Second: Dealings

Marriage:

Marriage in the Jewish legislation occupies a wide space. Yet these texts do not deal with this matter wisely.

The Marriage Bond:

The father is the dominant master; his will is the law itself. His orders shall be obeyed. He marries his daughters and sons at will. He may marry his daughter to any man he chooses and may choose a wife for his son even without consulting him. This is confirmed in Genesis, where Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) chose a wife for his son without the latter’s knowledge. There were no preliminaries to marriage and the engagement was unfamiliar and marriage would take place all at once without antecedents.[1]

The wife of the deceased brother shall be transferred to the living brother obligatorily:

If a man dies leaving a wife that has begotten him no children, his brother should marry her and the first newborn would carry the name of the deceased brother, that is, he would not carry the name of his actual natural father but the name of his deceased uncle.[2] So the woman here is like any article of the heritage of the deceased. She would belong to the brother and would not be permitted to marry someone else save with his consent; otherwise, she would remain unmarried. Besides, the brother is obliged, according to the Law of the Torah, to marry her. Al-Sumaw’al Ibn Yahya al-Maghribi comments on these laws saying: “Among the abominations they practice is their attitude towards orphans and………in that they were commanded that If two brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no child, the wife of the deceased shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall marry her, And it shall be, that the firstborn which she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead. And if the man refuses to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the elders, and complain saying: ‘ My husband's brother refuses to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not marry me.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him, and force him to say: ‘I do not like to marry her.’ Then his brother's wife shall come and loose his shoe off his foot, and spit in his face, and say addressing him: ‘So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.’ Thereafter he shall be called the one of the loosened shoe and his daughter shall be nicknamed so, i.e. the daughter of the one of the loosened shoe. And all this is enjoined in the Torah.”[3]