Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]is equally plausible to imagine the family described in the Mishnah al-
lowing for each adult married man to be a householder rather than a
resident in his father’s home. Laws dealing with married women, for in-
stance, locate those women primarily in their husbands’ homes, not in
the homes of their fathers-in-law. Mishnah Ketubot speaks of transfer-
ring a bride from her father’s house to that of her husband.^3 A married
woman’s household responsibilities, as described in Mishnah Ketubot
:, imagine the married woman being responsible for the primary tasks
of her household; though she may share those tasks with female ser-
vants, there is no indication that mothers-in-law and their daughters-in-
law worked together in a single household. When considering who may
slaug hter t he Pa ssover of fer i ng on beha l f of a ma r r ied woma n, t he Mish-
nah places the woman in her husband’s home or her father’s house for
a festival visit; it does not consider the possibility that a woman — and
her husband — would be part of his father’s household.^4 The phrase “in
her father-in-law’s house” occurs approximately ten times in the Bavli,
but not at all in the Mishnah. In most of those talmudic discussions, the
woma n refer red to is a br ide, sug gest i ng t hat t he wedd i ng may have been
held in the home of the husband’s father or that the couple might have
resided with the husband’s family in the early years of their marriage. In
Bavli Yevamot a – b and Sotah b, the Bavli considers the situation of
“a woman awaiting levirate whose brother-in-law has intercourse with
her in the house of her father-in-law.” This could be used as evidence
that the couple lived in the parental home before the husband’s death,
but the Bavli’s assumption might be that a childless widow could reside
with her in-laws while awaiting her brother-in-law’s decision regarding
levirate.
The Mishnah considers situations in which adult sons live off the
same alley way as their father and eat Sabbath meals in his home.^5 T hese
scenarios may reflect a modified form of patrilocal residence in which
adult sons remain in close proximity to the parental home but establish
independent residence. Extended family residence can strain relations
between parents and adult sons, insofar as such residence requires an
acceptance of the authority of the senior male over his sons and their
families.^6 Rabbinic law, however, insists that a father has no legal au-
thority over his adult sons. A father cannot claim an object found by an
adult child, nor can he include his adult sons in certain ritual acts with-