Bava Basra - Daf 133
- One wrote all his property to someone without specifying if it is a ירושה or מתנה
Rav Huna said that if a שכיב מרע wrote all his property to someone, but did not specify if it was given as a ירושה or gift, we examine the recipient’s relation to him: אם ראוי ליורשו – if [the recipient] is fit to inherit him as an heir, נוטלן משום ירושה – he takes [the properties] as an inheritance. ואם לאו נוטלן משום מתנה – If not, he takes them as a gift. Rav Huna holds like Rebbe Yochanan ben Berokah that one can redistribute his inheritance, and the benefactor presumably means to use whichever method is effective.
The Gemara asks for a practical difference between the options, and Rava ultimately offers a case: if one says "נכסי לך ואחריך לפלוני" – “My properties should go to you, and after you die, to Ploni,” then if the first recipient was fit to inherit the benefactor, אין לשני במקום ראשון כלום – the second recipient has nothing in the place of the first (rather, the first person’s heirs inherit him), since this gift was made in the language of inheritance, וירושה אין לה הפסק – and inheritance does not have interruption, despite the benefactor’s attempt to transfer it to the second recipient.
- The impropriety of writing away one’s inheritance, and if his sons are not נוהג כשורה
The next Mishnah states: הכותב את נכסיו לאחרים – One who writes away his possessions to others, והניח את בניו – and leaves his children with nothing, מה שעשה עשוי – what he has done is done, אלא אין רוח חכמים נוחה הימנו – but the Sages are not pleased with him, since he undermined the Torah’s law of inheritance. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: אם לא היו בניו נוהגים כשורה – if his sons were not acting properly, זכור לטוב – he is remembered for good, i.e., his action was honorable.
The Gemara asks if the Rabbonon disagree, and hold one should never disinherit his children, since his unrighteous sons may have virtuous descendants. The Gemara will eventually quote a statement Shmuel made to Rav Yehudah: שיננא – Sharp one! לא תיהוי בי עבורי אחסנתא – Do not be present at the transferring of an inheritance, ואפילו מברא בישא לברא טבא – even if it is being transferred from a bad son to a good son, וכ"ש מברא לברתא – and certainly if it is being transferred from a son to a daughter. This demonstrates the Rabbonon never approve of disinheriting children.
- Yosef ben Yoezer disinherited his son, who sold a jewel he found to hekdesh for less than its value
Yosef ben Yoezer, who had a son who was not acting properly, was makdish a purse of gold dinarim so his son would not inherit it. The son later married the daughter of King Yannai’s crown maker, and when his wife had a child, he bought her a fish. He found a jewel inside, and his wife warned him not to sell to the king, because he would not get a good price. Instead, she advised him to sell it to hekdesh, and let them appraise it. They assessed it at thirteen purses of gold dinarim, but told him the treasury had only seven purses. He said to give him seven purses and donated the remaining value to hekdesh. They wrote: יוסף בן יועזר הכניס אחת ובנו הכניס שש – Yosef ben Yoezer brought one purse of gold dinarim to hekdesh, and his son brought six. In another version, they concluded “and his son took out seven.” The Gemara suggests that the first version, which praises the son’s act, indicates that the father acted honorably in disinheriting him, and caused his son to improve. However, the Gemara responds that the second version indicates the very opposite, that the father’s inappropriate disinheriting of his son caused him to act improperly, and empty out the hekdesh treasury.
