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Halachic Wills and Inheritance for Daughters Part 2: Practical Solutions

Rabbi Anthony Manning
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In Part 1 we examined the halachic background to the law of inheritance. We saw that the Torah itself (through the parshiot of the

daughters of Tzelafchad and of the bechor - firstborn) lays down a very clear hierarchy for who inherits after death. This is:

  • Double to the eldest son
  • The remainder to the other sons in equal shares
  • No assets for the daughters

We saw that Chazal defended this Torah mitzva against the Sadducees, the non-Jewish Roman scholars and also the early Christians, all of whom insisted that daughters should inherit equally with sons.

Nevertheless, we also saw that Chazal recognized the need to provided appropriately after death for the welfare of daughters, and instituted a number of rabbinic decrees to address this, including:

  • (i) Mezonot: maintenance for unmarried minor daughters. This is in effect a prior debt on the estate, which is binding on the assets inherited by the sons. In the event of a shortage of assets, the maintenance of the daughters takes priority, even if the sons must beg for tzedaka.
  • (ii) Nedunya: a dowry given to daughters on marriage. Depending on the financial arrangements agreed between the daughter and her new husband, the daughter could ensure that she retained ownerships of those assets and passed them to her own children. The dowry for daughters (comprising 10% of the estate) was also a prior lien on the assets inherited by sons.
  • (iii) Ketubat Banin Dichrin: a structure whereby the husband promises his wife that, in the event of her pre-deceasing him and leaving sons, her ketuba would be inherited solely by those sons, and not shared with other sons from a later marriage.

Even though these Rabbinic structures did not all survive into the post-Talmudic period, we saw that the poskim developed others - such as the Shtar Chatzi Zachar, which enabled daughters to effectively share in the assets.

In the modern period, although there were poskim (such as Rav Kook) who strongly defended the Torah allocation of assets through inheritance, most poskim have strongly advised against this, due to the dispute and resentment it can cause, and the potential for major halachic prohibition if some of the family challenge the halachic apportionment in a secular court.

In this shiur we will iy’H examine different3 options for re-allocating inherited assets in such a way as satisfies the wishes of the testator at the same time as complying with the halacha.

In all cases, halachically valid Estate Planning must be undertaken in consultation with all necessary advisors, including: (i) a Rav who is qualified in this area; (ii) a lawyer qualified in the relevant civil jurisdiction who can ensure that the documentation is valid and binding in the secular courts; (iii) an accountant/tax planner who can ensure that the arrangements are as tax efficient as possible.