Introduction[ xvii ]the perspective of the law, but he or she will not necessarily have obliga-
tions to other members of that group.
This work uses as its primary lens rabbinic discussions of levirate,
an institution that involves the union of a man and the widow of his
childless brother.^3 Under normal circumstances, a marriage marks the
beginning of a new family unit and/or the expansion or blending of ex-
isting families. Levirate, on the other hand, comes into play when a fam-
ily experiences the loss of a member. As such, it offers an opportunity
to study the family at a moment of breakdown and restructuring. And,
I will argue, it allows us to consider one response to the collapse of a
family, namely, an attempt to mend that which has been broken, recon-
stituting one part of a family by rearranging its members and realign-
ing their relationship to each other. However, as we shall see, the rab-
bis’ unique construct of levirate results in that institution’s creating an
entirely new family rather than re-forming the one broken by the hus-
band’s death. This rabbinic understanding of levirate supports my claim
that the central family unit in rabbinic Judaism is the nuclear family and
that an individual man or woman’s primary obligations are to an exist-
ing spouse rather than to the extended family, as represented here by a
deceased spouse or sibling.
The primary discussion of levirate in the Hebrew Bible highlights the
complexity of families in crisis:
When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no
son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married to a stranger,
outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall unite with her: he
shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty. The first son
that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother, that his name
may not be blotted out in Israel. But if the brother does not want to
marry his brother’s widow, his brother’s widow shall appear before
the elders in the gate and declare, “My husband’s brother refuses to
establish a name in Israel for his brother; he will not perform the
duty of a levir. The elders of his town shall then summon him and
talk to him. If he insists, saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his
brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull
the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and make this declaration:
Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s