Now it's studying for the bar season and so that frummy law school graduates won't have a leg up on you, I'll start with a short synopsis on Judaism's take on the administration of an estate.
The Land of Israel was just apportioned among all of the men of Israel according to a census. However, there is an issue of one particular, Tzelophehad of the tribe of Menashe, who died during the wanderings of the desert with no male heir. His daughters ask Moshe why should our father's name be wiped out simply because he had no sons?
Such questions of estates are essential to any society, especially one as law-based as that of the Jews. Moshe prays on the issue and G-d, the ultimate bar exam grader, answers:
Zelophehad's daughters speak justly. You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance along with their father's brothers, and you shall transfer their father's inheritance to them. (Num. 27:7)
The Torah then goes on to state as a commandment, that if a man has no sons, then his estate will go to his daughters; and if no sons or daughters, then to his brother; and if no sons, daughters or brother, then to his uncle; and if he doesn't have any of those then to his closest kinsman. That's a pretty simple - find the closest relative, easy enough. That's what they teach for the bar, right? See intestacy, isn't all that hard, right?*
* WARNING: I have no clue whether this is correct, I just haven't posted in a while and it seems like a topic that several of my soon-to-be bar taking friends have been talking about, so I figured why not confuse them with neither specifically common Federal law or New York State law. Right? You guys have extra room in there for some Torah law still, yes?
Good to know! Instead of citing the EPTL (no clue what this stands for, I just know it's right) I will simply cite Numbers (maybe a nice Jewish grader will look upon it kindly). Although, NY's intestacy statute appears a bit more kind to the surviving spouse than Numbers. If a man dies intestate with a spouse and children surviving him, then the spouse gets $50,000 (roughly 200,000 shekels) and 1/2 of the man's estate (half a camel, half a sheep, etc). The children take the other half and fight to the death to determine who takes what (although, in reality, they should learn to share). Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteEstates Powers and Trusts Law .. your welcome V :P
ReplyDeleteAlso, an interesting tid bit about Parshat Pinchas, many women in the Torah are never named (often we hear a reference to someones wife and what happened to/with her but not her actual name) however, Pinchas' daughters (Machla, Noa, Chogla, Milka and Tirtza) are named in this passage and spoken of by their names repeatedly in the Torah. To me this indicates that not only are they meant to represent the forward momentum of women in terms of property rights but also recognition within the Jewish community as a whole of women as equals.
Pshhhh! Nice one, Leens. Yes, Tzelophehad's daughters are all named unlike many "minor" characters in the Torah.
ReplyDeleteHell, even Moshe's mom's name, Yocheved, is not actually mentioned by name until this very parashah (Num. 26:59) despite the fact that Moshe was born some parshiyos ago!