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]

When Jen and I had our wills drawn up, the lawyer included a clause saying that if we or any of our heirs (I forget the exact scope) died within 30 days of each other, then for the purposes of the will the deaths would be considered simultaneous. Of course this made me wonder what the probate court would do if it was unclear whether someone died within 30 days or 31 days.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Simultaneous? Not "each shall be considered to have predeceased the other?"

The point, of course, is to prevent the estates from going through double probate if, God forbid, there's an accident and it's unclear who died first, or one person lingers in hospital for a week or two.

[sethg]

I don't remember the exact wording, but yeah, I assumed the lawyer put it in so that if we and half of our heirs were killed in the same car crash, the estate would just go to the other half.

[cellio]

Dani and I need to do wills and we, too, want some sort of "if we're in the same accident, for heaven's sake don't bicker over ordering so you can manipulate the estates!" clause. I guess this is standard boilerplate that the lawyer will have on tap?

But yeah, it does invite the "what precisely is a day?" question in the merginal case...