Texts of Judaism

The Babylonian Talmud in Selection: Nashim (Women): Childless Widows (Tractate Yebamoth)

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This is a translated selection from the Babylonian Talmud, specifically from tractate Yevamot, which deals with levirate marriage (the biblical obligation for a brother-in-law to marry his deceased brother's widow) and the related release ceremony called Halizah. The selection presents first the Mishna (the foundational legal code) and then the Gemara (rabbinic discussion and commentary), following the Talmud's characteristic structure of law followed by interpretive debate. The main content addresses edge cases in marital law: what happens when a woman remarries believing her husband dead and he returns, the precise procedural requirements for a valid Halizah ceremony (the specific type of footwear, placement on the foot, height on the leg), and disagreements among named rabbis about rights and penalties in contested situations. Distinctively, the text moves from dry legal technicality into extended scriptural exegesis, including a digression attributing seven acts of sexual intercourse to Sisera on the day of his death, and a theological claim that the serpent's copulation with Eve implanted lust into humanity — with Sinai's revelation serving as the cure for Israelites alone. The edition, selected and introduced by Leo Auerbach in 1944, presents these passages in accessible English translation for a general audience rather than as a scholarly critical text.

The Babylonian Talmud in Selection: Nashim (Women): Childless Widows (Tractate Yebamoth)

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