One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות זכיה ומתנה
Zechiyah u'Matanah 10-12
Sefer Kinyan · Ownerless Property and Gifts · the closing chapters of the treatise, where a dying man's bare sentence is read as a sealed deed and the court has to decide what he meant
1/16
Estate transferred by give a portion
4
Wine fractions fixed by stated use
900
Zuz abated proportionately, no order stated
0
Legal weight of words from a dream
Ch 10His Sentence Is Already a Document
- Speech with the force of a deed. Give a maneh to so and so is paid out after his death, because the words of a sh'chiv me'ra are considered as if they had been recorded in a legal document and the property already transferred; we do not suspect that he meant some buried maneh (10:1)
- A note he apportions cannot be waived. I have loaned money, or I entrusted an object to so and so, give it to this person, binds with no ma'amad sh'loshtam. An ordinary transfer of a promissory note is only Rabbinic, so the heir still owns it Scripturally and his waiver works; for a dying man's gift the Sages reinforced their decision and conveyed upon it the power of Scriptural law, so the heir has nothing left to waive (10:2)
- Acknowledgment versus instruction. There is a maneh belonging to so and so in my possession is not paid unless he added give it to him, lest he spoke only so that his heirs would not be called wealthy; a sincere acknowledgement with no suspicion of subterfuge is paid regardless. Where he said give it, the orphans' later claim that he had paid is rejected; where he only acknowledged the debt, they are believed on a sh'vuat hesset (10:3-4, 10:8-11)
- Hidden money, and dreams. Witnesses who saw a father hide money and name an owner are heeded if he appeared to be conveying his wishes and ignored if he appeared deceptive; a third party's report stands only where he could have taken the money himself and did not. A man told in a dream the exact sum, the exact place and the owner's name found all of it precisely as told, and the Sages ruled that words from dreams neither avail nor impair (10:5-7)
- Order of payment, and objects of substance. With no sequence stated, 200, 300 and 400 zuz abate proportionately and a creditor expropriates from each in proportion, so a 450 zuz note takes 100, 150 and 200; say afterwards and the first named has priority while the creditor collects from the last recipient backwards. Let so and so live in this house, or eat this palm's fruit, transfers nothing, since living and eating are like speech and sleep; give him the house so that he may live in it transfers it entirely (10:12-15)
RememberWords from dreams neither avail nor impair, while a dying man's plain sentence carries the force of a sealed deed
Ch 11Putting Numbers on What He Said
- Identifying the recipient. Banai, my sons, excludes daughters even where there is only one son and one daughter, since one son can be called my sons. A man named Tovia takes the estate unless it is established that he is known as Rav Tovia, and among rival claimants both called Tovia the Torah scholar precedes the neighbor, who precedes the relative; evenly matched, the judges give it to whomever they assess the deceased meant (11:1-3)
- Shares fixed by phrasing. So and so should receive a portion of my property gives half; give a portion of my property to so and so gives one sixteenth, with authorities who say one fourth. A portion of his wine is a quarter, to pour into jugs an eighth, for cooking a twelfth, for a small cup a sixteenth, since naming the use revealed a small intent. One should not extrapolate from these measures to any other matter (11:7-9)
- What the words reach. A wife given a portion like one of the sons shares equally and sons born after the deposition are counted in, so three sons plus two later arrivals leave her one sixth; she takes only from property he held when he spoke. Movable property means his utensils and not his wheat and barley, unless he said all my movable property; servants are movables and a lower millstone is not, unless he said everything that can be carried; a Torah scroll's status is unresolved and is not expropriated from a recipient who has taken it (11:10-15)
- Addition or substitution. Two hundred zuz as is appropriate for him gives the firstborn the sum and his firstborn portion; as his firstborn portion makes him choose one or the other. The same option belongs to a wife told the sum is for her ketubah, while a creditor told the sum is for his debt collects only the debt. Four hundred zuz and let him marry my daughter is two separate gifts he may take either of; reverse the clauses and the gift is conditional on the marriage (11:16-20)
- Read generously, and overruled once. Two halves of a date palm satisfy give my daughter the date palm, and a building holding 120 korim satisfies a promise of 100, because everyone who gives a gift gives generously; four hundred zuz from the wine in that place means the money and not the weight. A shekel a week becomes whatever the children need, since his intent was not to starve them but to prevent a lavish budget. Do not eulogize me is honored; do not bury me from my estate is refused, because he may not secure his children's funds and make himself a burden on the community (11:21-24)
RememberEveryone who gives a gift gives generously, which is why a shekel a week becomes a sela when a shekel will not feed them
Ch 12After You, and the Limit He Did Not Draw
- Inheritance language admits no limit. My son so and so should inherit my estate makes that son the sole heir when a dying man says it and is of no consequence from a healthy man. To you and after you to so and so gives the second only the remainder, but where the first was fit to inherit the second receives nothing, since whatever expression is used toward an heir counts as an inheritance and an inheritance never ends; only an explicit statement that this is not an inheritance that never ceases but a gift with a limit set to it restores the remainder (12:1-6)
- What the first recipient actually holds. He reaps the benefit until he dies and may not sell or give away the body of the property, and whoever advises him to sell is called wicked; yet a sale to an outside party stands and cannot be expropriated by the second, while a sale or gift to his son or any other heir is void. Freeing the estate's servants or making shrouds of its garments stands. His creditors and his wife's ketubah reach only the proceeds, and after his death nothing at all, even where he made the property an ipotiki for her (12:8-11)
- The woman who married afterward. Told to you and after you to so and so while unmarried, and then marrying, her husband counts as a purchaser and the second may not expropriate from him; already married when told, and the second may expropriate from the husband, since she received it on that condition as a married woman. Sold during the marriage and died during it, and the buyer keeps it, as he is the only one who spent money. To my mother and after her to my heirs left a predeceased married daughter's husband nothing, her right never having ripened, while her child would have inherited (12:12)
- Timing written into the deed. A deed giving the body to a son now while the father keeps the fruits stops either of them from selling cleanly; produce still attached when the father dies goes to the son, because a person feels a closeness to his son, and detached or harvest-ready produce goes to the other heirs. A healthy man's deed saying from today and after my death is treated as a dying man's gift; even without those words a dated deed transferred in his lifetime, since a man transferring after death would not have dated it; and during my lifetime and in my death binds at once (12:13-16)
- The treatise's last word. Perfectly righteous men and men of spiritual stature would not accept gifts from other men at all, trusting in God and not in generous men, as Proverbs 15:27 says that one who hates gifts will live (12:17)
RememberAn inheritance never ends, so a limit binds only where he said in words that he was setting one