One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
ייבום וחליצה
Yibbum v'Chalitzah 4
Sefer Nashim · Levirate Marriage and Release · The full rite of chalitzah: how it is performed, how much of it may go wrong and still release her, and the three verdicts a court can reach about a ceremony that did not go to plan.
5
Men present, to publicize it
1
Breath for the words lo avah
90
Days before chalitzah is performed
Part 1The Rite as Prescribed
- She comes to his city, and the court advises first. From "the elders of his city shall call him," his city and not hers. The judges counsel what suits these two people: yibbum where they appear fitting for each other, chalitzah where she is young and he much older, or she older and he young. They establish a place for the session beforehand, to publicize the matter (4:1-2)
- She is rehearsed down to the breath. Both are taught to read until fluent, and she is trained to say lo avah in one breath, pause, then yabmi, so the words cannot be heard as avah yabmi, "my yavam did desire." If she is already fluent, the single breath is not insisted on (4:3-4)
- Day, and three who can read, with five for publicity. Chalitzah is a judgment, so not at night. Three preside, who need not be ordained, and a convert, or a man whose father was a convert, may not serve. It is a mitzvah for five to attend so the matter is known, the extra two being common people (4:5)
- The order: shoe, spit, proclamation. A leather shoe with a heel, not sewn with linen, on his right foot, straps tied. Both stand; she recites that her yavam refuses, he recites that he does not desire to take her; he presses his heel to the ground; she loosens the straps, removes the shoe and throws it down, then stands and spits on the earth before his face where the judges see it, and recites the final verse. All present answer "the one whose shoe was removed" three times. The instant the majority of the heel clears his foot she is free to marry (4:6-9)
RememberThe law stops the whole proceeding to rehearse one woman's breath, so that nothing she says can be heard backwards.
Part 2What Survives After the Fact
- The order is not binding, and the verses may be dropped. Spitting before the removal, or reciting and then spitting, is acceptable. Removal alone with no recitation and no spitting is acceptable; so is removal with recitation and no spitting, or removal with spitting and no recitation. She does not spit again out of order, lest people conclude that spitting is of no consequence (4:10-12)
- Posture, place and personnel all bend. Acceptable if performed seated or lying on their sides, if the straps were tied below the knee, if the three presiding were common people unable to read the verses, if the yavam was blind, or if the judges never saw the spittle leave her mouth. A chance encounter with the judges, with no place established and nothing discussed, is acceptable (4:2, 4:15, 4:23)
- The shoe has wide tolerance. Acceptable after the fact: a wooden sandal covered in leather, a leather sole with goats' hair sides, a left shoe on his right foot, a shoe that is not his, one oversized if he can still walk in it, one small or torn or open soled if it still covers the majority of his foot. Courts now keep a chalitzah shoe and present it to the yavam beforehand (4:19)
- Her hands are not required. A yevamah whose hands were cut off may perform chalitzah from the outset, even with her teeth, since the verse does not say she removes it with her hands. If her mouth was running from garlic or mustard she spits again; if she sucks a bleeding wound and spits, it counts, since blood drawn out always carries some spittle (4:18, 4:22-23)
RememberEvery leniency here points one way: a woman going home released rather than going home still bound.
Part 3What Fails
- Recitation alone accomplishes nothing. If both recite every phrase and she neither removes the shoe nor spits, nothing has been accomplished; yibbum remains open and she is not disqualified from the priesthood. From "this is what shall be done to a man," a deed has effect, while the recitation "is not an absolute requirement, nor does it have any effect on its own." Spitting alone, or spitting with recitation, is an unacceptable chalitzah (4:12-14)
- Unacceptable by circumstance. Chalitzah at night; before two judges, or three one of whom is a relative or otherwise disqualified; with the shoe tied above the knee, since then it was not removed "from his foot"; or where a girl below majority removed an adult's shoe. Before a single judge, or at night with the two of them alone, is likewise unacceptable. Performed by a deaf mute, a mentally incapable person or a minor, it is of no consequence at all (4:16)
- A shoe that is not a shoe, and a foot that cannot press. A cloth shoe effects no chalitzah whatsoever. Unacceptable: a heelless shoe, one sewn with linen, or one of goats' hair, palm bark, cork or wood; one too large to walk in or too small to cover most of his foot; a sandal made for burial or from an animal offered to a false deity; tearing or burning the shoe off rather than removing it. A yavam whose right leg was amputated, who is bowlegged, or who walks on his toes and cannot press his heel down, should not perform it, and if he does it is unacceptable (4:17-18, 4:20-21)
- Intent is the one thing that cannot be waived. She must remove the shoe with willful intent and he must intend it on her behalf, both intending to free her to marry; if one intended it and the other did not, it is unacceptable. So is a chalitzah on a false premise, such as telling him it is how he acquires her as a wife, or that he loses nothing and may still perform yibbum later. A man who issues a protest invalidates it, so judges have him nullify protests first. Where a Jewish court lawfully compels him and beats him until he complies, the chalitzah is acceptable; where commoners compel him, or the court erred, it is not (4:8, 4:24-25)
RememberSloppy is survivable. Insincere is not. The only part of the rite that is pure speech is the only part that accomplishes nothing.
Part 4The Three Verdicts, and the Record
- "Of no substance" means nothing happened. He is not forbidden to her relatives, she is not forbidden to the priesthood, and she may still perform yibbum (4:26)
- "Unacceptable" is the dangerous middle. He becomes forbidden to her relatives, she becomes forbidden to the priesthood, she is forbidden to all the brothers and may no longer perform yibbum, and she still may not marry another man until an acceptable chalitzah is performed. If she transgressed and married, he performs an acceptable chalitzah and she is not sent away from her husband. A yevamah seen removing one brother's shoe is disqualified from yibbum, lest she intended chalitzah (4:26-28)
- The document is a record, not an instrument. Unlike a get, the chalitzah document effects nothing; it exists so she holds proof. Judges preside only when they know the identities, so an observer may write the record without independently knowing the family. For this testimony alone a woman, a servant or a perceptive minor is believed, since the matter will become known anyway (4:29-31)
- No waiting imposed on her. Where verses appear in the record or in a yevamah's ketubah, the surface is ruled with a stylus. And she may marry on the very day she performs chalitzah, because chalitzah is not performed until ninety days have passed since her husband's death (4:35)
RememberA ceremony half performed leaves her worse off than one never attempted: it closes yibbum behind her and opens nothing in front of her.