Levirate Marriage

[tuffsmurf]

Polygamy as a solution to the ”widow problem” had been largely debunked. There are virtually no societies that has a large disproportion of men vs women in reproductive age, even in countries that has been in war for decades (like Afghanistan or DR Congo).

And even if there was a surplus of women, polygamy is not a sustainable solution for most hunter-gatherers since one man can’t take care of more than one pregnant wife at a time without the possibility of gathering a surplus of resources.

 

[porthos11]

Pattylt:

I guess I’m pretty happy that I had a son…and that my husband didn’t die. I in no way want to marry my brother in law!

I think you’re being light hearted, but is it still practised in modern Judasim?

It hadn’t crossed my mind that it would be, but your comment made me wonder.

It is still on the books, but levirate marriage is banned by the State and Chief Rabbinate of Israel, so among Orthodox Jews there, the default in such a situation is to perform the halitzah ceremony, a ritualized enactment of the “punishment” for a brother-in-law who refuses to marry his brother’s childless widow. It also leaves the widow free to remarry outside the family.

 

[Pattylt]

Thanks…I didn’t know that…having no need to know it anyway! :hugs:

 

[lwest]

Levirate marriage isn’t necessarily polygyny, is it? It’s how the wife has to marry the brother-in-law if her husband dies and leaves no children.

 

[tuffsmurf]

Yes, levirate marriage isn’t necessary polygamous, but societies that practices the former usually also practices the latter.

 

[Tenzin]

Weren’t Adam and Eve monogamous?

 

[TheLittleLady]

We do not know.