Explaining the Mitzvah of Yibum

🖨 Print

Yibum and chalitza are probably among the more obscure mitzvot in the Torah, likely made known to us through the marriage of Boaz and Rut in Megilat Rut. Through exploring the practical elements of these mitzvot as well as the spiritual ramifications, a deeper appreciation for chessed and the journey of the soul emerges.

What is Yibum?

Yibum, translated as levirate marriage, is a mitzva where the brother of a deceased man who never had children marries his brother’s widow. The brother is only obligated in yibum if he can have children, the goal being the perpetuation of the late brother. As it says in the pasuk (Devarim 25:5-6) ‘The first child that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother, so that his name may not be blotted out in Israel.”¹

What is Chalitza?

Chalitza is the alternative to yibum. In a case where the brother does not want to marry his late brother’s widow or if Beit Din finds a reason that the marriage is not appropriate (i.e. too big an age gap) then the brother goes to Beit Din for the ceremony of chalitza. During this ceremony, the widow removes the living brother’s shoe and spits on it, deriving the name ‘chalitza’ ‘removal.’

Specifics of the Ceremony²

What may not be known is that Beit Din owns a sandal-like shoe with a thick-heeled sole and long leather straps for this very purpose. In fact, the shoe must be both put on and taken off in a specific way: onto the right foot, wrapping and tying the leather straps in a specific manner with no space between the skin and the leather.

The widow says in Hebrew “My brother-in-law does not wish to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel. He does not wish to perform Yibbum with me.” and the brother responds :“I do not wish to take her.”

Following these words, the brother presses his foot on the ground and the widow bends down and removes the shoe, using her right hand. She then spits, with the saliva required to be seen by Beit Din.

She then recites the following phrase three times:

“So shall be done to the man who will not build his brother’s household. And that family shall be called in Israel ‘the household of the one whose shoe has been removed.’”

At the end of the ceremony, the members of the Beit Din recite a blessing that no-one ever needs to perform chalitza or yibum again. The Beit Din also provides the widow with a document known as a Get Chalitza which serves as proof of the Chalitza so that she may remarry.

The Spiritual Meaning

Yibum is a great chessed to the legacy of the deceased brother as it guarantees him continuity, to the point that the Maharal writes that the alive brother’s first child with the widow is called the child of the deceased brother. The Sefer Hachinuch elaborates that since the wife and husband were joined as one, the children of the wife are still spiritually linked to their father and their spiritual merits (zechutim) benefit his neshama. The Zohar Chadash on Megilat Rut writes that someone who performs this mitzva is considered as if he has been a partner in creation. On a more mundane level, it is a chessed to the widow because it ensures that she will not be left in isolation, neither emotionally nor financially.³

Although there are mefarshim who explore the depth behind chalitza, we must know that ultimately it is classified as a chok (a law that is beyond our understanding). On a surface level, the spitting of chalitza expresses disgust that the living brother is not taking the opportunity to perform this mitzva and is designed to humiliate him. Additionally, some suggest that the shoe removal hints that the brother will not inherit the estate of his deceased brother, a privilege which the children of a yibum marriage are entitled to. On a more mystical level, the drop of spit is meant to symbolise the zera (seed) which would establish continuity for his deceased brother’s soul. The removal of the shoe represents mourning. The widow removes the living brother’s shoe to show him that until he refused to perform the mitzva, there was hope for her deceased husband’s legacy, but now that the brother will not marry her, he ought to stand as a barefoot mourner as now her husband’s continuity is truly dead. The Rashbam explains that removing the shoe would be a task done by the wife so when the widow does this to her brother she is illustrating a duty which she could have done as a wife.⁴

When the mitzva of yibbum is performed and produces a firstborn, that child is considered to have the reincarnated soul of the deceased brother. As mentioned above, the husband’s soul remains fused with his wife’s and then enters the children when they are born. This means that Rut’s son Oved was in some way a reincarnation of Machlon, linking him with the ancestry of Mashiach ben David. When Yibum is not performed, the widow releases her husband’s soul through spitting and through the removal of the brother’s shoe. The freeing of the foot from the shoe echoes the release of the soul from the body, reminding us perhaps of Moshe removing his shoes by the burning bush or wearing non-leather shoes on Yom Kippur.

The difference between humans and angels is that in Zecharia⁵ humans are called ‘holchim’ (walkers) whereas angels are called ‘omdim’ (standers). When the widow removes the brother’s shoe she is allowing the departed soul to ‘walk’ the earth, giving it the opportunity to reincarnate or perhaps gather merit through a righteous person.

The relationship between Tamar and Yehuda can also be seen as yibum with her twins Peretz and Zerach reincarnations of Er and Onan, Yehuda’s sons who were both married to her before they died⁶. Yehuda had told Tamar to consider herself a widow and wait for his next son Shelah to marry, but Tamar approached Yehuda herself.

Rabbi Sacks⁷ draws many parallels between this episode and the episode of Rut and Boaz where Rut also takes the first step by descending to the threshing floor and uncovering Boaz’s feet. In both cases, Yehuda and Boaz were both not the closest relative to do yibum, but the only willing relative at the time. While we may have thought Rut or Tamar’s behavior was inappropriate, it was so desirable in Hashem’s eyes that Moshiach descends from both of these almost clandestine relationships. The seeds of geula are often planted in the dark.

In fact, Rabbi Sacks highlights that at the end of Megilat Rut, the elders bless Boaz to build a home like that of Peretz, “who Tamar bore to Yehuda.” A seemingly random reference which in fact so appropriately intertwines these two righteous women who performed this rare mitzva. Both of these women, childless widows, did something so powerful that they are eternally established as the roots of our salvation. Such is the power of yibum.