Positive Commandment 217 (Digest)
Circumventing Levirate Marriage
"And she shall remove his shoe off his foot"—Deuteronomy 25:9.
If the brother of a married man who dies childless does not marry his widowed sister-in-law See [Positive Commandment 216], the widow is commanded to remove her brother-in-law's shoe [as part of the chalitzah ceremony described in the Torah, and she is then permitted to marry whomever she desires].
Our sages tell us that performing levirate marriage is preferable to employing chalitzah to release the widow and brother-in-law from their bond.
Unabridged English Text of this Mitzvah »
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> The 217th mitzvah is that in a case when a yavam;) will not marry his yevamah,;) she performs chalitzah;) on him.
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> The source of this commandment is G‑d's statement;) (exalted be He), "She shall remove his shoe from his foot."
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> The details of this mitzvah are found in the tractate devoted to this subject, tractate Yevamos.
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> You are already familiar with the statement of our Sages,;) "Performing the mitzvah of yibum [i.e., marrying the yevamah] is preferable to performing the mitzvah of chalitzah.";)
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> For this same reason;) they called the tractate "Yevamos,";) even though it gives equal coverage both to the laws of yibum and those of chalitzah.
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> Footnotes
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> When a husband has died, and the couple had no children, the woman is known as a yevamah; the deceased man's surviving brother is known as a yavam; the mitzvah to marry her is called yibum. See P216.
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> When yibum is not performed, she is still not allowed to remarry unless chalitzah is performed, i.e., the yavam dons a specially made shoe on his right foot; then the yevamah removes it from the yavam's foot, spits on the ground, and makes a verbal statement.
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> 2.
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> See note above.
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> 3.
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> See note above.
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> 4.
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> Deut. 25:9.
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> 5.
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> Bechoros 1:7.
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> 6.
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> From this expression, "the mitzvah of chalitzah," we see clearly that chalitzah counts as one of the mitzvos.
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> 7.
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> That yibum is preferable to chalitzah.
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> 8.
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> Rather than "Yevamos and Chalitzos," or something similar.