This Perek (chapter), Perek Chet, and the next Perek, Perek Tet, are going to talk about the laws of inheritance. On a Torah level, once a person dies, all of his possessions become the property of his inheritors, his heirs. The Torah tells us in the parasha of Bnot Tzelofchad that all of a person's possessions are handed over to the next person in line, as follows. If a person passes away, all of his possessions are handed over equally to his sons. But his Bechor, the eldest son, receives a double portion. Let's say there are three sons. What we say is that there are now four portions of his possessions. Everything is divided into portions of 25%. The oldest son gets two of those portions. He gets 50%, and the other two sons get 25% each. If there are no sons, then everything goes to the daughters. If there are no daughters, everything goes to the father of the person who passed away. If there's no father, it goes to the father's children, who are the brothers. If there are no brothers, then it goes to the grandfather of the person who passed away. If there's no grandfather, then it goes to the uncles. If there are no uncles, it goes to the closest relatives. All of this is talking about paternal relatives. Uncles, brothers, and all the other relationships we spoke about are through the paternal line, not through the maternal line.
One other detail we should take note of before we get into the Mishnayot is that if somebody passes away and the inheritance is supposed to go to their child, but that child, for example, has also passed away and had children, that means the person who passed away had grandchildren, and the inheritance does pass to them. In other words, the grandchildren fill the place of the person's children. A person's child becomes like him and takes his place, and therefore it would be handed off to the other person who passed away. They fill that person's spot. Just a few different pointers before we jump into the Mishnayot.
We'll first list four different categories of relatives and talk about whether they inherit from one another or pass inheritance to one another. If one of them passes away, we'll first list these four categories and then go into them one by one. The Mishnah says there are people who inherit from their relatives if those relatives pass away. They also give inheritance to those same relatives if they themselves pass away. There are also people who inherit from their relatives if their relatives die, but they do not give inheritance to those relatives if they themselves die. Rather, their estate passes on to somebody else. Number three, there are people who give inheritance to relatives if they themselves pass away, but do not inherit from those relatives if the relatives pass away. And lastly, number four, there are people who are not considered related at all under the laws of inheritance, and therefore they do not inherit from each other or give inheritance to each other.
We'll list the three different sets of relatives that fit into category one: people who inherit from their relatives and also give inheritance to those same relatives if they themselves pass away. These are the people who both inherit and also give inheritance. A father and his sons: a father inherits from his sons if they pass away and have no surviving children. If a father dies, he passes on his estate to his sons. Sons and a father: the reverse of the previous case. Sons inherit from their father when he passes away, and they pass on inheritance to their father if they die without any surviving descendants. Brothers from the same father, even if they have different mothers, inherit from one another. They pass inheritance to each other. If one of them dies without any children and their father is also not alive, then they would pass it off to their brothers. These cases are people who inherit from and also give inheritance to.
Now we'll talk about three relatives who fit into category two: people who inherit from their relatives if those relatives pass away, but don't give inheritance to those relatives if they themselves die. A man and his mother. A person inherits from his mother when she passes away, as long as she doesn't have a husband. But when he passes away, his mother has no connection to his inheritance. The relatives from his father's side would inherit everything if he doesn't have any children or any other lineage or descendants. A man and his wife. A person inherits everything from his wife when she passes away. But when he passes away, the inheritance goes to his children, brothers, father, or other relatives. But his wife is never in the picture to inherit from him. Sons of a person's sister—that is, his nephews, his sister's children. If the man dies without any close relatives, his sister's boys would inherit from him. But if they pass away, they would not give him anything. He would never be entitled to inheritance from them because inheritance passes to their father's relatives, and he is a brother of their mother.
In these cases, nochalin velo manchilin. These cases, they inherit from the second relative, but they do not pass inheritance. They do not pass inheritance to him if they themselves die.
Now we'll list three relatives in the third category. The third category was people who are manchilin velo nochalin: people who give inheritance to relatives if they die, but don't inherit if those relatives pass away. Ha'isha et baneha. A woman and her children. When a woman passes away and she doesn't have a husband, she gives her inheritance to her children. But if they pass away, she does not inherit whatsoever. Their property goes to their father's relatives. It wouldn't go to their mother. Veha'isha et ba'alah. A woman and her husband. When a woman passes away and she was married, she gives all of her inheritance to her husband. But she wouldn't inherit if her husband passed away. Rather, his descendants, his kids, his brothers, his father, his uncles, and others would inherit, and they are considered to be the heirs. Achei ha'em. The brothers of a person's mother. If a man passes away and he doesn't have any relatives, he gives inheritance to his paternal sister's children. That is, he has a sister with whom he shares the same father. The estate would go to her children, but he wouldn't inherit from his sister's children if they pass away. The inheritance passes to their father's heirs, not to their mother. So, in this case, if a man passed away, he gives it over, and he shares a father with this woman. She is still considered to be his relative because they share the same father. So he would pass it over to her children. But if the children pass away, they wouldn't inherit. They wouldn't send it back to their uncle; they wouldn't send it back to him, because that is all the way through their mother's side, which would not inherit for them. These are cases where they give inheritance to a relative but do not inherit if that relative dies.
The last category, number four, was people to whom the laws of inheritance do not apply. They don't inherit from each other, and they also don't give inheritance to each other. Brothers who have the same mother but do not share the same father would not inherit from one another. And they don't give inheritance to each other. Inheritance only passes through the father's relatives. In this case, the brothers are brothers only through their mother, and therefore they are not considered heirs of the estate whatsoever.