Parshat Ki Tetzei: Yibum & Chalitzah - Levirate Marriage - Rabbi David Kaplan

I you I want to we're going to go to two more two more points here page 1062 to line so about one or more intriguing mixes in the Torah very really intriguing Mitzvah and when you hear the Mitzvah and then the depth of the Mitzvah it's rated a fascinating exploration based on the l-shaped hakoda geology was wondering a great kabbalists live in space and 15 in the 16th century fascinating concept that sounds like this key issue alchemy act over there are two brothers living to get two brothers together who may sakit man one of them dies bottom line of age 1062 makes a cot man who been a low he has no children Lucia ashes ha Mesa hoots Alicia's or the wife of the deceased must not marry somebody else you've ama y la illaha her brother-in-law must marry her Lukaku lola isha de bois he will take her as a wife and it's called levirate marriage the brother-in-law marries the wife of the deceased brother who left no children he had he left children then the brother or would not only not not not is it's not only not a mitzvah for him to marry her he's not even allowed to marry her he's not allowed to marry her if there were two surviving children if there were no surviving children then he has a mitzvah well I'm going to cover all details in ya gotta try covered i'll try to cover all details anyway we'll see in a second the high above hora shirttail aid thus firstborn who she gives birth to afterwards yaku malcham alcove amazed he shall be established on the name of his deceased brother Lloyd makishima me spell his name should not be erased and Kabbalistic Lee we we understand that the soul of the brother who's deceased comes back in their child the employer policies ricotta Susie of himself the man does not want to marry her they also a femto ishara all has kaden she goes to the elders there'd be the Baisden the Umrah she says mania Vermeil aki mafia me so my yoga my brother-in-law refuses to reestablish a name for his brother low of a hobby he does not want to perform levirate marriage the car alone Zeke the hero the elders of the town call him vide bro I love they speak to him in others they try to convince them to he should go through with it I'm item are local selig outlet and he stands he stands his ground he says I do not want to marry her so what does she do then vaniqa show you of him too i love Lena has gained if she approaches him but Coulson LOL Rygel she removes his shoe the York kogda fun of she spits in front of him she does not spit in his face don'tdon't miss translate v Ark of the fun of your co photos that translated she spits in as I said she spits on the ground in front am the unsub America asle Shoshana events based on it is what should be done to a man who refuses to build his brother's house Vinny crush a moat be so base Cullerton Allen he is called the one with the removed shoe based base colors are basically so now he is the one who has had the one who's had his chute removed now this is a holic practical Aloha nowadays if a man dies childless and he has a surviving brother so then the hollow ha is that nowadays eben is not performed the brother does not marry the sister-in-law because the guara says nowadays people do not have the proper intent when doing such a thing in the time of the Gomorrah time of the Torah was given man could it could marry his sister-in-law with proper intent for the Mitzvah whereas nowadays the assumption is a man who engages in that activity he's not going to manage to muster up the proper intent in the proper devotion and doing the Mitzvah and therefore better they should separate than do the Mitzvah and it was what's called they go through what's called the ha'la'tha ceremony Kaleta ceremony is to go to Baisden the shoe is removed basin has a special shoot and all the bases there's a special shoe he puts on this shoe her slipper of some sort she removes the shoe from his foot she spits on the ground and she is now free to marry anybody she wants that means when the first one the brother dies is there any other brothers she's actually bonded to the brother she's bonded to them she cannot marry somebody else until the surviving brother either marry sir or he releases her that so the famous called leads to Sarah although the question for a few minutes let me cover it first then if there anything that's not clear you look you'll ask now so nowadays the colita is done and you could run into very tricky huh logic situations one of them was in when the Iron Curtain before the Iron Curtain was down you'd have a woman who's living in America was married to a husband and husband dies he's got a brother in Russia and and the brother cannot get out of Russia and therefore this woman is in a tricky situation because now she can't she can't what he called you can't marry somebody else and he can't get out of Russian these are there were cases like that would had occurred was the most heartbreaking case that I heard was a young lady a couple got married and a short time after the marriage the firm couple of short time after her husband doesn't adaya tea and I was about 23 24 years old he got sick and he died and he had a younger brother who was 2 years old which means they have to wait 10 years than 11 years till he's permits in order to do the whole Itza she can't