Uncertain Identity, Paternity, and the Order of Release

Kiddushin is the act that establishes the marital bond, even before the marriage is completed. Here, one sister was consecrated, but her identity is uncertain.

The husband died without children. His actual wife therefore requires yibbum—marriage to an eligible surviving paternal brother—or chalitzah, the prescribed procedure releasing that obligation. A widow awaiting yibbum or chalitzah is called a yevamah; her eligible surviving paternal brother-in-law is her yavam. Zikah is the bond connecting her to her deceased husband’s eligible brothers. Since either sister may be his wife, neither may marry another man until the brother performs chalitzah with her. He cannot perform yibbum with either sister, because she may instead be the sister of the woman bound to him.

As in Chapter 1, Halachah 2, these procedures follow the Rambam’s position that permitted yibbum takes precedence over chalitzah. The differing approach of Ashkenazic authorities affects the practical procedure.

The second brother’s marriage is permitted whichever sister was the deceased’s wife. It is actual yibbum if he marries the widow. Otherwise, it is an ordinary marriage, permitted because the actual widow’s zikah has already been released. The brother who performed chalitzah may not marry the other sister, because she may be the sister of his chalutzah—the woman with whom he performed effective chalitzah.

The Sages prohibit a brother from marrying the sister of a woman bound to him by zikah. Chalitzah must therefore come first, so that the second brother will not marry a woman while her sister may still be bound to him.

This does not authorize the brothers to disregard the required sequence. After both marriages have occurred, the actual widow’s marriage resolves the zikah, while uncertainty remains about which marriage involved the Rabbinic restriction. The marriages are not dissolved because of that uncertainty.

This leniency concerns brothers who acted without first consulting the court. The Shulchan Aruch rules that if the court instructed one to perform chalitzah and the other yibbum, but they ignored that instruction and both married, both must divorce.

The deceased men belonged to different families, and each consecrated a different sister. What remains unknown is which sister was married to which man. Chalitzah from one family releases only that family’s widow; it cannot resolve the possible bond to the other family. Each surviving brother must therefore perform chalitzah with both sisters.

Even after one brother has done so, the other cannot perform yibbum with either sister: the other woman may still be his own yevamah, whose sister is forbidden to him. After he performs chalitzah with one, the other may instead be the sister of his chalutzah.

The single brother’s two procedures first release whichever woman was his deceased brother’s wife. The other family’s two brothers then follow Halachah 1: one performs chalitzah with one sister, and the other marries the second. If she is their brother’s widow, the marriage is yibbum; if she belonged to the first family, her actual yibbum bond has already been released.

This concerns the two brothers from the family that had two surviving brothers, after the single brother has performed chalitzah with both sisters. They married one sister each without following the required sequence. As in Halachah 1, this is an after-the-fact ruling, rather than permission to proceed in that way.

Kohanim are priests, and Kohen is the singular. Each woman’s chalitzah with the single brother may have been legally effective, if she was his brother’s wife, or ineffective, if she belonged to the other family. Her status as his chalutzah is therefore uncertain. Here, that Rabbinic uncertainty does not require ending a completed marriage to a Kohen.

A Kohen may not marry a woman in this doubtful-chalutzah situation initially. The ruling permits a marriage already completed to remain; it does not authorize the marriage in advance.

This continues the case of two deceased men from different families and two sisters whose husbands’ identities are uncertain. Each family now has two surviving brothers. One brother from each family performs chalitzah, but they do so with different sisters.

Each remaining brother marries the sister who received chalitzah from the other family. If she belonged to that other family, its chalitzah released her actual bond, allowing an ordinary marriage. If she belonged to his own family, the other family’s procedure had no legal effect, and he now performs yibbum with his own brother’s widow. Thus, the marriage is permitted whichever deceased man was her husband.

Here, both initial chalitzah procedures were performed by brothers from the same family, one with each sister. They have released that family’s actual widow, but neither procedure can release the widow of the other family. If the other family now attempts yibbum first, the woman chosen may be the sister of its own still-bound widow.

The other family must therefore resolve its own possible zikah through chalitzah with one sister before the second brother marries the other. Chalitzah performed by a different family cannot substitute for that step.

If the other family’s two brothers nevertheless married one sister each, the after-the-fact rule of Halachah 1 applies. This does not authorize that sequence initially.

The daughter-in-law is married to one of the older woman’s sons. Her own sons are therefore the older woman’s grandsons. Each new baby belongs to a different generation, but it becomes impossible to identify which baby was born to which mother.

The “known sons” are the children born earlier whose mothers are identified. The two other men are known individuals; what remains uncertain is which woman is each man’s mother. The brotherhood relevant to yibbum in this arrangement is paternal. The older woman’s sons discussed in this comparison are the daughter-in-law’s husband’s brothers.

