Levirate marriage

Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law, having been married to two of his sons, Er and Onan, both of whom died prematurely.

According to the Levirate tradition, which prescribed that a man should marry his deceased brother's widow to ensure offspring and preserve the family line, Tamar was destined to marry Judah's third son, Shelah, once he reached the appropriate age.

However, Judah hesitated to fulfill this duty, likely fearing for Shelah's life, given the premature deaths of his two older sons.

Realizing her future was at stake, Tamar acted shrewdly when she noticed Judah's reluctance to keep his promise.

What happens when I kill somebody? What happened to all the loose ends over there? So we already see from the Torah that the Torah, um, tries to, to somehow do something about some of these loose ends.

Levirate mar- marriage, right? Yibum.

What happened over there? Husband died, there's a brother.

It's a way of trying to rectify and put together something, some tie up some of these loose ends.

And it goes back to an Old Testament law in the Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

There, Moses gives instruction with regard to what is called Levirate marriage.

And in that passage, what we find is that if a man takes a wife and then the man dies before his wife has any children, it is expected for the brother of that man or another close relative to marry that woman, and if they have children together, the oldest son of that marriage, that new marriage, will actually be regarded as an heir of the deceased first husband.

You say, "Well, that's kind of a strange practice." That sounds very strange to our ears in the 21st century.

If a young lady left her father and mother and became the wife of a husband, she joined a new family unit, established a new family unit.

If her husband died before she had children, she was left with nothing.

And so the Levirate marriage was actually designed to provide protection, that that new family unit that she was part of would continue to take care of her and actually would provide for her and give her the opportunity to experience the joy of child-rearing.

So perpetuation and protection.

How about, uh, Tamar and Judah, that story? That's before Moses, right? Yeah.

And, um, he knew about, "She is more righteous than I." Okay? He knew about the law of the Levirate, it would seem, when it comes to his sons, Onan and Er.

So, um, he knew about that before it had been written down.

Well, wait, there's another even more obvious example.

Now, because Ruth and Orpah and Naomi all didn't have any children, what was actually more important in the Israelites' eyes was to raise up seed, or raise up a, um, uh, another child to be the representative son for the deceased man.

Okay? And so they had this thing called Levirate marriage, which was another law that God had given the Israelites where they were instructed that if one man was married and he died before he could have a child, his brother or a close male relative would then marry that wife, and they would have a son together.

And that son would belong to the deceased brother, and then other sons after that would belong to the new husband.

Okay? Now, both of the brothers had died.

a woman that does not belong in the bloodline of Israel, right? The church, the new Israel, the new Jerusalem.

And so when you look at things that way, so just to build on what we're actually gonna be reading in Genesis chapter 38, let's go look at it really quick in Deuteronomy chapter, I believe it's 25. deuteronomy 25 now remember this this comes in sequence after what we're going to read in genesis 38 okay they call it a leveret marriage a levirate marriage or leviret if and this is this is deuteronomy 25 and 5 and if i'm kind of all over the place just just bear with me you're going to see the point of this brethren dwell together one of them die and have no child the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger Her husband's brother shall go in unto her.

That's relations between a man and woman.

Take her to him, to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.

Halacha Yedgimel, paragraph 13, and the final halacha of this chapter.

If a woman's husband is afflicted with bad breath, or nasal odor, or collects canine droppings, or has a similar defect that we just talked about before, and if he dies, and she then becomes subject to levirate marriage, that means she has to marry her husband's brother if the husband died without any children, now the brother-in-law is afflicted with the same defect.

The wife could say, from your brother I could take it, but from you I cannot.

And he must then submit to Chalitza, that's the ceremony that releases her from him and allows her to remarry, and pay her her ksuba.

Therefore, the lever, the brother-in-law, may not sell anything of his brother's estate either before or after the leverate marriage because part of the property is mortgaged to her for her ksuba.

And if the brother-in-law does sell or gives as a gift or divides with his brothers anything of the deceased brother's estate, Before or after the levirate marriage, the act of sale or of the gift-giving is invalid, because this property has already become liable to the widow for the payment of her ksuvah.

She is entitled to collect ksuvah for any part of this property, therefore it cannot be sold.

Halacha Yudbeis, paragraph 12.