Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism

Levirate Marriage and the Family

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connection {that is, that one’s descent is determined by one’s father,

not one’s mother}, but with the mother’s sister, it is not the case.^83

Further into the discussion, the Bavli cites the use of the word mishpaha
in Leviticus : a nd c om ment s t h at “t he f a m i l y (mishpaha) of t he f at her
is called ‘family’ but the family of the mother is not called ‘family.’ ”
What are we to make of the Bavli’s assertion that one is “connected”
to one’s father’s family of origin but not to one’s mother’s family in view
of the prohibitions against sexual relations with maternal relatives and
other laws that recognize maternal connections as relatives? Perhaps
the Bavli distinguishes between lineage or descent, on one hand, and
family, on the other. Legally, a child belongs to the lineage of his father.
His r ig hts of i n her ita nce a re der ived f rom t hat con nect ion.^84 At t he sa me
time, the notion of family transcends lineage, and an individual under-
stands his mother’s kin to be his relatives as well.^85 This corresponds to
the anthropological understanding of “kindred,” a concept that is re-
lated to but distinct from descent. Pasternak explains:

A kindred is a group of individuals all of whom have a relative

in common. A single Ego constitutes the group referent and

all relationships are traced to him through either males or

females.... All members of a kindred are considered related to

the referent Ego, but not necessarily to each other.^86

This construct allows us to understand the family structure described
by the rabbis. Individuals, at least those born of legal unions, trace their
descent through their fathers, as Shaye Cohen asserts. The individual
is identified as the “son of” or “daughter of” his or her father. The term
mishpaha is understood to refer to one’s patrilineage or kinship group.
At the same time, each individual stands at the center of a kinship web
that includes individuals related to him or her through both parents.
Ego and the individuals in Ego’s kindred have certain obligations to
each other and are subject to rules about their conduct, but some of the
individuals in that kindred may have no obligations to each other. Ego,
for instance, cannot testify in a court case involving his first cousins on
his father’s or mother’s side of the family, but his paternal and maternal
cousins may be able to testify against each other. A man or woman may
trace descent only through the paternal line but recognize many indi-