do anything for 10 or 11 years and that's are they are way as unfortunately son for JN it's a very unfortunate but that that's the halacha and that's you know they even asked that he dare say well yash of what are you doing over is that you have to do it the torres us to do there you know we can't we're limited limited in what what you know what could be done so it's unfortunate you know that it's not always easy that is the that is what the mitts on out what's really going on here what's really going on here so the run bond one of you i think mentioned yesterday about you Hooda who married Yoda who had two sons who died now when his first son died the second son then married Tom are right the second son marry when air died own unmarried or winona died you at America under the ROM ban says over there in Brighton in the book of races he says the ancients knew the secret the ancients knew the secret and the secret that when a brother dies unmarried the next brother should marry him is good for his soul apparently that was a secret that they know already then before the tour was even given a that's why you hood it did it and that's why the next weekend Mary sir now here you'll notice the Torah says that the firstborn son yo coom al shame akiha mace he should take an he reestablishes the name of the deceased brother now people mistakenly think that he has to be named the same name as the brother it's not true Sancho the surgeon says yo comal shame Aviva mesa what does that mean I think you've heard at some point or other that the letters of the word neshama everybody has a soul munchen mem hey what are the two middle letters of neshama name name sham sham in other words the two middle letters are that your name the name that you're given is actually a description of the essence of your neshama when parents damn you parents we believe are divinely inspired even though they have a whole calculation well you know grandpa's ebru name was a fri am and uncle Charlie's Hebrew name was time so we're going to call me Frank I am but we like Cayenne better so going to oh hi Matt fry him right after all their calculations there's something about the name that is divinely inspired their divinely-inspired therefore this person gets that name and it's a description of your essence whatever that means now what happens is like this the idea of having children a person who is alive once they have a certain continuity in this world a man dies childless and if he dies childless there is only one way for his neshama to have a continuity the only way his neshama could have a continuity is if his brother marries his wife and they have a child that will provide this shame the essence of his neshama will come back in their child and that will give him the continuity that every neshama once he'll give him the continuity now the problem is if the brother does not want to marry the sister-in-law and generally if he doesn't want to a density with attraction he does that he is allowing his material or physical a side to get the best of him and therefore he is embarrassed to a certain extent as an embarrassing procedure they have a woman to have anybody spit on you spitting is always regarded in every society is spinning is regarded as disrespectful and there are certain finds you I think if you spit on somebody and even in secular law there's a certain fine you could yet because it's regarded as being as being a big guy when Ted Williams spent at the fans right that was going to already sad at the wedding all that the reporters does consider made headline news somebody sped us I think Robert Roberto Alomar also was a baseball player who once spit at an umpire I say you know okay there's something about spitting there's something about spitting which is considered inherently inherently embarrassing disrespect she spits on the ground and she removes his shoe what does that mean what is removing the shoe me so I show you a very interesting idea you have a body we even have an expression in English who's that boy I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right every use X I wouldn't want to be in his shoes now even if you were in his shoes and even he who is in his shoes how much of him is in his shoes a very low percentage of you is in your shoes right yeah I will want to be in his shoes that where you can't get in there's no room for you you know that there's barely room for him it only covers his feet so yet we use that expression we use that expression so what what the idea is like this how much of your body is in your shoe very little very small first of all part the shoe serves a purpose your body is very delicate you have delicate little feet and the earth is very coarse the earth is very coarse by the way a comedian once said if you could stare at your toes for a minute and not start laughing then you've got no sense of humor okay yeah so okay so you know toes are just stage shows are just interesting what can I tell you so so the the the if when you're in your shoes your shoes provide the buffer that allows your body which is delicate to walk around on the very coarse earth and very small part of your body is in your shoe ok now the neshamah how much of your neshama is in your body because we don't know anything about in the showman's we think well I have my five foot seven inch neshama