Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism

Levirate Marriage and the Family

[  ]

according to tannaitic midrash were “spoken [by God] at the same mo-
ment.” This overlapping enunciation, according to the rabbis, serves as
an assertion that while the laws appear to be contradictory, they are in
fact complementary.^49 The rabbis resolve this contradiction by assign-
ing the laws to two distinct situations: the laws of Leviticus apply when
the deceased brother left children, whereas the law of Deuteronomy ap-
plies when the deceased had no children.^50 The midrash mentions the
Leviticus prohibition before the commandment of levirate marriage;
although this order reflects the order of the laws in the Bible, we might
also understand this to be an acknowledgment that the incest prohi-
bition in Leviticus is primary, but is occasionally superseded by or set
aside for levirate marriage. In other words, there are times when a man
may be encouraged to enter into a licit (and divinely sanctioned) “inces-
tuous” relationship!^51
T he awa reness t hat lev i rate is a t y pe of sa nct ioned i ncest is ev ident i n
many discussions outside of the tannaitic midrash just mentioned. The
Yerushalmi’s discussion of Mishnah Yevamot : considers the possibil-
ity that the obligation of levirate might override not only the prohibition
against the brother’s wife but a broader range of incest prohibitions:

It is written, “All who do any of these abhorrent practices shall

be cut off ” (Lev. 18:29). Was not the brother’s wife included in

these prohibited relations? But she is removed from the category

through [the obligation of] levirate. Is it possible that the remaining

prohibited relations should be removed from the category through

[the obligation of] levirate?^52

The same question is raised later in the discussion. After drawing an
analogy between the wife’s sister and other prohibited relatives, the
Yerushalmi asks:

Rather than comparing all [other] prohibited relations to the

wife’s sister and forbidding [levirate with these relations], why not

compare them to the brother’s wife and permit [levirate with these

relations]? 53

In both cases, the Yerushalmi offers exegesis that distinguishes between
licit levirate, marriage between a man and his deceased brother’s widow
when she is not forbidden on other grounds, and illicit levirate with a