Yibbum: Present Day Implications

Although the story of Ruth is not the classic case of yibbum described in Deuteronomy, Shavuot provides an opportunity to focus on this issue which has serious implications, even today, for Jewish women. As is clear from the two articles, historically there was a split as to whether yibbum or halitza takes precedence. Ashkenazim have favored halitza over yibbum, the Oriental communities yibbum over halitza, and the Sephardim are somewhere in between. In 1950, after the establishment of the State of Israel, Chief Rabbis Herzog and Uziel prohibited yibbum so that there would be one established law for all. But this issue can still cause hardship for a woman waiting to be released by halitza, and through the generations, rabbis have tried to address this. By becoming a yevama, a woman is bound to her husband’s brother and she can thus be in the same limbo as an agunah if the yavam (her brother-in-law) is a minor, is incompetent to go through the halitza ceremony, cannot be located, or refuses to perform halitza. The widow in all these cases becomes an agunah and cannot remarry. She is then subject to the same problems as other agunot—the inability to get on with her own life, being vulnerable to extortion and blackmail, etc.