Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]these discussions insist that the children of a levirate union are the legal
issue not of the deceased but of the levir.
The Mishnah never directly asserts that the child of a levirate union
is assig ned to t he lev i r. However, t he concer ns t he Mish na h voices about
uncertain paternity indicate the need to know whether the child the
yevama carries is that of her late husband or of the levir:
If a man releases his sister-in-law through halitza and she is
[subsequently] found to be pregnant and she gives birth — if the
child is viable, [the levir] is permitted [to marry] her relatives and
she is permitted [to marry] his relatives and she is not rendered
unfit for [marriage to a man who traces his lineage to] the
priesthood. If the child is not viable, [the levir] is forbidden [to
marry] her relatives and she is forbidden [to marry] his relatives
and she is rendered unfit for [marriage to a man who traces his
lineage to] the priesthood.
If he marries his sister-in-law [in a levirate union] and she is
found to be pregnant and she gives birth — if the child is viable, he
divorces her and they are liable [to bring] a sin-offering. If the child
is not viable, he may remain married.
If it is uncertain whether the child is a full-term child of the
former {i.e. the deceased} or the premature child of the latter {i.e.
the levir}, he divorces her; the child is legitimate and they are liable
[to bring] a guilt offering.^16
In the first case, the yevama realizes she is pregnant, presumably
by her late husband, only after halitza has occurred. The birth of a vi-
able child retroactively negates the halitza, and the relationship be-
tween the levir and the yevama reverts to a normal brother-in-law and
sister-in-law relationship; they are forbidden to each other but can
marry each other’s relatives. If a woman discovers she is pregnant af-
ter contracting a levirate union and that pregnancy is assumed to be
the result of intercourse with her first husband, the union must be dis-
solved upon the birth of a viable child. The birth of the child renders
the levirate union retroactively unnecessary and illicit. Finally, if the
paternity of the child is uncertain, presumably because the levirate
union took place close to the husband’s death and the pregnancy be-
come evident soon after, the levirate union is dissolved and the couple