ETHICAL IMPERATIVE AND HALAKHIC INNOVATION
rabbis. The rabbinical prohibitory decrees were not meant to apply in times of emergency...what can be done if the hour has moved along until darkness, and there is ground for concern that the match may be broken or the maiden put to shame? Under such circumstances, he who relies on the above arguments to be lenient has not done harm. May he enjoy in peace the joy of the Sabbath thereafter. The good deed that he has done will atone for him, if his intention was for the sake of Heaven and peace."
In 1580 Rabbi Moshe Galante , a disciple of Rabbi Joseph Caro , succeeded his teacher as Rabbi of Safed. One of his most famous responsa deals with the case of a young childless widow who asked her brother-in-law(yavam) to give her halitzah(release from levirate marriage), but was refused. Apparently there was a great deal of property involved. For a period of two years since her husband's death,“a conflagration of fire was ignited between the two families. Every day a number of quarrels and arguments broke out between the family of the widow and the family of the brotherin-law who kept insisting on yibbum-(levirate marriage).”"’
"Then one day the relatives of the widow were advised to instruct her to go to the synagogue in the community of her brother-in-law. At the time of the reading of the Torah she was to approach her brother-in-law and spit in his face. This is what happened. She came to the synagogue on a Monday at the time of the Torah reading, stood in front of her brother-in-law and spat in his face three times, and each time with spit that was apparently seen, in the presence of the entire congregation. Each time she said:‘This is the yavam that wants to take me in levirate marriage
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