Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Choshen Mishpat/276

Paragraph 1- The order of inheritance is as follows: if one dies, his son inherits him. If we do not find a son, we see if he had a son who left any descendants, whether a male or female, going down until the end of all generations, who can take the place of the son and inherit everything. If they did not find any descendants of the son, and the deceased had a daughter, the daughter would inherit him. If they did not find a daughter, but she left a descendant, whether male or female, going down until the end of all generations, that descendant would inherit all. If they did not find any descendants of the daughter, the inheritance would revert to the deceased’s father. If the father is not alive, it would go to his children, who are the deceased’s siblings. If the deceased has a brother, he would inherit everything. If they did not find a brother of his, but he left a descendant going to the end of generations, he would take the brother’s place to inherit. If they did not find a brother or descendant, the inheritance would revert to the deceased’s sisters or her descendants, going down until the end of all generations. If they did not find a sister or her descendant, the inheritance would revert to the deceased’s father’s father. If he is not alive, it would revert to his children, who are the deceased’s father’s brother, if he has brothers or they have descendants going down until the end of all generations. If the deceased’s father did not have any brothers or descendants from those brothers, the inheritance would revert to the deceased’s father’s sister or her descendants going down until the end of all generations. If the deceased’s father had no sisters and she had no descendants, the inheritance would revert to the deceased’s father’s father’s father. If he is not alive, it would go to this children, who are the deceased’s father’s father’s brothers or their descendants doing down until the end of all generations. If they did not find the deceased’s father’s father’s brother or his descendants, it would revert to the deceased father’s father’s sister or her descendants going down until the end of all generations. Using this formula, the inheritance would keep travelling up until it reached Reuven.

Paragraph 2- If one died and was survived by a daughter and a son’s daughter, even if it was a son’s daugther’s daughter’s daughter after many generations, she would come first and inherit everything and the daughter would receive nothing. The same is true in a case of a brother’s daughter and a sister, and a father’s brother’s son’s daughter and a father’s sister. The same applies to anything similar.

Paragraph 3- If one had two sons and they both died in his lifetime, and one son was survived by three sons, and the other was survived by one daughter, and the grandfather subsequently died, the granddaughter would inherit half and three grandsons from the other son would inherit the other half, because we view it as if the sons were still alive and would inherit equal amounts and then each one would bequeath his portion to his children. Using this method, brother’s sons and father’s brother’s sons would divide going up until the beginning of the generations.

Paragraph 4- Maternal family is not considered family in that a mother does not inherit her son or daughter, and brothers who are maternal, but not paternal, do not inherit each other. Rather, anyone from his paternal family would inherit him. Even one whose father is unknown and thus does not have paternal family would not have his maternal family inherit him. Rather, he is like a convert and his properties are ownerless. A man inherits his mothers and a daughter inherits her mother if there is no son, however, because a daughter’s rights to her mother’s property are the same as her rights to her father’s property. She can inherit both, but a son and his descendants take precedence.

Paragraph 5- A son does not inherit his mother while he is in the grave to then bequeath to his paternal brothers, in that if the son dies while his mother is still alive, and the mother subsequently dies, we do not say that had the son still been alive he would inherit her and therefore now too if he has no children his paternal brothers inherit him. Rather, her inheritance would go back to her father’s family since her children have no descendants. If the mother died while the son was still alive and then the son died, however, even if the son was only one day old, because he lived even one moment after her, he would inherit her and then bequeath that inheritance to his inheritors from his father’s family. This is only true where the child was born. A fetus, however, does not inherit his mother if she dies while pregnant in order to bequeath to his inheritors from his father.

Paragraph 6- Relatives via sin inherit like regular children. How so? If one had an illegitimate brother or son, he would inherit just like a legitimate one would. The same applies to all other relatives. A son from a maidservant or gentile, however, does not qualify as a son for any matter and would not inherit at all. Inheritors do not inherit matters of no substance or mere financial advantage which is not money.