1,648. A Husband Inherits His Wife

Hilchos Ishus 21:18

If a father is well-off enough that he is required to donate charity, then the money needed to support his daughter can be seized from him when the daughter is in her mother’s custody. Even if the mother marries someone else, the daughter remains in her custody and the father must support her as a form of charity until he dies. If he dies, she is entitled to be supported from his estate even though she remains in her mother’s custody; this is a condition found in her mother’s kesubah. If a mother doesn’t want her children – boys or girls – to remain in her custody after she weans them, this is her choice. She can give their father custody, or make the children wards of the state in the absence of a father. In this latter situation, the community is responsible to take care of the children.

Hilchos Ishus 22:1

A husband takes priority over anyone else when it comes to inheriting his wife. He acquires this right when his wife leaves her father’s domain even before she enters the chuppah (i.e., performs the final stage of marriage). Since she has entered her husband’s domain, he acquires the right to inherit her.