Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism

by Dvora E. Weisberg

In this study, Weisberg uses levirate marriage (an institution that involves the union of a man and the widow of his childless brother) as described in biblical law and explicated in rabbinic Judaism as a lens to examine the status of women and attitudes toward marriage, sexuality, and reproduction in early Jewish society. While marriage generally marks the beginning of a new family unit, levirate comes into play when a family’s life is cut short. As such, it offers an opportunity to study the family at a moment of breakdown and restructuring. With her discussion rooted in rabbinic sources and commentary, Weisberg explores kinship structure and descent, the relationship between a family unit created through levirate marriage and the extended family, and the roles of individuals within the family. She also considers the position of women, asking whether it is through marriage or the bearing of children that a woman becomes part of her husband’s family, and to what degree a married woman remains part of her natal family. She argues that rabbinic responses to levirate suggest that a family is an evolving entity, one that can preserve itself through realignment and redefinition.

276 pages, Hardcover

First published May 29, 2009

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title indicates, this book is about levirate marriage: in the Jewish context, a law of the Torah requiring the brother of a man who dies without children to marry the widow or go through a public shaming ceremony called halitzah.

The most interesting thing I learned from this book is that levirate marriage in some form is not limited to Judaism, although the details differ from society to society. In one African tribe, remarriage by widows is not socially approved, so marriage to a husband's kinsmen is the only "normal" sexual relationship. (However, neither men or women have a duty to get involved in such a marriage). In some other tribes, a man has a duty to offer to marry his brother's childless widow, but widows have enough economic power to refuse such marriages. Iranian pre-Islamic law expands the concept by allowing the husband's family to pay an unrelated man to marry the widow. In an agricultural society where wealth arises out of land ownership, these systems allow a deceased's husband's family to both provide for a childless widow and keep wealth (i.e. land) in the family.

Weisberg also discusses the evolution of levirate marriage in Judaism. Biblical stories of levirate marriage sometimes involve relatives other than the brothers of the deceased men; however, the Torah limits levirate marriage to the latter. Moreover, rabbinic discussion of levirate marriage suggests possible evolution: while the Torah presents halitzah as arguably humiliating for the man, the Mishnah and Talmud suggest that halitzah is often a more desirable option. Although the Mishnah does not directly allow a widow to refuse a levirate union, it does allow her to do so through indirect ways (for example, by making a vow not to benefit from her brother-in-law).

Weisberg occasionally comes across (at least to me) as critical of the Talmud-era rabbis. For example, she seems a little surprised at sages "insistence that they not individual women, are the guardians of the law." But since rabbis have been enunciating this view for about 1800 years or so, this fact does not seem as noteworthy to me as it does to Weisberg.

On the other hand, she concludes that the rabbis are modern in at least one respect: while the original Torah law seems to focus on creating children who represent the dead husband, rabbinic literature is more focused on the needs of the living widow and brother-in-law. For example, if they choose to marry, their child is the child of their father (the brother-in-law) for all practical purposes.

[cee · Rating 4 out of 5]

clearly written, interesting explanation of rabbinic interpretations of levirate law