you've got your 6 foot 2 inches up you've got your five foot nine inches shop I never this is my neshama and this is your new shop my new son was a little thinner your new jobs a little thick we think of our neshama goes basically from head to toe that's a mistake I neshama is barely in our body most the overwhelming majority of our neshama is the part that extends from here all the way up to God's divine throne now the neshamah is very delicate and then shamma has to live in a very crude course world what is the vehicle that allows the neshamah to walk around in this world call our body that means our body to the neshamah is parallel to a shoe to a body I understand where we're going with this what didn't he want to do your brother's neshama wants continuity wants to be in this world who needs a shim and you're not willing to provide the physical body for his neshama to be in this world Oh what do we do symbolically she removes his shoe because in the physical realm the shoe to the body correspond is the parallel of the body to the soul you didn't want to provide a body for his neshama we symbolically remove your shoe which represents his body your shoe represents the body for the soul because your shoe to your body is like your body to your soul and therefore his shoe is removed symbolically showing that she did not allow I want to allow continuity for the soul there's a very interesting story rabbi haim ozark Rosinski i don't know if any of you he was the unchallenged jewish leader after the toughest time passed away Rock I moser krasinski was the the robe of Vilna he was really the leader of the Jewish people before the Second World War then he was niftar than the COS oneisha I'm sure you've heard of he became the unquestioned challenge leader but rib hi mosberg risk it was really the leader of Lithuanian jury and recline Lazar gorsinski it was right before Rosh Hashanah and he was so he was not a well man and he was told by his doctors that he has to go to some spa there's some sort of spa somewhere these two go to these Elliott somewhere in Russia Poland wherever was used to go to these spas and he has spend the High Holidays in the spa he was very upset he want to stay with his community and Vilma but if a doctor gives you orders if we give them it's with the follow the orders of the doctor so hi mother gives us he goes up to this little spot somewhere they barely get a minion together for Russia tion and he's very upset why would God put me Russia tion of all times why does God move me out over here where I gotta barely a minion of people okay he's there for rosh hashanah then the shabbos between rosh hashanah and yom kippur is called shabbos chuva so he goes to show shabbos you again at 12 14 people in the show and a man walks in and he walks over a high-motor walks over to banish all ballet from what's your name so he's a very kind goldstein this is what are you doing here since on my way to st. Petersburg so what's the Saints Peter heard he says well my brother died he left the wife and three children and you know she's our jobs where we felt that the most efficient thing to do would be for me to bury her and that way you know we would take care of the problem hi Moser looks at the man he says hey you you're not allowed to marry her you no longer it's only he says no no you boo me boo boo boo he says my friend you know you the levirate marriage luhan versus oh no you boom only applies if there are no children if there are children and you marry her that's an active adult it's tantamount to adultery and any subsequent children are moms Abram you're not allowed to marry her and he says no no no ye boom you boo boom he said I'm telling you you can't he says look I'm not an educated you I don't know a whole lot you know if the rabbi of Vilna ribbit hi mosberg rosinski would tell me i'm not allowed to do it then I would listen but otherwise I'm going says oh I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself my name is hi moser Gerson's can Nilda my mother said afterwards I think I might have an idea why I caught his world who sent me here for the High Holidays to prevent the tragedy a tragedy of the Jewish people say it's a very severe thing you can't you can't do that that doesn't work that is the mitzvot of ye boomin kalita okay only if they do that of kids she if she other want to she is advised by the Baeza they try to convince her but she's that forced now for it to get violator yeah what a brother was very married he could dare you bite or loss since he could have more than one wife so he marries her very low but I remember Charlie by Ashkenazi the by Torah Ashkenazi laudatory Ashkenazi notorious party the door is universally in safari in Ashkenazi law it's since the taconic robbie mayor rubino Gershom or hago la for about a thousand years ago that were not allowed to take more than one wife but by total law it's perfectly acceptable and in as a matter of fact in certain safari communities they it never be they never accepted his ruling he was in he was in Europe they never accepted as really and they had a problem when the State of Israel was was created and he had the lvf from sorority countries like Morocco in Yemen these sorts of bases there were people came up with two wives down the law of the land was that that what's called polygamy pelea polygamy