The two men whose mothers are uncertain died without children. Their widows now require their yibbum bonds to be resolved. The earlier sons, whose identities are known, are the surviving relatives involved: each widow may be a brother’s wife to one group and an uncle’s or nephew’s wife to the other.

A known son of the daughter-in-law can perform chalitzah with each widow to resolve her possible bond to that family. Chalitzah is required because either deceased man may have been his brother; yibbum is not permitted because the other possible relationship is forbidden.

From a son of the daughter-in-law’s perspective, a son born to his own mother is his brother, while a son born to the older woman is his paternal uncle. An ervah here is a woman forbidden by a Torah-level family relationship that would exempt her from both yibbum and chalitzah with that man. Since this relationship is only a possibility here, yibbum is prohibited but chalitzah remains necessary.

This is only after the daughter-in-law’s sons have performed the required chalitzah. The older woman’s sons do not face the same possible forbidden relationship.

For a known son of the older woman, the widow is either his brother’s wife or his nephew’s wife. If she is his brother’s widow, the marriage fulfills yibbum. If she is his nephew’s widow, she is not forbidden to him by that relationship, but her bond to her actual yavam had to be released first. The preceding chalitzah from the daughter-in-law’s son supplies that release.

This reverses Halachah 4. The sons whose mothers were known have died without children, and the two men whose mothers are uncertain survive. One surviving man is the older woman’s son, and the other is her daughter-in-law’s son, but their identities remain unknown.

Each unidentified man must perform chalitzah with each such widow, because only the one who is actually her husband’s brother can release her bond. Neither man may marry her, since he might instead be her husband’s nephew.

If the surviving man is the older woman’s son, the deceased was his brother. If he is the daughter-in-law’s son, the deceased was his father’s brother. That possible Torah-level prohibition prevents yibbum, although chalitzah remains necessary to release the possible brother’s-wife bond.

For each widow in this group, either unidentified man may perform chalitzah first, and the other may then marry her. The order ensures that she is not married to someone outside her husband’s eligible brothers while her actual zikah remains unresolved.

Here, the first chalitzah was effective: the man who performed it was the deceased’s brother. The second man is the deceased’s uncle, so his subsequent marriage to the released widow is an ordinary marriage, not yibbum.

A husband’s uncle is not his brother and cannot perform chalitzah for his widow. This attempted procedure therefore does not release her zikah. It also does not prevent her actual yavam from subsequently performing yibbum.

Here, the first procedure was ineffective, but the second man is the actual yavam. His marriage fulfills yibbum and resolves the widow’s bond. Thus, the same sequence permits the marriage whichever unidentified man belongs to which generation.

After a husband’s death, the waiting period helps establish whether a subsequent child was fathered by him or by a new husband. Hilchos Gerushin 11:18 defines the period as ninety days, excluding the day of death and the day of the new consecration.

The timing fits either pregnancy. The child’s mother is known; the uncertainty concerns which husband is his father.

He died without children. His widow needs chalitzah from an eligible brother in each possible paternal family, so that whichever man was his father, her actual obligation is released. One eligible brother from each group is sufficient; every brother in a group need not perform a separate chalitzah.

All these sons have the same mother. If a particular son also shares the deceased’s father, he is eligible for yibbum. If they share only their mother, the deceased’s wife is an ervah—a woman forbidden to him by a Torah-level family relationship. Yibbum applies to paternal brothers and does not permit marrying the wife of a brother related through the mother alone. This possibility rules out yibbum.

The same restriction applies in reverse: if one of the known sons dies without children, the son of uncertain paternity may be his paternal brother, but may instead be his brother through their mother alone.

This is a different family arrangement: each possible father has just one other son, born to another wife. Neither known son shares a mother with the son of uncertain paternity. The deceased left no children, and there is no additional surviving paternal brother whose obligation would prevent his widow from marrying an unrelated man.

If he is the actual paternal brother, his chalitzah releases her. If he is unrelated, the procedure has no legal effect, but she has no surviving paternal brother and is already free to marry. Marriage is also permitted, because neither possible family relationship makes her forbidden to him.

If the two men have the same father, this is actual yibbum.

If their fathers differ, their mothers differ as well. The surviving man is unrelated to the deceased, and the marriage is an ordinary marriage to a widow who has no surviving paternal brother.

This continues the previous halachah: each possible father has one other son born to another wife. The son of uncertain paternity died without children. His widow’s actual paternal brother-in-law is one of the two surviving men, but his identity is unknown.

