What Do We Do When Secular Law Diverges from Halacha?

Rav Yitzchak Grossman

Question: There are times when the secular laws of inheritance diverge from halacha. How do we deal with those cases?

Answer: There is a very strong consensus amongst the Poskim that we do not follow secular law when it conflicts with the halachos of yerusha. The Rashba has a fiery teshuva about this with very strong language, such as that Torah would have to gird itself in sackcloth if we would follow secular law, and chas v’shalom for us to do so. While there are a couple of outlier opinions who say that we do follow dina d’malchusa, they are very much the minority.

There is even a teshuva in Torah Lishma, written by the Ben Ish Chai, where he endorses an idea in theory that if a woman tries to go to a secular court to take inheritance money that she is entitled to according to secular law but not according to halacha, the halachic heirs may forge a will to remove her claim. He says that in theory if one is permitted to lie for darchei shalom, one certainly is permitted to do so in order to defend the Torah. However, he strongly recommends thinking twice before doing this in practice because it could lead to a chillul Hashem. 

So, it is clear that the general consensus is that we follow Torah law over dina d’malchusa. It is not 100% clear if we do this when there is a will, but if there is no will, it is clear that the strong consensus is that we follow the halacha and not secular law.