daf bit: Gittin 13

[cellio]

The mishna teaches: if a man says "give this get (bill of divorce) to my wife and give this bill of emancipation to my slave" but dies before they are given, then they are not given after his death. In the g'mara the rabbis debate whether the declaration was made when the man was healthy or when death was imminent. The instruction of a man on his deathbed has the force of a formal document, which must be heeded, so this mishna, the rabbis say, must apply to a healthy man. (13a)

(I understand why it would be beneficial for the get to not take effect in this case; it is, so far as I know, always advantageous for a woman to be a widow rather than divorced (support, remarriage options). I don't understand the case of the slave, though, unless it's not about the slave but is to ensure that his sons inherit him?)

Comments

[sethg]

You're looking at this from a good-public-policy perspective; I would suggest looking at it from, umm, a law-as-state-machine perspective.

ISTM that the chiddush [new information about the law that we would not otherwise know] here is that the slave is not actually emancipated until a formal document is delivered to him. So if the owner declares an intent to emancipate the slave but dies before the document is actually delivered, then the slave was still enslaved at the time of death and therefore ownership of the slave passes into the dead man's estate.

[cellio]

Thank you for that insight.