Table Of Content

levirate marriage and the family in ancient judaism HBI SerIeS on JewISH women Shulamit reinharz, General editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate editor The HBI Series on Jewish women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, publishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. The HBI Series on Jewish women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com Gaby Brimmer and elena Poniatowska, Gaby Brimmer Harriet Hartman and moshe Hartman, Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life Dvora e. weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism ellen m. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, editors, Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook Carole S. Kessner, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self ruth Kark, margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry margalit Shilo, Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840–1914 marcia Falk, translator, The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible Sylvia Barack Fishman, Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage Avraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe Iris Parush, Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society Shulamit reinharz and mark A. raider, editors, American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise Tamar ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism Farideh Goldin, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman elizabeth wyner mark, editor, The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite rochelle L. millen, Women, Birth, and Death in Jewish Law and Practice Kalpana misra and melanie S. rich, editors, Jewish Feminism in Israel: Some Contemporary Perspectives Judith r. Baskin, Midrashic Women: Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature Chaeran Y. Freeze, Jewish Marriage and Divorce in Imperial Russia mark A. raider and miriam B. raider-roth, editors, The Plough Woman: Records of the Pioneer Women of Palestine Pamela S. nadell and Jonathan D. Sarna, editors, Women and American Judaism: Historical Perspectives Ludmila Shtern, Leaving Leningrad: The True Adventures of a Soviet Émigré Jael Silliman, Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames: Women’s Narratives from a Diaspora of Hope Susan Starr Sered, What Makes Women Sick? Militarism, Maternity, and Modesty in Israeli Society marjorie Agosín, Uncertain Travelers: Conversations with Jewish Women Immigrants to America rahel r. wasserfall, editor, Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law Dvora E. Weisberg Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism BrAnDeIS UnIverSITY PreSS Waltham, Massachusetts Published by University Press of new england Hanover and London BrAnDeIS UnIverSITY PreSS Published by University Press of new england, one Court Street, Lebanon, nH 03766 www.upne.com © 2009 by Brandeis University Press Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec- tronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a re- view. members of educational institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of new england, one Court Street, Lebanon, nH 03766. This book was published with the generous support of the Lucius n. Littauer Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data weisberg, Dvora e. Levirate marriage and the family in ancient Judaism / Dvora e. weisberg. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (HBI series on Jewish women) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBn 978-1-58465-781-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Levirate — History. 2. rabbinical literature — History and criticism. 3. Bible. o.T. — Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title. kbm563.w45 2009 296.1'2083068— dc22 2009000999 University Press of new england is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. This book is dedicated to the memory of my teacher Dr. Baruch M. Bokser rabbi eleazar ben Shammua said: Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own . . . and your awe of your teacher like your awe of Heaven. (Pirkei Avot 4:12) Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi note on Translations and Abbreviations xiii Introduction xv 1 The Institution of Levirate 1 2 Levirate from the Hebrew Bible Through the mishnah 23 3 mapping the Family 45 4 Brothers 97 5 From wife to widow and Back Again 123 6 Paternity and Continuity 167 7 Conclusion 195 notes 207 Bibliography 231 Index 235 Foreword The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) is delighted to present this study of the nuclear family in ancient Judaism by Dvora e. weisberg, associate professor of rabbinic literature and director of the Simha and Sara Lainer Beit midrash at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of re- ligion in Los Angeles. In this engagingly written book, weisberg offers fresh ideas about Jews and gender, the very purpose for which the HBI was established. Her subject matter specifically is the levirate widow, “a woman whose husband has died without children” and who therefore must be available to her brother-in-law for marriage. what can we learn from the predicament of such a woman? weisberg shows us that examining the levirate widow enables us to consider “the status of women as they move in and out of families through marriage.” The levirate widow is in a liminal place between family membership and non-membership, between childlessness and possible motherhood, between acceptance and rejection. Although hers is not a work of anthropology, weisberg understands that because there is “relatively little information about levirate in ancient Israel, it is helpful to supplement that information with data from other societies.” She also wisely discusses the functions that levirate marriage served for ancient Israelites and “why it was problematic for the early rabbis.” Ultimately, however, weisberg does not limit her attention to the bonds between brothers, between husband and wife, or between father [ ix ]