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Why does the mitzvah (מצוה) of yibum override the Torah (תורה) prohibition of marrying one's brother's wife? The shiur develops a fundamental yesod: yibum creates a dual identity (shem) within one physical body (guf) — the yavam acquires his deceased brother's shem while retaining his own guf, making the yevama his own wife, not his brother's. This explains the exclusion of an aylonis and the requirement of lishmah.
The shiur opens with a fundamental question: How can yibum permit marrying one's brother's wife (eshes ach) when all other arayos are excluded from yibum? While yibum appears elsewhere in Torah (תורה) without the eshes ach relationship (Yehuda and Tamar, Boaz and Ruth), the standard case involves this prohibition. What is the geder of the heter? Rabbi Zweig establishes that the Torah describes yibum not as procreation but as "hakamas shem" — establishing a name. The pasuk states "v'hayah habechor asher teiled yakum al shem achiv hameis." Chazal interpret "habechor asher teiled" as referring not to a future child, but to the bechor (oldest brother) who performs yibum — he "yakum al shem achiv," he rises up on the name of his brother. The yavam literally acquires his deceased brother's shem.
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Devarim 25:5-10 (Parshas Ki Seitzei - laws of yibum and chalitzah)
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