Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Pinchas

Heir in Law

July 17, 2025

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Dayan Yosef Greenwald

If there are no brothers of his father, you shall tranfer his inheritance to the relative (she’eiro) who is closest to him of his family, and he shall inherit it.

Bemidbar 29:11

In the Torah’s laws of inheritance, a person that dies is inherited by his closest male blood relative. According to the Rambam and Sefer Hachinuch, the Torah uses the word “veha’avartem”—and you (plural) shall transfer—because the mitzvah of yerushah applies to bais din, which is directed to ensure that the Torah’s inheritance protocol is followed.

In the pasuk above, however, the Torah says “veyarash (and he shall inherit).” Chazal say this refers to the husband inheriting “she’eiro,” which means his wife (see Bava Basra 111b). It would seem from the use of the singular “he” in this instance that a husband’s yerushah of his wife is not part of the standard seder nachalos that bais din oversees. This is because the wife is not a blood relative: Her relationship with her husband is built upon marriage and the mutual obligations it engenders; he is obligated to provide for her in various ways during her lifetime, and in return, he inherits her assets if she dies.

This idea may have a practical application: A person is allowed to distribute his assets as he sees fit shortly before he dies, per the rule that “mitzvah lekayeim divrei hameis (it is a mitzvah to uphold the words of a dying person).” Nevertheless, it is recommended to leave at least some of one’s assets for distribution according to the Torah’s seder nachalos. In contrast, there does not appear to be any source that recommends that a woman in a second marriage leave aside some assets for her husband. Rather, it is customary that she gives it all to her children.