Today, the Gemara mentions a case in which a young adult woman is named as a beneficiary of her great-grandmother’s will but, sadly, dies while her great-grandmother is still alive. When asked whether the deceased’s widower should inherit in her stead, the Gemara notes that according to the sages of the land of Israel:
He is not entitled to the inheritance, as it is merely property due to his wife and not property possessed by her, as if the great-grandmother would have sold it before she died, her sale would have been a valid sale.
The widower cannot inherit the property and the reason given is that the property the great-grandmother wrote into her will remained hers until she died, and she could have done as she wished with it while alive, including selling it. This might be the end of the matter, but the Gemara picks it up with a surprising question:
What great-grandmother?
It turns out that this is not a hypothetical scenario but an actual case. The Gemara continues:
There was a certain dying person who said to those present: “All my property is given to my grandmother, and after she dies, it is given to my heirs, not inherited by her heirs.” He then died. He had a married daughter, who died during the lifetime of her husband and during the lifetime of her father’s grandmother. After her father’s grandmother died, her husband came and claimed the inheritance, as his wife was the heir of her father, and he is his wife’s heir.
Rav Huna said: When her father said that his property is given “to my heirs,” he meant: And even to the heirs of my heirs. Therefore, since his daughter’s husband is the heir of his heir, he is entitled to the inheritance.
And Rav Anan said that he meant: To my heirs, but not to the heirs of my heirs. Therefore, the husband is not entitled to the property.
A person makes a deathbed bequest to his grandmother, but places a condition on the gift, noting that it’s only for her use during her own lifetime. After she dies, the property should return to his own heirs (i.e., his children and their descendants) rather than the grandmother’s heirs. The grandmother dies, so we would expect the bequest to revert to her grandson’s heir (his daughter). But the daughter has also died, and now her widower claims the inheritance. Is he entitled to it?
Rav Huna says yes: Since the man’s son-in-law is “the heir of his heir,” he is entitled to inherit the property in question. Rav Anan disagrees, ruling that the deceased only meant for the gift to revert to his actual heirs, not those in line to inherit from them.
Whose ruling is accepted?
They sent a ruling from there: The halakhah is in accordance with the opinion of Rav Anan, but not due to his reasoning. The halakhah is in accordance with the opinion of Rav Anan — that the husband does not inherit the property. But not due to his reasoning — as Rav Anan holds that even if his daughter had a son to inherit from her, he would not inherit the property, as her father bequeathed it only to his heirs, not to the heirs of his heirs. And that is not so, as if his daughter had a son, he would certainly inherit; and this is the reason the husband does not inherit: Because the inheritance is considered property due to the daughter, as she did not own it during her lifetime, and a husband does not take in inheritance property due to his wife as he does the property she possessed.
The widower doesn’t inherit the property because it was never in his wife’s possession and he’s not actually a descendent. If she had had a child, they would have inherited property due to her, but her husband does not.
Presumably, we already know enough to figure out the answer. So why did the Gemara share this case? Even in a time when people often died young, it seems that a man predeceasing his grandmother — and even more so a young woman predeceasing her great-grandmother — was out of the ordinary.
Read all of Bava Batra 125 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on October 28, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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