1,952. A Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law Whose Sons Get Mixed Up

Yibum v’Chalitzah 8:3

Continuing from the previous halacha, if each of the deceased men had two brothers, one brother from each pair should perform chalitzah with one sister and the other brothers should perform chalitzah with the other sister. After this, the second brother from each set should perform yibum with the sister with whom the first brother of each set performed chalitzah. If both brothers from the same set performed chalitzah with one of the sisters, then the brothers from the other may not both perform yibum. Rather, one brother from the second set should perform chalitzah, after which his brother should perform yibum with the remaining widow. If the brothers jumped the gun and each of them married one of the sisters, the couples are not forced to separate.

Yibum v’Chalitzah 8:4

Let’s say that woman and her daughter-in-law both had sons. Both the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law were pregnant and they gave birth together in a hiding place, where the babies got mixed up. These two boys grew up, got married and died. Their wives are released of levirate obligations as follows: First, one of the daughter-in-law’s sons performs chalitzah – to the exclusion of yibum – with both widows. This is because we don’t know whether one of these women is the widow of his brother, who is permitted to him, or the widow of his father’s brother, who is forbidden to him as a prohibited relation. Next, the sons of the mother-in-law may perform either chalitzah or yibum. This is because if the woman is his brother’s widow, it’s yibum; if she’s the wife of his brother’s son, it’s a permitted marriage because she performed chalitzah.