In this Mishnah, we’ll also talk about what happens when a father passes away and his children want to use the undivided estate to pay for their expenses. But here we’ll talk about what happens when there are girls as opposed to boys. The Mishnah says that if a father passed away and left behind older and younger daughters, there were no sons, so the daughters were going to inherit.
The older daughters are not allowed to clothe themselves from the undivided estate at the expense of the younger daughters. Even if the younger daughters are also clothing themselves from the undivided estate, the older daughters are going to spend more than the younger daughters because they use more material. This is very similar, or exactly similar, to the last Mishnah. Here it’s just with girls, and the next two halachot (laws) will be the same as well. Ve-lo ketanot nizonot al gedolot, ella cholkot be-shaveh (nor are the younger daughters provided for by the older daughters, but they divide equally). The younger daughters are not allowed to take food from the undivided estate, even if the older daughters are taking food as well, because younger children—the younger daughters—would normally spend more. They would need finer, higher-quality food than the older daughters, so it would not be fair to the older daughters. Rather, they divide the estate equally, and once everyone has their inheritance, they could spend what they’d like on food and clothing.
Now we’ll talk about wedding expenses for a daughter. If the older daughters got married after their father died and paid for their wedding expenses from the undivided estate, then the younger daughters are also entitled to get married and have their wedding expenses paid from the undivided estate. An equal amount of money has to be spent. If an older daughter spent a certain amount of money from the undivided estate on her wedding, then the younger daughters would also be entitled to that equal share.
If the older daughters got married while their father was still alive, and their father paid for their weddings, basically giving it to them as a gift, then after he died, the younger daughters want to get married using money from their father’s estate. They tell their older sisters, “Just like you got married with Dad’s money, we want to get married with Dad’s money as well.” We don’t listen to them. Whatever the father gave the older daughters at the time of the wedding, while he was alive, was considered a gift. Therefore, since he didn’t leave anything aside for the younger daughters, they inherit regularly. They can’t take from the undivided estate, but once they inherit, they could use their share of the inheritance for the wedding.
There’s one difference between sons who inherit and daughters who inherit. When only daughters inherit, there is a little bit more power in one detail than when sons are inheriting: daughters who are still minors receive support from the undivided estate when they have brothers who are inheriting. The Ketubah (marriage contract) mentions that if a man’s sons inherit from him, those sons have to make sure their younger daughters are taken care of and supported out of the undivided estate. Only after that are they able to inherit. Are they allowed to divide the inheritance among the brothers? That’s mentioned clearly in the Ketubah. But when there are no sons and daughters are inheriting the estate, there’s no Ketubah stipulation saying that the minor daughters are supported from the estate. The minor daughters would inherit like the rest of their sisters and live off that inheritance. There would be no special stipulation saying that they’re supported from their father’s estate. Rather, each girl takes whatever she’s entitled to inherit, and they live off that.