1,946. A Minor or a Woman Who Loses Her Faculties

Yibum v’Chalitzah 7:13

Let’s say that a girl was married off by her father. Her husband divorced and remarried her, after which he died while she was still a minor. In such a case, she is prohibited to her late husband’s surviving brother because such a divorce is fully effective when a girl is married off by her father. The remarriage, on the other hand, is not fully effective because the betrothal of a minor is not fully effective, as has been discussed.

Yibum v’Chalitzah 7:14

The same is true if a man divorces a woman who has all of her faculties, she loses her ability to communicate, he remarries her and dies while she is still in this condition. This widow is prohibited to her husband’s surviving brother and doesn’t perform chalitzah or yibum; another woman who was married to this woman’s husband – or to the husband of a minor – may perform chalitzah or yibum. If the late husband remarried the woman while she was a minor or lacking her faculties but she reached adulthood or regained her faculties while still married to him, after which he died, then she is permitted to his surviving brother.