One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת יִבּוּם וַחֲלִיצָה
Levirate Marriage and Release · Chapter 2
Sefer Nashim · Ma'amar Before Anything • Whose Duty, and No Time to Wait • What a Court Will Compel
2
Witnesses required
for the ma'amar
10
Men present for the
marriage blessings
30
Days, then relations
are presumed
1
Perutah: the whole
value of consecration
Part 1Ma'amar: Something Said Before Anything Done
- Say it first. By Rabbinic ordinance a yavam may not enter marital relations with his yevamah until he consecrates her before two witnesses with a perutah or an article worth one. The act is called ma'amar, a statement, and it does not by itself complete the acquisition. (2:1)
- Only willingly. A ma'amar performed without her knowledge accomplishes nothing, for a woman can be consecrated only willingly. Where she was widowed as a minor who had only been consecrated to the deceased, the ma'amar requires her father's consent. (2:1)
- A wedding, not a transfer. He recites the marriage blessings before ten men and writes her a ketubah, as is required of any man who marries a woman. Perform yibbum with no prior ma'amar and the acquisition still binds, since disobeying the Sages does not void a Scriptural act, but he is given stripes for rebellious conduct and writes the ketubah anyway. (2:2)
- Intention is the floor. The acquisition holds whether he acted knowingly or in ignorance, under duress or willingly, and whichever party was the willing one. But where there was no intention to perform a marital act at all, a man asleep or insensible with drink, nothing is acquired. (2:3-4)
RememberScripture already binds them, and relations alone would complete it. The Sages still refused to let it happen in silence, and without her agreement it does not happen at all.
Part 2Whose Duty It Is, and Why Nobody Waits
- The eldest brother carries it. Learned from "the firstborn son whom she bears," which the Oral Tradition reads as the eldest of the surviving brothers, taking "whom she bears" to mean the brothers' own mother rather than the yevamah. If the eldest declines, the option passes to the others; if all decline, it returns to him: yibbum or chalitzah. (2:6-7)
- No respite, for any reason. Not until a minor brother reaches majority, not until a traveling brother returns, not until a brother who has lost speech and hearing recovers. Each request draws the same answer: the mitzvah is incumbent on you. Even where the eldest is in another country, the brother present must act and may not defer to him. (2:8-9)
- The thirty day presumption. If within 30 days she says the marriage was never consummated and he has already divorced her, chalitzah is compelled. After 30 days relations are presumed and he is only asked, unless he admits it, in which case he is compelled. If she says it was consummated and he denies it, she needs no chalitzah, since his word is not accepted where its effect is to forbid her to every other man. (2:5)
- The eldest's choice prevails. Where the deceased left several wives and the eldest brother asks one of them for yibbum, her preference for a different brother is not considered, because the mitzvah rests on him. (2:11)
RememberEvery request for a delay in this chapter is reasonable on its face, and every one is refused, for the single stated reason that until this is performed she may not remarry.
Part 3What a Court Will Compel
- Yibbum is asked, chalitzah is forced. No court compels a man into the marriage, since a man cannot be made to live with a woman he does not want. Every court compels the release, because until it is performed the yevamah may not remarry. (2:7)
- A refuser forfeits her contract. A yevamah fit for yibbum who refuses is judged like a wife who has rebelled: her yavam is compelled to release her and she forfeits the money of her marriage contract. Where several wives survive, only the one he asked and who refused forfeits; the rest collect as widows do. (2:10)
- Defects, vows, and the money. If the yavam is a leper or carries one of the defects for which a husband is required to divorce, he is compelled to release her and she collects in full. A vow she took in her first husband's lifetime for unrelated reasons compels the release with her contract; one taken after the death draws only a request. She may not insist on staying unreleased, since no other woman will marry him while she is bound to him. (2:14-16)
- Marrying before release. She is forbidden to another man by a negative commandment. If she marries and they live together, both are liable to lashes, he must divorce her with a get even after children are born, and she is forbidden to him and to the yavam until the yavam's chalitzah frees her. Mere consecration by another man does not forbid her to the yavam; the second man divorces her and yibbum or chalitzah proceeds. (2:18-20)
RememberWhere the obligation itself rests on a Rabbinic doubt and a priest has already married her, no chalitzah is performed, since a man's wife is not forbidden to him on account of a decree built on doubt.