was what's a tool to husband's is polyandry polygamy polygamy is against the law so they passed the ruling in the country that anybody is already married to two wives is allowed to keep them but that no one subsequently is allowed to but in sparty law they did not accept they didn't accept that ruling by the way do you know what Co wives are called you know sister and a sister-in-law there's a sister-in-law a mother-in-law a brother-in-law there's a katana octane gesa these are all the names you know it co-wives the relationship between involved they're called eight sorrow Leia is eight Sarah to Ruckle if they share a husband Leia in ruffle are called sorrow that's the official I'll lock it exactly exactly well why do you think it is why did they get it of course of course it so that they're the toilet do not get along it does create touching it does create idea it certainly does great tension and therefore they're called they're called souris of they're called each other's Sarah that is the official Tom music term for a co for a co wife one of the reasons of man's allowed to marry two sisters there's a lot of the demand cannot marry two sisters there's a reason a man can't marry two sisters because there is a natural enmity between co-wives and two sisters theoretically get along nobody's seen my daughters but tooth is sisters so theoretically get along therefore for a man to marry two sisters there's a certain insensitivity because you're driving a wedge in a relationship where there should be not because it's with them by the technically by letter low to them get along there for a man cannot marry two sisters if one sister dies then a man is allowed to marry her surviving sister that is Perez lakorn delicate now it's permissible in Jewish history was done quite frequently because before in the before the 20th century where there was a very high mortality rate for infant effort for childbirth mortality rate women were dying and when a woman dies when a woman dies a woman who dies in childbirth is usually a young woman who probably has other children and therefore the most logical person to raise the children then becomes the becomes a surviving sister I know of two cases there was one case of one in my neighborhood who was niftar and while she was sick as she was sick for a long time while she was sick her sister had been in the house helping out and then she passed away in about six months late to the husband married the sister there was there was the most logical thing actually no three cases I know a rabbi in Chicago who was living with who was married for many many many years probably over 50 years and there was a Spencer he had was married to his wife and the spinster sister who lived with them she lived with them and the wife was niftar the wife was lift her first and they had a problem because I have a problem with the hood because this is now his sister-in-law and they're living in the same house the man was in the 70s were seven equals 80 and they're living in the same house nobody what do you do they got a problem the two of them can't be under the same roof the boy was not there you got a problem of you hood so they just did the logical thing that got married in red they didn't have to go out too much i living in december for 50 years so they basically know each other so that you know but then there was there was there was a another story here so this is a tragic story they'd actually had a happy ending but um there was a woman named Russell Weiss maybe some of you have heard it you could probably find it online whatever was there was a terrorist attack on a bus and there was a woman named raha Weiss who got on a bus with three children and there was a terrorist attack the bus i think was coming two years till I him from me from from around the the bed shot I forgot where they were and there the terrorist attack of the bus caught fire and raha Weiss could have gotten off the bus but she couldn't get her kids off though so she stayed with her children and and she ended up she died with her children on the bus I think there was an Israeli soldier who tried to save them and he also died and then what happened they didn't know where the brother with the some time later the father of raha Weiss who had died suggested that the son-in-law marry her sister her sister became of age to get married and he suggested that so much and Mary the sister but then it became a question because they never found anyone ever bodies they never found bodies as they weren't there incinerated on the bus and there comes a problem because if he married sister you have to have positive identification and somebody has died otherwise you have to suspect she's alive because you know they didn't have cellphones in those days the last thing she had told her husband she's getting on a bus to come to use your line but it's not enough evidence according to a local so they went to roble yasha trophy as you've said that they could use the dental charts because he did you find the teeth and based on the dental charts they were able to identify there was her and her children and ever then the brother end up marrying the sister but this was not uncommon because you live you had women who died in childbirth and somebody's got to raise the children so the logical next the next person was a sister okay