[ ]Paternity and Continuityimagine conception — and perhaps paternity — without sexual inter-
course, but they do not consider the possibility of paternity by proxy.^61
The belief that the requirement to procreate ends with an individu-
al’s death is one factor that may explain the rabbis’ comfort with assign-
ing the paternity of levirate children to the levir. Another can be found
in the rabbis’ overall construct of paternity. The determination of pa-
ternity is important to the rabbis, and the assignment of paternity has
significant legal ramifications. The rabbis’ requirement that all widows,
includ ing w idows subject to lev irate, wa it t h ree mont hs before rema r r y-
ing is intended to ensure that a woman’s child can be clearly assigned to
her late husband or her new husband.^62 Uncertainty about paternity can
seriously disadvantage a child, placing him in a liminal state in which
he may incur the responsibilities of being someone’s son without any
of the benefits.^63 Questionable paternity can also impair an individual’s
marriage prospects.^64
In order to protect children against the stigma of illegitimacy, the rab-
bis presume that a woman’s husband is the father of her children.^65 This
presumption may inform the assignment of the children of a levirate
union to the levir. Because rabbinic law treats a levirate union as mar-
riage, it must also treat the children of that union as the legal offspring
of their mother’s husband. A woman cannot be simultaneously married
to two husbands. Though a childless man’s death places an obligation
on his widow and brother, he does not retain rights over his widow’s re-
productive function.
Rabbinic literature evinces anxiety about both paternity and repro-
duction, specifically the ability of men (and especially rabbis) to suc-
cessfully reproduce themselves, that is, to father sons who will match
them in scholarship and piety.^66 This anxiety is discussed at length in
the seventh chapter of Daniel Boyarin’s Carnal Israel. Without repeat-
ing Boyarin’s careful analysis of Bavli Baba Metzia b – a, I want to
underscore several of his arguments. Boyarin finds in the sugya strong
indications that the rabbis were concerned about their ability to be cer-
tain of the paternity of their wives’ children.^67 This concern is echoed
in other stories in the Bavli, including one in which a man overhears
his wife claiming that only one of her ten sons is actually his; the man’s
anxiety is heightened by his uncertainty as to which son is legitimate.^68