Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism

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Foreword

a nd ch i ld. Instead, her goa l is to reflect on what ta kes precedence i n Jew-
ish decision-making. First, the nuclear family takes precedence over the
extended family—an unusual argument to emerge from a study of how
widows are expected to marr y their brothers-in-law if there are no male
heirs. Second, the individual takes precedence over any group. As she
puts it, “the rabbis emphasize... their concern for individual men and
women, whose marriage choices the rabbis defend against the claims of
the deceased and the extended family” (emphasis added).
moreover, the living take precedence over the dead. The freedom to
choose — at least for the men — reigns supreme. But in the man’s free-
dom to choose lies the kernel of the woman’s options as well, for if the
living brother does not choose her, then she is not bound to him and can
make a new way for herself.
Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism joins ma ny ot her
books in the HBI Series on Jewish women that offer new readings of an-
cient texts. These include Anne Lapidus Lerner’s Eternally Eve: Images
of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry; rahel r.
wa s s er f a l l’s Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law;
elizabeth wyner mark’s The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives
on an Ancient Jewish Rite; rochelle L. millen’s Women, Birth, and Death
in Jewish Law and Practice; Judith r. Baskin’s Midrashic Women: Forma-
tions of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature and Tamar ross’s Expanding
the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism.
It is my sincere hope that, singly and together, these books are deep-
ening our understanding of the gendered meaning of Jewish texts and
practices.

Shulamit reinharz
Brandeis University
november 2008