One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת יִבּוּם וַחֲלִיצָה
Levirate Marriage and Release · Chapter 5
Sefer Nashim · The Four Acts • Acceptable and Unacceptable • Repetition and Doubt • Those Who Cannot Be Released
4
Acts available
to a yavam
2
Of them that
finish anything
1
Sound sequence for
a ma'amar
9
Years and a day: when
a minor's act counts
Part 1The Four Acts, and What Each One Can Do
- The hierarchy, stated outright. A get does not dissolve the yavam's connection to his yevamah entirely, and a ma'amar does not acquire her completely. Only the marriage itself establishes the bond in a complete manner, and only chalitzah dissolves the connection entirely. (5:14)
- A get bars yibbum and releases nobody. A get given by the yavam disqualifies this yevamah and the deceased's other wives from yibbum with him and with every brother, as though chalitzah had been performed, yet she may not marry another man until chalitzah is done. This power of a get over a yevamah is Rabbinic, decreed because a get ends a marriage and disqualifies a woman from the priesthood. (5:1)
- A ma'amar needs two undoings. It does not establish the bond and does not make her a married woman in the full sense, yet nullifying it requires a get, since she was consecrated to him, and permitting her to any other man still requires chalitzah. (5:2-3)
- Two intentions for one document. A get given to nullify the ma'amar negates what he brought about and leaves her free for yibbum, free with his brothers and, the Rambam writes, forbidden to him. A get given instead to sever his connection to her bars yibbum with every brother, and he must then give a second get to clear the ma'amar and perform chalitzah besides. (5:4-5)
RememberA get closes the door to yibbum and opens no other. Of the four acts, only the marriage completes and only chalitzah releases.
Part 2Acceptable, Unacceptable, Superior, Inferior
- An acceptable ma'amar. Given at the outset, with nothing preceding it and nothing following it except the marriage with the same yavam who gave it. Anything else, a get, a chalitzah, the marriage, or another ma'amar, whether to this yevamah or to another of the deceased's wives, and whether before or after, renders it unacceptable. (5:6-8)
- Acceptable relations, and chalitzah by grade. The marriage is acceptable at the outset or after this yavam's own ma'amar with nothing else preceding. Chalitzah performed at the outset is a superior chalitzah; chalitzah preceded by a get or a ma'amar, from him or a brother, to her or another wife, is an inferior chalitzah. (5:9-10)
- One acceptable act frees a whole household. Where the deceased left several wives, acceptable relations or a superior chalitzah with any one of them permits all of them and lifts the obligation. (5:11)
- One unacceptable act binds them all. Unacceptable relations or an unacceptable ma'amar with one wife bars every wife from yibbum, requires a get for the woman involved, and obliges each of them to perform chalitzah, since unacceptable relations do not remove the obligation. An inferior chalitzah permits the woman who performed it, while the others stay bound until all of them perform chalitzah or all the brothers perform it with her. (5:11-12)
RememberNothing about the act itself changes. What changes is what preceded it, and exactly one sound sequence exists: a ma'amar, then the marriage.
Part 3Repetition, Relatives, and Unknown Order
- A get is always required after relations or a ma'amar. Relations with a yevamah require a get to end the relationship whether they were acceptable or not, even relations that followed chalitzah, and a ma'amar of either grade requires a get of its own. (5:13)
- Repetition is asymmetric. A get after a get, and a ma'amar after a ma'amar, each have an effect. But relations after relations, or a chalitzah after a chalitzah, are of no consequence, and neither is a get or chalitzah that follows relations. (5:14)
- Which relatives become forbidden. Two gittin given to two of the wives leave the giver forbidden to marry the relatives of both, although neither get was necessary. A second chalitzah, by contrast, is treated as chalitzah with a woman never under obligation to him, so that brother is not forbidden her relatives. Once one brother has married her, another brother's get, ma'amar or chalitzah is of no consequence. (5:15-16)
- When nobody knows who acted first. If two brothers each married one of the deceased's wives and the order is unknown, both must release them with gittin; the women may then marry other men and are forbidden to the brothers. The Rambam's own case: Reuven in Jerusalem, wives in Akko and Tyre, Shimon in Akko and Levi in Tyre. A brother who has already married is not forced to divorce until it is established that his brother acted first. (5:17)
RememberWhere brothers act at a distance, neither should move until he knows what the other did, though a brother who prefers chalitzah now is not prevented.
Part 4Minors, and Those Who Cannot Be Released
- A yavam of nine years and a day. His relations carry the force of an adult's ma'amar and do not acquire her completely; his ma'amar at the outset bars her to his adult brothers, but after an adult brother's ma'amar it is of no consequence. His get and his chalitzah are of no consequence either way, since the passage on chalitzah speaks of a man. (5:18-20)
- What she still needs from him. If he had relations before majority and not after, she requires both a get, because those relations amount to a ma'amar, and chalitzah, because no complete bond was ever formed. Relations after he reaches majority leave only the get. A man of twenty showing neither maturity nor impotency is in the same category. (5:21-22)
- Two Rabbinic consecrations, opposite reasons. The marriage of a girl below majority who may annul it by refusal mi'un, and the marriage of a woman who can neither hear nor speak, are both Rabbinic: the first so that men would not treat her in an unrestrained manner, the second so that she would not remain unmarried forever. Where all the widows are minors, or all cannot hear or speak, relations with one frees them all. (5:23)
- Scriptural standing outranks Rabbinic. Where one widow is mentally competent and past majority, relations or chalitzah with her frees the others, but relations with a minor or with a woman who cannot hear or speak do not free her. Where relations were had with the lesser standing first, the law corrects the order: the minor is instructed to use mi'un, and the woman who cannot hear or speak is released with a get. (5:25-30)
RememberChalitzah requires speech and understanding, so a woman who can neither hear nor speak has no release at all. The law therefore makes marriage her way out and asks the minor to step aside. (5:24)