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B. In the Torah’s terminology, a yavam (pronounced YAH-vahm) is a brother-in-law, and yibum is levirate marriage, or the act of the brother-in-law marrying his widowed sister-in-law. (“Levirate” comes from the Latin levir, or husband’s brother.)
C. Yibum requires the yavam to say “I Do!” should his brother get yanked from this earth without leaving any young. The purpose of yibum is to keep the dead brother’s name alive, a practice initiated by Jacob’s son Judah. Negative Mitzvah #357 forbids any other man to marry the yevamah (that’s the sister-in-law, pronounced yeh-vAH-mah) while she is bound to marry the yavam. If she releases herself from yibum (see below), she is free to marry whom she pleases.
The purpose of yibum is to keep the dead brother’s name alive, a practice initiated by Jacob’s son Judah
1. Don’t
Yibum is defunct today. In the rare case a yibum situation should arise, where a whole battery of qualifying criteria is met, Chalitzah is always done instead (see What is chalitzah?).
2. The Times, They Are A-Changing
As the generations progressed, people became increasingly lustful. And that flies in the face of yibum—this mitzvah is to be done for the sole sake of fulfilling a mitzvah, not for base desires. Because sexuality was becoming the primary motive for yibum, the chalitzah procedure is done instead, to release these brothers-in-law from their Torah obligations.
3. Your Typical Marriage
A “yibumite marriage,” if one were to be done today, would be no different than a standard wedding, complete with Chupah, live band and dozens of cousins who come from the far ends of the earth to gorge themselves on piles of food.
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Life Cycle » Marriage » The Wedding
