halitzah
/xəˈliːt͡sə/
halitzah noun: a rite by which a widow absolves herself of the duty of levirate marriage. It involves making a declaration, removing a shoe, and spitting on the floor.
Noun
halitzah (plural halitzot)
- A rite by which a widow absolves herself of the duty of levirate marriage. It involves making a declaration, removing a shoe, and spitting on the floor.
- Halitzah carries with it the implication of shame on the male who by refusing to marry his sister-in-law is guilty of not fulfilling his obligation to his dead brother and his dead brother's estate.1995 January 15, AB...@aol.com, “Levirate Marriage”, in soc.genealogy.jewish (Usenet)
- To discourage sexual attraction between brothers and sisters-in-law, later Jewish law expressed a clear preference for ḥalitzah (the ritual of the sandal) rather than levirate marriage.2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 1134
Forms of halitzah
| plural | halitzot |
|---|---|
| alternative form | chalitza |
| alternative form | chalitzah |
| alternative form | chalizah |
| alternative form | halizah |
| alternative form | halisah |
| alternative form | khalitzah |
Origin of halitzah
Borrowed from Hebrew חֲלִיצָה (khalitsá).
Questions about halitzah
- What does halitzah mean?
- Halitzah means a rite by which a widow absolves herself of the duty of levirate marriage. It involves making a declaration, removing a shoe, and spitting on the floor.
- What part of speech is halitzah?
- Halitzah is a noun.
- How do you pronounce halitzah?
- Halitzah is pronounced /xəˈliːt͡sə/.
- What is the plural of halitzah?
- The plural of halitzah is halitzot.
Words near halitzah in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: halitzah (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “halitzah.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/halitzah. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.