(Heb. yibbum). Marriage contracted between a widow (yevamah) whose husband has died childless and the brother of her deceased husband (yavem or levir). The intent of the commandment requiring such a marriage is that "the first son that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out in Israel" (Deut. 25:5-6). In Genesis 38, the episode of Judah and Tamar shows that levirate marriage was an ancient custom among the Israelites as well as among neighboring peoples. One of the basic differences between the Genesis story and the laws in Deuteronomy is that the former has no stated provision for the release via ḥalitsah, the ceremony required when the levir refuses to marry his brother's widow. In the latter case, Deuteronomy provides for a ceremony permitting the widow and her brother-in-law to be absolved from the marriage. The widow summons the levir before the elders, and if he persists in his refusal, "she pulls the shoe off his foot, spits in his face [the sages interpret this as 'spits in front of him'] and declares, 'Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house'" (Deut. 25:7-9). This ceremony is called ḥalitsah after the Hebrew ḥalats, to pull off the shoe. Until the widow undergoes either levirate marriage or ḥalitsah, she is forbidden to marry another man.
The exposition of the laws relating to levirate marriage is to be found in the talmudic tractate Yevamot. First, to make it clear that it applies only to the widow who has had no offspring at all, the word ben (son) in Deuteronomy 25:5 has been interpreted as including a daughter. Therefore, the commandment for levirate marriage applies only when the deceased has had no issue at all, either from the widow, or from another wife. This includes a child conceived while the husband was still alive but not born until after his death, even if that child did not survive (Yev. 2:5, 22b; Nid. 5:3).
The Mishnah also explains that the obligation of levirate marriage applies only to brothers of the deceased who were alive at the time of his death. This includes an infant brother born any time prior to the husband's death, in which case the widow is obligated to wait until the younger brother (assuming there are no others) reaches the age of 13 and a day, when he is considered an adult by Jewish law. Then he can either marry her or grant ḥalitsah (Nid. 5:3; Yev. 105b).
The obligation applies only if the widow is still capable of bearing children. Once the husband is dead, his widow and his brother are linked together, zikkah ("tied") being the official term. Her status becomes that of a shomeret yavam, waiting for the levirate marriage to take place. The waiting period between the death and the levirate marriage or ḥalitsah is three months from the husband's death (Yev. 4:10).
Technically, the biblical commandment does not obligate the widow and her brother-in-law to have an official wedding ceremony because there exists, by law, the zikkah which binds them as if they were wife and husband. The talmudic sages felt something else was needed and required a marriage ceremony called ma'amar (declaration) and not kiddushim, the name applied to the regular ceremony (Tos. to Yev. 7:2; Yev. 52a).
In the post-talmudic period there was considerable debate over whether levirate marriage or ḥalitsah was to be preferred. At the Academy of Sura in Babylonia, levirate marriage was the choice; at Pumbedita, it was ḥalitsah. The major Sephardi authorities were in favor of levirate marriage, arguing that there had to be a reason for the entire process, else the Bible and Talmud would not have spelled it out. The Ashkenazi scholars in Europe, on the other hand, held that ḥalitsah should be practiced.
In Palestine in 1944 the Chief Rabbinate produced a takkanah (enactment) requiring the levir to maintain the widow until he released her by ḥalitsah. A later takkanah of the Israeli Rabbinate in 1950 made it obligatory for the levir to grant ḥalitsah, thus freeing the woman for remarriage to someone else. The levir was not permitted to marry her even if he so desired. This takkanah was made applicable to Sephardim and Oriental Jewish communities because until then they practiced polygamy and upheld the commandment of the levirate marriage when necessary. In 1953 Israel's parliament codified the Marriage and Divorce laws, giving the rabbinical courts complete authority over the act of ḥalitsah. If the levir is ordered by the courts to give ḥalitsah, and he has not done so after three months, the authorities can order his imprisonment.
Reform Judaism has eliminated levirate marriage as an operative commandment and thus has ruled out ḥalitsah as well. Conservative Judaism has also invalidated levirate marriage, but there is still some discussion as to whether the ceremony of ḥalitsah is required. Orthodox Judaism still follows the rabbinic ruling that a woman who has undergone the ceremony of ḥalitsah is placed in the same category as a divorcee, and thus a kohen (priest) is forbidden to marry her. Since Reform and Conservative Jews do not follow priest-divorcee rulings in general, this ruling is not applicable for them.
The ceremony of ḥalitsah is performed before a rabbinical court of five. The widow reads the biblical passage dealing with levirate marriage and ḥalitsah (Deut. 25:7-10), unlaces and pulls off the levir's right shoe (which has to be of leather with no metal component), and spits on the ground in front of him.
