Notes[ 3 ]sexual intercourse will be preceded by ma’amar, a declaration that requires the
woman’s consent, seeks to transform levirate marriage into a mutually consen-
sual union.
1. For discussions of urbanization in Roman Palestine, see Lee Levine, The
Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary of America, 1989 ), 5 – 4, and Seth Schwartz, Imperialism and
Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E to 640 C.E. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1), chs. 4 and 5.
11. For a discussion of agriculture in Palestine after ce, see Seth Schwartz,
“Political, Social, and Economic Life in the Land of Israel, 66 – c .35,” in Steven
Katz, ed., The Cambridge History of Judaism (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 6), 4 : 38 – 43.
1. Davies, “Inheritance Rights, Part ,” 64 – 65.
13. B. BB 119 b.
14. This tradition is preserved even in the Second Temple period. Tobit 6 : 13
holds men with no sons liable to marr y their daughters to their kinsmen on pen-
alty of death “according to the law of the Book of Moses.”
15. Elman, “Marriage and Marital Property,” 59.
16. B. BB 1 a; Sifre Deuteronomy 33.
1. Sivertsev, Households, Sects and the Origins of Rabbinic Judaism, 199 – ,
11.
18. Rabbinic discussions of marriage and divorce contain statements strongly
promoting rabbinic oversight of these arrangements. These statements include
“Anyone who betroths does so with the consent of the rabbis and [therefore] the
rabbis may annul his betrothal” (B. Git. 33 a) and “Anyone who is not versed in
the nature of divorce and betrothal should not busy himself with them” (B. Git.
3b).
19. M. Qid., ch. 4.
. Richard Kalmin’s discussion of rabbinic concerns about genealog y sug-
gest that Babylonian rabbis also used their knowledge of genealog y to promote
their own interests and cast aspersions on their opponents. See Kalmin, The Sage
in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity (London: Routledge, 1999 ), ch. .
1. Jeffrey Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud ( Ba lt i more: Joh n s
Hopkins University Press, 3), ch. 6 , and Boyarin, Carnal Israel, ch. 5.
. Boyarin, Carnal Israel, ch. .
3. B. Ket. 6b – 63 a; B. Ned. 5a.
4. Avot deRabbi Nathan, Nusah A, ch. 6 , and Nusah B, ch. 13.
5. It is also worth noting that there are laws that privilege the teacher – student
relationship over the father – child relationship, instructing individuals to fulfill
the needs of the teacher before those of the father because “the father brought
him into this world but the teacher brings him into the world-to-come.”
6. Sivertsev, Households, Sects and the Origins of Rabbinic Judaism, 1 – 13 ; see
also Blenkinsopp, “The Family in First Temple Israel,” 85 – 88.
. Sivertsev, Households, Sects and the Origins of Rabbinic Judaism, – 4.