Learning the Book of Ruth, Lesson 3: Megillat Rut, Chapter 3
| Related Text: | Tanakh - The Hebrew Bible - Rut (Ruth): Chapter 3 |
| Podcast: | Subscribe to Mendel Dubov - Learning Tanach |
| Switch to Video |
Rabbi Mendel Dubov is the director of Chabad in Sussex County, NJ, and a member of faculty at the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ.
© Copyright, all rights reserved. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with Chabad.org's copyright policy.
Question about brother in law marrying Naomi (minute 50). I think Yibum is only if the wife/widow had no children at all, even though they might have died or even if she miscarried. So Naomi is not a 'candidate' for Yibum. She also was probably not of child bearing age.
Indeed, this was not the usual Halacha of Yibum. Rather, as Rabbi Dubov points out at minute 50:51 that based on the Yibum rule, it was seen as a good thing to ensure other situations of women without a husband and children to be taken care of in a similar manner.