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. The ceremony involves the taking off of a brother-in-law's shoe by the widow of a brother who has died childless, through which ceremony he is released from the obligation of marrying her, and she becomes free to marry whomever she desires (Deuteronomy 25:5-10).