Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]renders it useless as a strategy of continuity. Since the rabbis assign the
paternity of the children of levirate to the levir, the deceased remains
childless. The levir’s inheritance of his brother’s property would be an
acceptable solution in a society that privileged lateral inheritance, but
it is clearly a less than ideal solution in one that prefers lineal transmis-
sion of property.
I now wish to explore the rabbis’ thinking about heirship more
broadly. Having eliminated levirate as an avenue by which a childless
man could obtain an heir, do the rabbis offer alternative strategies of
continuity? Is individual continuity a value promoted by the rabbis and,
if so, what vehicles do they offer to support men seeking offspring or
legally recognized heirs? Other cultures in the ancient Mediterranean
and Near East employed strategies of continuity that could, in theory,
have been adopted (and adapted) by the rabbis. The degree to which the
rabbis rejected these strategies and considered others may offer some
insight into their understanding of the family, specifically the desire of
the family to reproduce and maintain itself and the value of the pres-
ervation of individual lineages and families to the broader community
of Israel.
Goody suggests that one avenue open to a man seeking to maximize
his likelihood of obtaining an heir is “adding wives.”^32 There are three
ways to add wives: polygyny, concubinage, or divorce of a barren wife
followed by remarriage to a potentially fertile woman. Rabbinic sources
in fact suggest marriage to a second wife or divorce of a barren wife after
ten years of marriage; the latter is recommended with the assumption
that the husband will find a new wife who might bear children. As Goody
notes, these strategies have drawbacks. Some families are reluctant to
place their daughters into a situation involving multiple wives. Dissolv-
ing a marriage may have serious financial consequences for a man in
the event that a dowry must be returned. While rabbinic texts allow for
polygyny, they also recognize the tensions it may place on family rela-
tionships. The rabbis were aware that payment of a woman’s marriage
set t lement cou ld ma ke d ivorce a n u nat t ract ive opt ion for men.^33 Finally,
some rabbinic stories acknowledge that a husband may be reluctant to
end a childless marriage owing to the affection he has for his wife.^34 So
while adding wives is a logical mechanism for obtaining an heir, it may
not always be a practical one.