Nedarim 74: The Vows of the Yevama; Authority of G-d and of Men

A new Mishna asks what should be done in the case of a yevama.  When a husband dies without having children, his wife has a levirate bond with her brothers-in-law.  That bond ties her to them so that they must either be fully married through intercourse or divorced through a process called chalitza.  The rabbis introduced a betrothal process in addition to the marriage-through-intercourse deal.  Likely to create some semblance of propriety around this bizarre custom. In fact, yibum, levirate marriage, was often discouraged even in antiquity.

The Gemara wonders how nullification of vows would work for a yavam and a yevama.  The betrothal period is not defined, and betrothal might not lead to marriage.  In fact, if there is more than one potential yavam - the husband had more than one brother - then he might not ever have the right to nullify this woman's vows at all.  Finally, the yavam should never have more authority over the yevama than would her father if she were simply betrothed.  Nullification rights seem to be quite tricky.

Again, I wonder why it is so important to understand who can nullify a woman's vows. The larger question seems to be who owns women at different moments in their lives.  The purview of men's authority is critical to understand.  In fact, as the Torah was interpreted and written down by men of a particular place and time, it focuses on men's authority over all of the earth and G-d's authority over all men.  My understudying is leading me to posit that men needed to know the reach of  their given responsibilities in order to competently carry out those responsibilities.