YIBBUM

'Yibbum' (pronounced "yee-boom"), in Judaism, is one of the most complex types of marriages mandated by Torah law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). According to the law, a childless man's brother has an obligation to marry his dead brother's wife. However, there is an escape clause: if the one of the parties refuses to go through with the marriage, both man and woman are required to go through a ceremony known as ''halizah'', involving a symbolic act of renunciation of their willingness to perform this marriage. Jewish law (''halakha'') has seen a gradual decline of ''yibbum'' in favor of ''halizah'', to the point where in most contemporary Jewish communities the former is strongly discouraged.
''Yibbum'' is a Jewish expression of a worldwide custom. Known as levirate marriage (to a surviving brother of the deceased man) or widow inheritance (to any surviving male relative), it has been practiced by other societies with a strong clan structure. It is or was known in societies including the Punjabis, Jats, Huns (Chinese "Xiongnu", "Hsiong-nu", etc.), Mongols, and Tibetans.

Contents

In the Hebrew Bible

Laws of Yibbum and Halizah

History of Yibbum

Critical approach

References

See also

References

External links

In the Hebrew Bible

Among the Jews marriage with a brother's widow was forbidden (Leviticus 18,16; 10,21), except for the case of ''yibbum''. The surviving brother had the choice of ''halizah''. Such a choice was viewed with disfavor. The brother who agreed to marry his sister-in-law would be the sole benefactor of his brother's estate instead of splitting it with the family. If the levirate union resulted in male issue, the child would be named after the deceased brother. Levirate marriage was regarded as obligatory or even permissible only when the widow had no children of either sex.^[1] The Septuagint translates "ben" (son) in the passage of Deuteronomy by "child," and the Sadducees in the New Testament take it in this sense.^[2]
The most famous case of a levirate type marriage in the Hebrew Bible is the unusual union of the Hebrew patriarch Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar as recorded in the Book of Genesis chapter 38:8.
A famous instance involving a case analogous to both ''halitzah'' and ''yibbum'' is recounted in the Book of Ruth when after the death of her husband, Ruth is rejected by an anonymous ''Ploni Almoni'', and is noticed, welcomed and eventually turns to her husband's remaining kinsman Boaz (The Book of Ruth describes a custom involving a larger set of kin subject to levirate marriage, as both ''Ploni Almoni'' and ''Boaz'' would be considered insufficiently consanguinous to be subject to yibbum or chalitza under Talmudic or contemporary Jewish law).

Laws of Yibbum and Halizah

''Halakha'' (Jewish law) has a rich tradition around ''yibbum''. These laws were first recorded in the Mishna and Talmud in Yevamot, and were later codified by Maimonides in the ''Mishneh Torah''. The subject is considered one of the most intricate in Jewish law, partly because of the complication that arise from multiple brothers and multiple wives.
According to ''halakha'', when a married man dies without having any children, male or female, from any relationship (including premarital and extra marital), his widow and his brother must perform either ''yibbum'' or ''halizah''. According to Biblical law, there is no need for a marriage ceremony between the widow and the deceased brother as they are already bound by divine decree,^[3], nevertheless the Sages decreed that couple perform a marriage-like ceremony of ''maamar'',^[4] recite the marriage blessings (''sheva brachot'') and write a prenuptial agreement (''ketubah'').^[5] It is forbidden for the widow to remarry another until ''halizah'' has been performed.^[6] Therefore, if the brother is missing, or if he is still a child, the woman is required to wait until he is either located or has reached adolescence, so that he can perform the ''halizah'' ceremony. This can lead to a situation similar to an ''agunah''.
For the laws of ''yibbum'' only brothers that share a common father are considered brothers.^[7] While any brother can perform ''yibbum'' or ''halizah'', the greater obligation is on the oldest brother first. If the deceased left multiple wives ''yibbum'' can only be performed with one of them. Likewise the ''halizah'' of one permits all of them to remarry.^[8] Because there is a general prohibition on a man marrying his brother's wife, anytime that a ''yibbum'' is not required (for example the deceased had a child) it is forbidden. Likewise, anytime that there is a doubt whether ''yibbum'' is required, it is also forbidden and ''halizah'' is required. ^[9]
The Samaritans followed a slightly different course, which may indicate an earlier custom among the Hebrews; the former practiced the levirate only when the woman was betrothed and the marriage had not been consummated.^[10] The Karaites appear to have followed the same practice, and Benjamin Nahawendi, as well as Elijah Bashyazi, favored it.^[11]

History of Yibbum

The rabbis in the time of the ''mishnah'' added formal marriage requirements such as a ''ketubah'' (marriage contract), but over the centuries ''yibbum'' waned in favor.
By Talmudic times the practice of levirate marriage was deemed objectionable, ^[12] and was followed as a matter of duty only. To marry a brother's widow for her beauty was regarded by Abba Saul as equivalent to incest.^[13] Bar Kappara recommends halizah ^[14]. A difference of opinion appears among the later authorities, Alfasi, Maimonides, and the Spanish school generally upholding the custom, while Rabbeinu Tam and the Northern school prefer ''halizah''^[15] The marriage was not necessary if the brother left a child by another marriage, even if such a child were on the point of death.^[16] A change of religion on the part of the surviving brother does not affect the obligation of the levirate, or its alternative, the halizah,^[17] yet the whole question has been profoundly affected by the change from polygamy to monogamy due to the ''takkanah'' of Gershom ben Judah.
Orthodox Jews still observe it in all its details, and Conservative Judaism formally retains it. Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism have abolished it.

Critical approach

It has been suggested by Kalisch ("Leviticus," ii. 362-363) that the prohibition in Leviticus is of later date than the obligation under certain conditions in Deuteronomy, but it is equally possible that the Leviticus prohibition was a general one, and the permission in Deuteronomy only an exception when there was no male issue. J. F. Maclennan ("Studies in Ancient History," i. 109-114) suggested that the existence of levirate marriage was due to polyandry among the primitive Hebrews, and has been followed by Buhl ("Sociale Verhaltnisse," p. 34) and Barton ("Semitic Origins," pp. 66-67); but this is rather opposed to the Hebraic conditions, for it would be against the interests of the surviving brother to allow the estate to go out of his possession again. There is, besides, no evidence of polyandry among the Hebrews.

References

1. Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 1:3; Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 156:2
2. Mark 12:19; comp. Josephus, "Ant." iv. 8, § 23
3. Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 1:1
4. Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 2:1
5. Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 166:2; Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 2:2
6. Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 1:2
7. Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 157:1; Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 1:8
8. Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 161:1;Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 1:9
9. Mishneh Torah ''Laws of Yibbum and Halizah'' 6:4
10. Talmud Kiddushin 65b
11. Adderet Eliyahu, "Nashim," p. 93a
12. Talmud Bekhorot 13a
13. Talmud Yevamot 39b
14. Yevamot. 109a
15. Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 165
16. Shulchan Aruch, Eben ha-'Ezer, 157
17. Isaac ben Sheshet, Responsa, i. 2)

See also

★ ''Halizah'', Jewish law

★ Onan

★ ''Yevamot'', the tractate in the Talmud devoted to the subject of Yibbum

★ Widow inheritance, for a discussion of similar practices in other cultures

References

★

★ Levirate Marriage in the ''Jewish Encyclopedia''.

External links

★ Levirate Marriage and Halizah

★ Tamar -- the Wife of Yehudah

★ Redemption in Megillat Ruth