What is "halizah"

Under the Biblical system of levirate marriage known as Yibbum, Halizah (or Chalitzah ; ) is the process by which a widow and her husband's brother would avoid the duty to marry after the husband's death.

The process involves the taking off of a brother-in-law's shoe by the widow of a brother who has died childless, through which ceremony he is released from the obligation of marrying her, and she becomes free to marry whomever she desires .

Only one brother-in-law is obligated to perform the ceremony. The mode of levirate marriage is thus modified in the Deuteronomic code attributed to Moses, by permitting the surviving brother to refuse to marry his brother's widow, provided he submits to the ceremony of Halizah. In the Talmudic period the tendency against the original mode was intensified by apprehension that the brother-in-law might desire to marry his brother's widow for motives other than that of "establishing a name unto his brother." Therefore, many Talmudic and later rabbis preferred halizah to actual marriage ( Yevamot 39b). Thus the ancient institution of the levirate marriage fell into disuse, so that at present Halizah is the general rule and marriage the rare exception ( Shulkhan Arukh, Eben ha-'Ezer, 165, and commentaries).

In theory, however, the Biblical law of levirate marriage is still presumed in force, thus making the childless widow who remarries someone other than her brother-in-law without performing the halizah ceremony an adulterer.