Levirate marriage

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Levirate Marriage (Dvora E. Weisberg).

Levirate marriage is one response to the challenges that arose when an Israelite man died leaving a widow but no children. What becomes of a widow with no children to care for her? What becomes of a man’s “name” and property in the absence of direct heirs? Levirate marriage, as described in Deut 25:5-10, offers a solution to both questions: Let the dead man’s brother marry the widow and let the children, or at least the first child of this union, be “accounted” to the deceased.

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Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Levirate marriage in the Talmud are here and here.