Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer · Siman 108

Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 108 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1One who is deathly ill (or a healthy man who made a transaction on the command) who says, "My wife shall inherit as one of my sons," she inherits as one of the sons in addition to collecting the money granted to her in the marriage contract. If sons were born to him after his command was issued, they join with those who were alive at the time of the command and the wife inherits amongst all of them together. How so? If he had three sons at the time of the command, and after some time two more were born to him, his wife inherits as one of the other five--that is, one sixth of the property--and takes only the items that belonged to him at the time of the command. Regarding items that came into his possession after the time of the command, she has no portion in them, as one cannot bequeath that which is not in his possession. Rem"a: If there was doubt as to whether some property was in his possession at the time of the command or not, the burden of proof is on the wife, or she will not inherit from that property.
2. 2If there were many sons and their number was decreased, she inherits as one of the number of sons at the time of death. And there is someone who doubts this.
3. 3If all the sons died, we see how many they were at the time of the command, and she inherits a portion fit for one of them, and the rest goes to his inheritors. Rem"a: One who writes that his daughter and son-in-law shall inherit a portion as one of his own sons, it shall be as though he wrote this for his wife, and they may only inherit from the property that he owned at the time of writing. Our custom nowadays of writing a document of "half the males" for the daughters, where the daughters inherit from all of the property of the deceased as do the sons, exists because he writes an admission that the sons owe him some sum, and they may not be exempted from paying unless they give [of the inheritance] to the daughters as they would a son. Through this method, he is able to transfer even that which is not yet in his possession, as long as it is either fit to come into his possession or it has been demonstrated that it will be his. One who gives a gift to his wife or daughters, it is forbidden to engage in trickery afterward and bequeath to his sons or wife to remove from the recipient of the gift that which he deserves.

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