Circumventing Levirate Marriage

Positive Commandment 217

By Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon ("Maimonides"); translated by Berel Bell

From the Sichos in English Collection

« Previous

Positive Commandment 216

Positive Commandment 218

The 217th mitzvah is that in a case when a yavam1 will not marry his yevamah,2 she performs chalitzah3 on him.

The source of this commandment is G‑d's statement4 (exalted be He), "She shall remove his shoe from his foot."

The details of this mitzvah are found in the tractate devoted to this subject, tractate Yevamos.

You are already familiar with the statement of our Sages,5 "Performing the mitzvah of yibum [i.e., marrying the yevamah] is preferable to performing the mitzvah of chalitzah."6

For this same reason7 they called the tractate "Yevamos,"8 even though it gives equal coverage both to the laws of yibum and those of chalitzah.

« Previous

Positive Commandment 216

Positive Commandment 218

Footnotes

When a husband has died, and the couple had no children, the woman is known as a yevamah; the deceased man's surviving brother is known as a yavam; the mitzvah to marry her is called yibum. See P216.

When yibum is not performed, she is still not allowed to remarry unless chalitzah is performed, i.e., the yavam dons a specially made shoe on his right foot; then the yevamah removes it from the yavam's foot, spits on the ground, and makes a verbal statement.

See note above.

Deut. 25:9.

Bechoros 1:7.

From this expression, "the mitzvah of chalitzah," we see clearly that chalitzah counts as one of the mitzvos.

That yibum is preferable to chalitzah.

Rather than "Yevamos and Chalitzos," or something similar.

Rabbi Berel Bell is a well-known educator, author and lecturer. He and his family reside in Montreal, Canada.

From "Sefer Hamitzvot in English," published by Sichos in English.

More in this section

You may also be interested in...