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According to Torah law, the process of yibum ends in one of two ways. One way is the completion of the yibum, which happens when the brother of the deceased has intercourse with the dead brother’s wife (the miyabemet). Another way is chalitzah (the ceremony of the wife spitting in the shoe), which cuts off any obligation or possibility of yibum–not just for the brother and the wife who conduct chalitzah, but for all the other brothers and wives who may be in the picture as well.
The rabbis add to this Torah law multiple moves making yibum much more akin to typical marriage. First, they enacted ma’amar: before yibum, one brother betroths the deceased’s wife to himself. Second, they decreed that a brother who had done ma’mar and changes his mind requires both a chalitzah and a get to cut off ties. Amongst other legal powers, this get has the full legal force of other gittin to makes the woman who received it pasulah to marry a kohein. The Rabbis further decreed that if a brother gives the miyabemet a get instead of chalitzah, she is no longer able to conduct yibum with any of the brothers –though she still must do chalitzah as well.
The entire chapter looks at the above rules through various permutations of multiple living brothers, multiple wives of the deceased brother, and/or multiple ma’amarim and gittin. For instance, if a brother enacts ma’amar with one of the wives, what happens if another brother steps in and conducts ma’amar of his own with another wife? And if one brother issues a get to a miyabemet – which, again, makes her poselet to marry a kohen – what happens if he issues another get to a second wife of the deceased?
Throughout, the answer to these questions hinges on a debate between Rabban Gamliel and the Chachamim, laid out in the chapter’s first mishna. According to Rabban Gamliel, that first ma’amar or get is final – and any delivered subsequently is as if it doesn’t exist. According to the Chachamim, however, every ma’mar and get has legal consequence until either intercourse or chalitza take place.
What might be the basis behind the argument between Rabban Gamliel and the Chachamim? To offer one possibility as food for thought, perhaps it stems from the reason for the decrees around ma’mar and get in cases of yibum to begin with. As background, we know from elsewhere (see for instance Mishnah Bekhorot 1:7) that Chazal seem to feel that, in their days, yibum had gone from a way of honoring a dead relative to a sort of “light” version of marriage – one that made them deeply uncomfortable. It’s not unreasonable to assume that Chazal added a betrothal step – which would need a get to undo it – as a way to layer a more “traditional” marriage on top of yibum.
But how exactly did they layer the rabbinic “marriage” on top of yibum? Rabban Gamliel and the Chachamim may have answered this question differently. To Rabban Gamliel, they may have expanded on the way the one and only brother who conducts yibum must enact that process with the one miyabemet – and any subsequent ma’mar or get from or to additional brothers / wives are simply irrelevant. To the Chachamim, on the other hand, perhaps Chazal created ma’amar /get as an “additional track” alongside the yibum process; as that parallel ceremony, it can operate in its own “universe,” isn’t tied to the one brother / wife enacting the yibum process – and can be done by and for the other brothers / wives as well.
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