After the first man performs chalitzah, the second may marry her whichever father was the deceased’s actual father. He must not marry her first: she might be the other man’s yevamah—a widow bound to her deceased husband’s paternal brother—and would then be marrying an outsider before that bond was released.

If the second man is the deceased’s actual paternal brother, the first man was unrelated to the deceased. That first chalitzah had no legal effect, and the second man now performs actual yibbum.

In this possibility, the first man was the actual brother, and his chalitzah released the widow. The second man is unrelated to the deceased and marries her through ordinary marriage.

His return establishes that the first marriage had never ended. The attempted second marriage therefore created no Torah-level marital bond. Nevertheless, Hilchos Gerushin 10:5 requires her to receive a get—a bill of divorce—from each man. She must leave both men and may never resume married life with either.

Both men died without children before she received the required divorces.

The first husband’s brother must perform chalitzah under Torah law, because she was truly married to his brother. Just as Rabbinic law requires a get from the second man despite the invalid marriage, it also requires chalitzah from his brother if he dies without children. In this case, the required procedure after death is chalitzah; the obligation to release her does not permit yibbum. Even if only one man dies childless, his brother must perform chalitzah and may not perform yibbum.

There are two groups of sons: the older sons, whose mothers are known, and the five newborn sons, one born to each woman.

Each younger son is a distinct, known person, but nobody knows which woman is his mother. These five sons later died without children.

The case assumes that each woman’s older and younger sons are paternal brothers. Each widow therefore has exactly one actual paternal brother-in-law among the five surviving sons. These men are the possible yevamim—the brothers eligible for yibbum—but nobody knows which widow belongs to which brother.

Choose one widow. Four different surviving sons each perform chalitzah with her. If her actual brother-in-law is among those four, his chalitzah releases her; procedures performed by unrelated men have no legal effect.

If the fifth man is her actual brother-in-law, the first four procedures had no effect and he performs yibbum. If one of the first four was her actual brother-in-law, she has already been released and the fifth marries her through ordinary marriage. The order makes the marriage permissible without identifying her deceased husband’s family. The next halachah explains the procedure for the other widows.

This refers to the fifth man, who marries the widow after the other four perform chalitzah. If he is her actual paternal brother-in-law, the earlier procedures were performed by unrelated men and had no legal effect. His marriage is actual yibbum.

In that possibility, one of the four was her actual paternal brother-in-law. His chalitzah released her, and the fifth man marries her through ordinary marriage.

For the second widow, a different man is left out of the four chalitzah procedures and then marries her. The man who married the first widow now joins the group performing chalitzah.

The procedure is repeated for each widow, with a different surviving son marrying her after the other four perform chalitzah. Thus, each of the five men marries one widow. Their family identities remain uncertain, but every marriage is permissible.

The following rules guide the handling of uncertain family relationships and uncertain obligations.

A possible obligation cannot be ignored. If he is her actual yavam, his chalitzah releases her. If he is unrelated, it has no effect. When the uncertainty concerns different possible paternal families, the required procedures must cover each possible family. Ordinarily, one eligible brother’s fully effective chalitzah releases the obligation for his deceased brother’s household.

A possible prohibition prevents authorizing yibbum, even when the prohibition would be Rabbinic. In the earlier cases that prescribe chalitzah before marriage, that preliminary procedure makes the subsequent marriage permissible under either possible set of facts.

A tzarah, or co-wife, is another wife of the same deceased husband. Here, “fully effective” refers to resolving the household’s yibbum obligation, including releasing the deceased’s other wife. Chalitzah me’ulah is fully effective chalitzah, not preceded by a get or ma’amar given by any surviving brother to this widow or any of her co-wives. Ma’amar is a Rabbinic act of consecration toward yibbum.

Be’ilah kesheirah is yibbum relations performed at the outset, or following that same brother’s ma’amar with this widow, without another preceding act. A prior get to this widow or a co-wife, another brother’s ma’amar with this widow, or any brother’s ma’amar with a co-wife compromises the act’s full effectiveness. These definitions follow Chapter 5, halachos 9–10.

A lesser chalitzah may release the woman herself without releasing her co-wife. The specified fully effective acts settle the household’s yibbum obligation, freeing the other wife without a separate procedure. The woman with whom valid yibbum took place remains married to the yavam.

The cases in this chapter show how to examine each possible family relationship and arrange the required procedures so that no unresolved obligation or possible prohibition is overlooked.

Further cases must be evaluated using the principles established throughout these laws, including the concluding rules in the previous halachah.

These are distinct conclusions. A woman may require chalitzah while being forbidden in yibbum; another may be exempt from both; and another may be eligible for yibbum. The relevant family relationships and legal conditions determine which ruling applies.