Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism
Notes
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- Ps. 133 : 1.
- Num. 1: 1. For an extended discussion of fraternal relationships in the He-
brew Bible, see Greenspahn, When Brothers Dwell Together, and Steinmetz, From
Father to Son.
1. M. Peah 3 : 5.
- M. Betsa 5 : 3.
1. M. Eruv. 6 :.
- M. San. 3 : 4.
- M. Ket. :1.
- For this reading of Gen. 38 , see Steinmetz, From Father to Son, 11 – 1.
- Ruth : 1.
1. Ruth 3 :1.
- Thompson and Thompson, “Some Legal Problems in the Book of Ruth,”
9.
- Kuper, “Kinship Among the Swazi,” 9; Schapera, “Kinship and Marriage
Among the Tswana,” 153.
. Belkin, “Levirate and Agnate Marriage,” 8; Thompson and Thompson,
“Some Legal Problems in the Book of Ruth,” 94 – 95.
1. T. Yev. 11 :; Sifre Deuteronomy 88.
. M. Yev. : 5.
3. B. Yev. a – b. The Mishnah twice prohibits an Israelite yevama to her
brother-in-law who is a mamzer (M. Yev. : 4 , 9 : 1 ); the bond inferred from M. Yev.
: 5 is thus understood to be a requirement to perform halitza. Unlike a child by
a slave woman or a non-Jewish woman, a mamzer is recognized as his father’s
son.
4. B. Yev. 9b argues that brothers who converted together with their mother
are not forbidden to marry each other’s wives, but are not included in the laws
of levirate and halitza. Because they are not legally considered brothers, their
widows would be free to remarry without levirate or halitza.
5. M. Yev. : 1 – ; Sifre Deuteronomy 88.
6. B. Yev. 1b. W hile a man’s heirs may be male members of his patrilineage
other than his son, those individuals have no standing when there is a surviving
child. Thus while they may inherit from him, they do not inherit “together” with
his son.
. Rabbinic law does not allow a fetus to acquire property. Thus a child born
after his brother’s death would not be one of his brother’s heirs.
8. See Chapter 6.
9. M. Yev. : 8 ; 4 : 5.
3. Greenspahn, When Brothers Dwell Together, 5 – 53 , 1 4.
- M. Yev. 3 : – 3 et al.
3. M. Yev. 4 :1.
- M. Yev. 3 :.
- M. Yev. 4 : 6.
- Gen. 38 : 9.
- Some resista nce to a ssig n i ng pater n it y away f rom t he biolog ica l fat her ca n
be seen in the genealogies of the Hebrew Bible. Tamar’s sons are described in
genealogies as Judah’s sons, and Ruth’s son is described as the son of Boaz, not
of Mahlon. See Dvora Weisberg, “The Widow of Our Discontent: Levirate Mar-
riage in the Bible and Ancient Israel,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
8: 4 (4), 4.
3. In some societies, this responsibility might fall on the widow.
