own author-
ity, wresting control away from both the levir (by requiring ma’amar
and pressuring him to submit to halitza) and the yevama (by offering
their own solutions in situations in which she might exercise unseemly
power).
The relationship explored in these texts is that of the yevama and
the levir. There is little mention of the role of his or her family and their
interest in promoting either levirate or halitza. Nor do the rabbis con-
sider the relationship of the yevama to her deceased husband. While the
death of her husband has left her with a legal tie to his brother, there is
no indication that the yevama has or feels an obligation to provide the
deceased with an heir. Just as the levir is accorded the right to choose
levirate or halitza, the yevama is entitled to have a preference, even
though she has less power to act on her wishes than the levir. In fact,
the texts suggest rabbis’ willingness to assist the yevama in realizing her
choice. The claim of the deceased on his wife is minimized, allowing
the rabbis to contemplate her preferences just as they consider those of
her brother-in-law. Once again, concern for the living supersedes con-
cern for the dead.