Levirate Marriage
AB...@aol.com
Re your comment on the halakhic tradition of the surviving sibling marrying
the widow(er) of the deceased sibling:
Your statement is not exactly correct. In the hope of anticipating what no
doubt could be a long exchange and perhaps a misinformed exchange of
information on the subject, I undertake (with some trepidation) to explain.
In early biblical tradition, when a married man who has no children dies, it
is the obligation of his closest relative to marry the widow and have
children with her in order that the children will inherit the estate of the
deceased. The male who marries the woman is called a Levir (no relation or
connection to a Levite or a descendant of the tribe of Levi).
Two biblical stories illustrating the operation of this custom which
apparently had the force of law are:
(1) The punishment of death visited upon Onan when he "cast his seed upon
the ground" rather than impregnate his deceased brother's widow and thereby
raise up heirs for his brother's estate. Note that he was not punished (as
the story is often mistakenly interpreted) for masturbation or practicing
coitus interruptus. His sin was that he did not raise up heirs to continue
his brother's line. The sequel to this story is that Tamar, the widow,
ultimately disguises herself as a prostitute in order to cohabit with her
father-in-law, Judah, and thereby become pregnant with an heir to her dead
husband. When Judah is informed of her being pregnant, he becomes angry at
the implication of her wanton behavior. However, she had prudently taken his
signet, cords and staff at the time of their cohabitation, and when she
produced these as proof of who had sired the child she was carrying, it was
Judah who was rebuked and accepted her rebuke. She had forced him to fulfill
the obligation of Levir. (Genesis Chapter 38)
(2) The legal interplay in the marriage of Boaz to Ruth the Moabitess in the
Book of Ruth. Boaz, who, according to Naomi is a relative of Ruth's deceased
husband, falls in love with Ruth when he sees her gleaning after his servants
harvesting his crop and wants to marry her. However, there is a male relative
of Ruth's deceased husband who is more closely related and hence has a
stronger obligation to fulfill the role of levir. Boaz cleverly approaches
this relative in the city gate where the elders (equivalent to a modern day
court of law) sat and asks him if he wishes to marry Ruth, adding
parenthetically (ha!) that this would also obligate him to raise up heirs to
the dead man's estate. The primary levir, worried that his marrying Ruth
would cloud the inheritance of his own children, declines to marry Ruth, and
Boaz is then free to marry her. All this is done in the presence of the
elders to make the primary levir's decline and Boaz's acceptance of the
levir's role legal.
This procedure of a male relative marrying his deceased relative's widow to
raise up an heir for his estate is called in Hebrew yibum. In rabbinic times
yibum was limited to the brother of the deceased alone. In the event that the
brother refused to fulfill his role of levir there is a rabbinically decreed
ceremony called khalitzah which he must perform in order to free his
sister-in-law to marry anyone else. In this sense it is similar to divorce in
Jewish law. Halitzah carries with it the implication of shame on the male
who by refusing to marry his sister-in-law is guilty of not fulfilling his
obligation to his dead brother and his dead brother's estate.
There is a full tractate of the talmud dealing with all the laws, customs,
ceremonies, implications, exceptions related to yibum. The tractate is called
Yevamot or Levirate marriages.
Monogamy in Judaism is a relatively recent event, having been made legally
binding by the edict of Rabenu Gershon "The Light of the Diaspora" in the
late 10th or early 11th century. Until that time, a Jewish male could fulfill
his levirate responsibility even though he was already married, since he
could take more than one wife. After that time, if he was single he had the
choice of either levirate marriage or khalitzah, while if he were married he
could only perform khalitzah. In practice, however, it was rare even at the
time of Rabbenu Gershon for a Jewish male liviing in the west to take more
than one wife and so khalitzah became the norm. It is practiced by observant
Jews to this day.
Asher Bar-Zev ab...@aol.com
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Researching:
LANGENAUER - Turka, or Zidachov, or Rybnik (Ukraine, formerly Galicia)
REITER - Turka (Ukraine, formerly Galicia)
HERZOG - Turka (Ukraine, formerly Galicia)
KAMMERMANN - Borislav (Ukraine, formerly Galicia)
WEISSBLUM - Galicia
GEWIRTZMAN - Sieniawa, or Cieszanow (Poland, formerly Galicia), or Vienna
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