Ki Tetze (כי תצא — when you leave), Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19.
According to the Sefer HaHinukn1 (ספר החינוך – Book of Education), parsha Ki Tetze has 47 negative prescriptions and 27 positive prescriptions, including the one levirate2.
Deuteronomy – 25 – דְּבָרִים
5 If brothers remain together and one of them dies without issue, the widow cannot marry a foreigner abroad; it is her brother-in-law who must join her. He will therefore take her as his wife, exercising levirate over her.
Levirate and the renunciation of levirate play an important role in the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis chapter 38), as well as that of Boaz and Ruth (Book of Ruth chapter 4)3. Before a quorum of ten men, Boaz acquires all that belonged to Mahlon and marries Ruth, his widow so that the name of the deceased does not die out.
Ruth – 4 – רוּת
י וְגַם אֶת-רוּת הַמֹּאֲבִיָּה אֵשֶׁת מַחְלוֹן קָנִיתִי לִי לְאִשָּׁה, לְהָקִים שֵׁם-הַמֵּת עַל-נַחֲלָתוֹ, וְלֹא-יִכָּרֵת שֵׁם-הַמֵּת מֵעִם אֶחָיו, וּמִשַּׁעַר מְקוֹמוֹ: עֵדִים אַתֶּם, הַיּוֹם.
ט וַיֹּאמֶר בֹּעַז לַזְּקֵנִים וְכָל-הָעָם, עֵדִים אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם, כִּי קָנִיתִי אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לֶאֱלִימֶלֶךְ, וְאֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לְכִלְיוֹן וּמַחְלוֹן–מִיַּד, נָעֳמִי
9 Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people: You are witnesses today that I acquire from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and also to Kilion and Machlon.
10 And Ruth also, the Moabite, wife of Machlon, I acquire as a wife to maintain the name of the deceased in her patrimony and to prevent the name of the deceased from becoming extinct among his brothers and in his native town. You are witnesses to this on this day.
The Rutland Jewish Center is a synagogue and community center housed in a Richardsonian Romanesque building4. Originally, it was a library built in 1889 by Brunner & Tryon in honor of Horace Henry Baxter, New York financier and co-owner of the Rutland Marble Company. Then in 1927, the building was bought and converted into a synagogue by the Adath Israel Congregation. In 1978, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1 Sefer haHinukh, Book of Education is a medieval text published in Spain in the 13th century, featuring the 613 commandments of the Torah.
2 Formed from the Low Latin levir “brother-in-law” and the derivational suffix “ate”.
3 Boaz and Ruth had for son Obed, father of Jesse, himself father of King David.
4 Style of historicist American architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.