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Parashat Ki Teitzei: The Levirate Marriage and Shem
Rabbi David Katz
In the Torah Portion of the week “Ki Teitzei” one of Torah’s
most ancient practices becomes engraved into Torah Law: The Levirate Marriage. [Devarim
25:5 - 25:10] Shrouded in unparalleled mystique, the “Yibum” [Hebrew for
Levirate Marriage] will become synonymous with uniting Ancient Torah into our
present, but yet there is something even far greater in implication that is a
direct offspring of the Yibum: The Davidic Dynasty, i.e. Kingship, and more
importantly the secret of the Messiah and the correction of the blemished Firstborn.
To understand the significance of the Yibum, and its association
with Shem [ben Noah] is to first simply explain with a working definition as to
what is the Levirite Marriage. To put the Commandment within an easy to
understand framework, the Yibum Marriage is a marriage of a man and woman, of
whom the man is the woman’s deceased husband’s brother [or closest kin], while
the prerequisite for this marriage is that the original couple went childless
for the duration of the deceased man’s life. The goal of the new marriage
between her and her deceased husband’s brother, is to have a child, preferably
a boy, a Firstborn with hopes of re-establishing the soul of the deceased in a
type of reincarnation, manifesting in the new child of the new marriage. The
custom is then to name the child after the deceased, and the soul then finds a
type of salvation, through the Yibum Marriage. Thus one can clearly see that
through the Yibum Marriage many Mystical Truths appear to be an integral part
of Kabalah, such as the importance contained within names and the hot debated
concept of reincarnations of Torah ideology. Yibum, in its simplest context
seems to ratify both concepts in a clear and concise fashion through the
adherence to the Commandment.
As mentioned above, Shem is the direct source of Yibum, with
a tradition of Ancient proportion, one that that began with Shem and his
daughter Tamar, extending all the way through Boaz and Ruth, the forefathers to
King David and the Messianic Lineage.
Shem came onto the New World with a mission of Kindness and
Righteousness, and sought to implement a foundation of Torah that would
flourish to the extent of fostering a Complete Redemption and be the basis of
the World to Come. Shem had one fundamental limitation to his elected service
of God: Shem lacked the Merit to produce the sacred Firstborn. Due to this
predicament, Shem then gave over to his Righteous daughter Tamar the keys of
Yibum and the entirety of the Ancient Torah, while choosing her as a successor
over his five sons. Tamar would then go on to be the Matriarch of the Davidic Kingdom
that would produce the Messiah; Tamar was a success due in part to her knowledge
of Ancient Torah, more specifically, the art of Yibum – the same Yibum that
would be commanded in the Torah of Moses in this week’s Parsha.
The Torah in Genesis gives details of Judah’s sons, their
death’s, Judah’s falling from grace, and his rejuvenation – all of which
involved either directly or indirectly with Tamar the daughter of Shem son of
Noah. Tamar would be the unsung hero of the entire family of Judah, and her
influence was imitated [on a spiritual level ordained by Hashem] with the
episode of Ruth and Boaz [Boaz being the Patriarch to David and onwards to
Messiah] as Ruth’s husband died childless, and Ruth suddenly found herself with
the Jewish People [much like Tamar found herself with Judah after not having
been with the Jewish People, despite her Bloodlines going back to Shem] where
upon she encountered Boaz, and he saw her as a woman of tremendous Grace. Boaz
ended up becoming intimate with Ruth, and her deceased husband [Machlon] would
live on in memory and soul through Ruth’s
son, that Naomi would raise named Oved, the ancestral father of David, going
back to Peretz, the son of Tamar, daughter of Shem. Thus the Yibum Marriage of
the Davidic Kingdom went full circle, as it began with Shem and his election of
Tamar; this being proof that Shem’s Holy Inspiration yielded him Truthful
results, as he had prepared for this by knowing the power of Yibum in
conjunction to his lack of a Firstborn. Ironically, through Yibum, Shem still
provided the Firstborn; as the procedure that Tamar and Judah took [of being
unique even according to Torah due to the fact that Tamar had not been with the
Jewish People], Shem became the “Father” of Peretz the Firstborn, as seen that
the child was not named after the deceased directly [the Firstborn was named
Peretz and not Er, Tamar’s first husband that died. It should be noted that the
new children were twins and this reflects that Tamar had married not one, but
two of Judah’s sons, thus making Judah the third and final partner for Tamar],
similarly to as we saw that Oved [Ruth’s new son] was not called Machlon [after
Ruth’s first husband], but rather Oved after Naomi, Machlon’s mother, of whom
raised the child. Again, with peculiar circumstances between Ruth and Boaz,
Naomi became a type of parent to the child Oved, as seen by the choice of name,
and as the Torah says that he was named after Naomi [for this reason]. Thus
Shem and Naomi became a type of spiritual parent to the children that they
inspired from Tamar and Judah and Ruth and Boaz.
Now that the basis of the Yibum has been established between
Tamar and Ruth and Judah and Boaz, the Torah’s Midrashim [books of exegesis]
tell the reader just how similar Tamar and Ruth really were! It comes out that
as Shem inspired Tamar in this endeavor, it actually spawned the Messianic seed
to sprout in Judah [as Judah was promised to produce the King, which it did in
David] and was reiterated to finish the effort through Ruth and Boaz. The Torah
proclaims that Ruth’s actions merited her to fulfill the entire Torah through
her sacred deeds, and this should not be of surprise, as the concept dates back
to Shem and his Ancient Torah, as we see directly with Tamar and Judah.
The famed rabbi the “Ramchal” states that this Yibum is of
particular importance in that the evil of the World that seeks to halt the
advent of the Redemption, simply can’t follow the path of Holiness when it acts within sacred schemes that are aligned
with God’s Will on High. Shem, who was a Priest to God Above, knew of the
bloodlines and seed on High and how to implement change and to manifest Divine
Favor on Earth – as Peretz the Firstborn of Tamar was a first in the World: he
was a Firstborn not only to Judah and Tamar, but to Hashem Himself! Shem had
now achieved the redemption of the Firstborn [a repair of the sin of Adam, who
caused the Firstborn to become tainted, as Kain was born before Hevel in error]
through a Holy Scheme and his knowledge on High, implemented through Tamar.
In the end, Shem has given us a fantastic Commandment in this
week’s Parsha of Yibum. But let us not stop there, Shem has given us Messiah,
King David, Firstborn Rights, Reincarnation Proof, Kabalah, Name [spiritual] Technology
[after all Shem means Name!], a path to redemption, Torah, etc – all from
Yibum! Shem founded the World not just on kindness, but he established also on
the promise of Righteousness. It should come as no surprise that Shem is one of
the Four Craftsmen of the Redemption as he is depicted as the Righteous Priest
that will join with the Messiah in the End of Days along with Elijah the
Prophet. As we know it was Shem that delivered the Torah to the World and is
included in the Torah of Moses. Now we can thank Shem for yet another gift of
Pilpul [spice] that he embedded into the Torah on Sinai: Mysticism – that we
can easily identify in the Torah, and in this parsha in particular, where we
are delivered the rites of Shem: in the command of the Yibum. Being a product
of Shem, should it be a surprise that the World endures in the merit of Yibum?
As it is the Messiah that is a product of Yibum, and the Yibum was
indoctrinated by none other than Shem ben Noah.
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