Notes[ 1 ]
B. Yev. 4a.
M. Yev. 4 :.
4. M. Yev. 4 : 11.
B. Yev. 39 b.
4. M. Yev. 15 : 8 ; 15 :1.
The Gemara acknowledges that dislike of a prospective levir might influ-
ence the yevama’s investigation into the circumstances of her husband’s death
as well.
See Kuper, “Kinship Among the Swazi,” 1 9.
See M. Yev. 15 : 4. Both a woman’s husband’s sister and her husband’s broth-
er’s wife are assumed to be hostile to her, as is her co-wife.
See Ahroni, “The Levirate and Human Rights,” 1 – 3; Belkin, “Levirate
and Agnate Marriage,” 38 – 39; Ilan, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine,
15 – 155 ; and Satlow, Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, 186 – 189.
4. W hile levirate is practiced among Jews only when the deceased left no is-
sue, many societies practice it even when the deceased left children.
M. Yev. : 3 , et al.
The Mishnah regards spitting on a person as a humiliating act (M. BQ
8 : 6 ).
5. B. Yev. 1 1b. Y. Yev. 1: 6 (1d) echoes the Bavli but includes the widow in the
conversation, implying that she has a voice in the decision.
M. Yev. 4 : 4.
5. B. Yev. 39 a.
B. Yev. 39 a.
B. Yev. 111 b – 11 a. The awareness of a woman and her brother-in-law that
they are, at the same time, forbidden to each other and potential sexual partners
in the event that the woman’s husband dies without offspring can create tension
between brothers-in-law and sisters-in law, or it can lead to or justif y sexual at-
traction. See Wendy Doniger, “Begetting on the Margin: Adultery and Surrogate
Pseudomarriage in Hinduism,” in Harlan and Courtright, eds., From the Mar-
gins, 19 – 18; and Kuper, “Kinship Among the Swazi,” 1 9.
M. Yev. 13 :1.
From Wife to Widow and Back Again (pp. 13 – 166 )
- M. Ket. 4 :1.
. The power of a widow under rabbinic law was considerably less than that
accorded to some widows under Roman and Sasanian law. An Iranian widow
could inherit a portion of her husband’s estate and could be his designated suc-
cessor in the absence of a son. See Yaakov Elman, “Marriage and Marital Prop-
erty in Rabbinic and Sasanian Law,” in Catherine Hezser, ed., Rabbinic Law in
Its Roman and Near Eastern Context (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 3), 31 – 3 ,
58 – 59. A Roman wife who formally became part of her husband’s family upon
marriage could inherit with his children; a wife who remained part of her natal
family was not one of her husband’s heirs but retained inheritance rights in her
family of origin. See Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Family (Baltimore: Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 199 ), 41 – 4. - M. Git. 4 : 3.
- M. Ket. 1 : 1. On the prevalence of remarriage, see Satlow, Jewish Marriage in
Antiquity, 18 – 183 ; Ilan, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine, 14 – 151. - M. Qid. 1 : 1.
- Mishnah Yevamot is based on the assumption that the deceased is survived
- M. Ket. 4 :1.