Notes[ ]by at least one widow and one brother. If there is no brother, the widow is pre-
sumably treated like a “normal” widow (M. Yev. 15 :1).
. M. Yev. 4 : 5 ; 1: 6.
8. M. Yev. 4 : 5 – 6. B. Yev. 39 a – b speaks of “pushing” the eldest brother to enter
into levirate marriage or submit to halitza but does not explain whether such
urging can go beyond verbal encouragement.
9. According to Naomi Steinberg, the Bible also makes a distinction between
a widow with children and one without children, referring to the former as isha-
almana and the latter as eshet-hammet, the wife of the deceased. Steinberg ar-
gues that the latter is to some degree still her (dead) husband’s wife. See Stein-
berg, “Romancing the Widow: The Economic Distinctions Between the ’Alma ̄ na ̄ ,
the ’ I s ̆ s ̆ a ̆ - a l m a ̄ n a ̄ , and the ’ ̄E s ̆ e t - h a m m e ̄ t,” in J. Harold Ellens, Deborah L. Ellens,
Rolf P. Knierim, and Isaac Kalimi, eds., God’s Word for Our World (London: T. & T.
Clark International, 4), 3 – 343.
1. Judith Romney Wegner, Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the
Mishnah (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988 ), 9.
11. Wegner, Chattel or Person? 99 , 1 – 1 6.
1. Wegner, Chattel or Person? 1 9.
13. Judith Hauptman, Rereading the Rabbis (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,
1998 ), 4. Hauptman’s claim would be disputed by many scholars who see Roman
and Sasanian law as valuable for discussing rabbinic law and considering what
influenced it. See Elman, “Marriage and Marital Property,” – 6. Hauptman’s
objection to such comparisons most likely reflects her insistence that the rab-
bis did, in fact, improve the lot of Jewish women and her reluctance to consider
comparisons that suggest the rabbis ignored or rejected options that might have
been even more favorable to women.
14. Hauptman, Rereading the Rabbis, 4.
15. Hauptman, Rereading the Rabbis, 4.
16. In “Refusal of the Levirate Marriage: A Woman’s Rights,” Conservative
Judaism 5: 3 (Spring ), – 9, Adina M. Yoffie endorses Hauptman’s thesis
and suggests texts dealing with levirate marriage that she sees as supporting
Hauptman.
1. Weisberg, “Levirate Marriage and Halitza in the Mishnah,” 6.
18. Weisberg, “Levirate Marriage and Halitza in the Mishnah,” 68.
19. B. MQ b.
. M. BB 8 : 1 ; M. Ket. 4 :, 1.
1. The exception to the former rule is the wife’s sister, who is forbidden to the
man only in his wife’s lifetime.
. M. Yev. 4 :1.
3. This is in fact the case in many societies that practice levirate. Steinberg
suggests that it explains the use of the term eshet-hammet to describe a childless
widow. See Steinberg, “Romancing the Widow,” 338 – 34.
4. This argument is made by Wegner, Chattel or Person? 9. In My Wife I Called
“My House,” Labovitz cites several rabbinic sources in which the levirate widow
is compared to property that is jointly inherited by several brothers. See B. Sotah
43 b; Y. Yev. 1: 1 ; Y. Sotah : 5 ; and Y. Sotah 8 : 6.
5. M. Yev. 4 :.
6. M. Yev. : 5 speaks of “a son of any type, even a mamzer.” Sifre Deuteron-
omy 88 understands the word ben in Deut. 5: 5 broadly to include grandchil-
dren. Tannaitic sources do not require levirate marriage when the deceased left
daughters or granddaughters.