Halitsah or chalitzah (Hebrew: חליצה, romanized: ḥəliṣā) in Rabbinical Judaism is the process by which a childless widow and a brother of her deceased husband may avoid the duty to marry under the biblical system of yibbum (levirate marriage)

On the day set for the ḥaliẓah, immediately after the morning service, when all the, people are still in the synagogue, the three judges and their two assistants, who also act as witnesses, repair to the appointedplace.

Halitzah (pronounced chah-LEE-tzah) is a rarely performed ceremony by which the brother of a childless deceased man is released from the biblical obligation of marrying his late brother’s wife and carrying on the family line by having a child with her.

The institution known as Levirate Marriage (called Yibum in Hebrew) requires that a man marry the childless widow of his brother to produce a child who will carry the deceased brother's name, so that the deceased brother's name will not be forgotten.

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

Jewish law (halakha) has seen a gradual decline of yibbum in favor of halizah, to the point where in most contemporary Jewish communities, and in Israel by mandate of the Chief Rabbinate, yibbum is prohibited. Judah and Tamar, by school of Rembrandt (1650s). An early example of a levirate-type practice is the biblical story of Judah and Tamar.

ḥalitẓa, (Hebrew: “drawing off”), Jewish ritual whereby a widow is freed from the biblical obligation of marrying her brother-in-law (levirate marriage) in cases where her husband died without issue. To enable a widow to marry a “stranger,” the ritual of …

Levirate marriage (yibbum) is the obligation of a surviving brother to marry the widow of his brother if he died without having sired children (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). The corollary is that the widow must marry a brother-in-law rather than anyone outside the family.