Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism
Notes
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- The source of a husband’s right to inherit from his wife is debated at B.
BB 111 b – 113 a. Later commentators are divided as to the nature of that right, with
some arguing that it is biblical and others, including Maimonides, arguing that
it is rabbinic.
- Men married to sisters in a culture in which daughters do not ordinarily
i n her it may a lso be able to have a close relat ionsh ip because t hey have no sha red
economic expectations and therefore do not see each other as rivals. The prohi-
bition against marrying two sisters also ensures that these men will be less likely
to regard each other with jealousy or suspicion.
4. T. Ket. 1:; B. Ket. 51 a; B. BB 14 a – b. In these passages, the term “the
daughter of the wife” is used.
- Pasternak, Introduction to Kinship, 8.
4. Pasternak, Introduction to Kinship, 9.
- Pasternak, Introduction to Kinship, 9 – 41 ; Fox, Kinship and Marriage,
56 – 1.
- Unlike the other prohibitions in Lev. 18 , the one involving the wife’s sister
is specifically fixed in the wife’s lifetime. A man, according to Jewish law, is per-
mitted to marry his deceased wife’s sister.
- Tosafot to b. Yev. b s.v. bito.
- B. San. 6a.
4. Lev. 18 : 16 ; :1. The Talmud (B. Yev. 55 a) understands the prohibition of
L ev. 18 : 16 to apply after the husband’s death.
- This “problem” reflects a rabbinic reading of the Bible. It need not be a
problem when the Bible is read through the lens of contemporary scholarship.
See Weisberg, “Levirate Marriage and Halitza in the Mishnah,” 54 n. 3.
- Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael, BaHodesh ; Sifre Deuteronomy, Ki Tetze 33.
5. The Leviticus prohibition also applies when the couple divorces, regard-
less of whether there were children.
- Weisberg, “Levirate Marriage and Halitza in the Mishnah,” 54.
5. Y. Yev. 1 : 1 , b.
- Y. Yev. 1 : 1 , c.
- The Mishnah also regards levirate marriage as illicit when the widow is
discovered to be pregnant with the deceased’s child after the levirate union has
taken place. Levirate widows are required to wait three months before perform-
ing levirate marriage or halitza (M. Yev. 4 :1) to ensure that they are not pregnant.
M. Yev. 4 : 1 – dea ls w it h cases in which t he wa it ing per iod was inadequate or was
ignored. If the child is born viable, the halitza is retroactively invalid. If the levir
and the widow had married, the union is invalid and they are required to make
a sin offering.
- M. Yev. : 3.
- M. Yev 1 : 1.
5. In fact, the co-wives of those women are permitted should their husband
die, as we shall see in our discussion of M. Yev. 1 : 3.
- B. Yev. 3 b.
- B. Yev. 3 b.
6. M. Yev. 4 : 11.
- M. Yev. : 3.
6. M. Yev. 8 : 4 – 5 , T. Yev. : 5 distinguishes between a sterile woman, who does
not require halitza, and a barren or elderly woman, who may enter into a levirate
marriage or perform halitza. Si m i la rly, t he Mish na h d ist i ng u ishes bet ween va r i-
ous types of eunuchs. These distinctions suggest that the tannaim were willing
