[ ]From Wife to Widow and Back Againnegative or positive, they might lead her to act thoughtlessly or in a cal-
culating way.
T h i s d i s c u s sion, toget her w it h t he one s ment ione d e a r l ier, of fer s s ome
insight into the rabbis’ thoughts about a woman’s inclinations regarding
levirate marriage. Despite its assumption that a woman would rather be
married than single, the Bavli acknowledges that a yevama might not
want to marry her brother-in-law if he was unsuitable by virtue of his
age or for some other reason. A woman might be reluctant to marr y a le-
v i r whose pr i ma r y mot ivat ion for ma r r iage was money. A woma n wou ld,
if possible, avoid marrying a man she already disliked.
The Hebrew Bible, which portrays women as eager to marry their de-
ceased husbands’ kin, may have seen levirate as a childless widow’s best
option. Rabbinic literature, on the other hand, acknowledges, some-
times explicitly, sometimes implicitly, that widows have options other
than levirate.
The Levirate Widow and the Family
The widow of a childless man finds herself in a no-man’s-land with re-
gard to family. Upon marriage, a woman leaves her parents’ home and
enters t he home of her husba nd. W h i le she ma i nta i ns con nect ions to her
family of origin, retaining her inheritance rights and enjoying the right
to visit her parents’ home, she becomes part of her husband’s family,
with the legal restrictions and rights that come with marriage.^99 Some
of these rights and obligations end with the death of her husband, and
wh i le she ca n in t heor y ret u r n to her pa rents’ home, such a ret u r n m ig ht
be problematic; her parents might be dead, and even if her father is liv-
ing, the position of an “emancipated daughter” in the parental home
could be awkward. Her presence in the household of her late husband
might also be problematic; her husband’s family may view her as a drain
on the resources of the family or a reminder of their son’s death and
childlessness.
The Hebrew Bible hints at the involvement of a childless man’s parents
in determining the fate of his widow. It is Judah, not his sons, who first
promotes and then delays Tamar’s marriage to her husband’s brother.
It is Naomi who arranges for Ruth to marry into the extended family of
her deceased husband. Rabbinic sources offer little information about
parental involvement in the decision to submit to halitza or enter into a