Levirate marriage
Levirate (from the Latin Levir " brother " ), levirate marriage or marriage -law referred to in the ethnosociology a Jewish custom, among others (Hebrew ייבום, Jibbum ), which prescribes that the brother of a deceased childless married his widow. It occurs as a protective provision for the maintenance of male offspring entitled to inherit an Israelite family in the Torah.
The levirate is mentioned in the Bible for the first time in Genesis 38 and LUT as law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 LUT. In the Mishnah and Talmud the Jibbum is described in depth treatise Yevamos ( מַסֶּכֶת יְבָמוֹת " sisters in law ", see Seder Nashim ) treated. Requirement was that the brother died without male offspring. Thus, the family was at risk. To protect this property, which had been distributed according to the Torah of YHWH God through Joshua, and to secure the position of the widow married the next brother, if he was of age, his brother's wife. Should he not be able to marry the sister in law, the duty was passed on to the next brother. When the brother in question was not yet ready for marriage, had to wait for the widow to the age of majority. The aim was to beget a male offspring, who received the " name and legal status " of the deceased husband and legally regarded as his son. The brother in law marriage was not permitted if sons were present from the first marriage. The completion of the levirate was a religious duty, but came only with the consent of both parties to exercise.
If one of the parties does not consent, the ceremony of Chalitza ( Ḥaliẓah ) is executed. The widow takes the Levir ( brother in law ) from a Chalitza shoe and spits in front of him on the ground. Here, a certain spell is being said. This was traditionally performs before the elders, later it was transformed, however, into a public ceremony. Since the time of Rashi around 1100 AD, the Chalitza was preferred over the levirate.
"If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies without children, his widow should not be the wife of a man from another clan, but her brother to go to her and marry her and connect with her brother in law marriage. And the first son whom she bears shall be considered as the son of his deceased brother, so that his name be not blotted out from Israel. But the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife, go to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth his brother to get his name in Israel, he will not marry me. Then the elders of his city shall call him to him and talk to him. But if he insists and says: -: Pretending to you I do not like to take them, then shall his brother's wife come unto him before the elders and pull him the shoe from the foot and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, to every man who does not want to build his brother's house! And his name shall be called in Israel, the, shoe loosed House '. "
A similar device as the levirate was the second great Persian Empire of the Sassanids the right of cagar - marriage ( see also cagar: Service obligor at the Kumyks ). Today, the levirate is used as preferred marriage of brother- partially in Mongolian and Turkic peoples.