Monday, 15 May 2017

Bava Batra 113: Primary/Secondary Inheritors, Day and Night

The rabbis analyze the directive to limit inheritance from being transferred from one tribe to another.  The Gemara compares verses from Numbers (36:9) and (36:7).  Perhaps the tiny differences between these two verses teach us that we might transfer inheritance from one tribe to another through the father or through the son.  The rabbis then argue that a son's inheritance goes through his mother and not his father, and so this cannot be the case.  

Next, the rabbis note that each person is supposed to cleave to our inheritance.  Is this connected to the husband who also cleaves to his wife?

The rabbis share instances of sons who inherit from their mothers, including Yair and his father Seguv; Elazar and his father Pinchas.  They move on to consider the inheritance of sisters and their sons.  If a man dies and he has no offspring, father, paternal brother or paternal nephew, the sister of the deceased and her children may inherit.  But does that apply to all children, or only the boys?

In principal, daughters can inherit from their paternal uncles, for their mothers can do so.  But if there are sons, do those sons precede their sisters in inheriting?  The rabbis use the argument of primary inheritance to limit women's inheritance.  A son is the primary inheritor of his father.  Should there be no son, we look for secondary inheritors.  The rabbis argue that because of this rule, a secondary inheritor son takes priority over a secondary inheritor daughter.  

Because the words "that day" were used earlier, the rabbi assert that transactions about inheritance must be done during the day and not at night.  Similarly, three men visiting the sick may not act as judges unless it is daytime.  


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