JVO: Wills

Jewish Values Online (jewishvaluesonline.org) is a website that asks the Jewish view on a variety of issues, some specifically Jewish and some from the world around us -- and then presents answers from each of the dominations of Judaism. Nishmablog's Blogmaster Rabbi Wolpoe and Nishma's Founding Director, Rabbi Hecht, both serve as Orthodox members of their Panel of Scholars.

This post continues our series on the Nishmablog that features responses on JVO by one of our two Nishma Scholars who are on this panel. This week's presentation is to one of the questions to which Rabbi Wolpoe responded.

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Question: Is a Jewish parent required or obliged by Jewish law or Jewish values to leave anything to their children in their will?

Rabbi Wolpoe's answer

This Begs another question. Is there such a thing as a WILL in Jewish Law?

1.  Most WILL's from great rabbis were ethical wills, a mini-book of ethics. EG Iggeret haRamban [Nachmanides] and Iggeret haGRA [Vilna Gaon] come to mind.

2. The probating of a Jewish estate is covered in the Torah [Parshat Pinchas] and throughout the Talmud [EG Bava Batra and K'tubbot]. The presumption is no will, just debts and obligations, EG the K'tubah, etc.

3. The Talmud has a concept where a man who is dying [sh'chiv meira] may "WILL" property. In order to afford him peace of mind, his verbal orders are given the force of a a written contract.  These come close to a WILL, but I think they're a bit different.

4. Just like with "Selling Hameitz" there are circumventions.  A WILL can override the Halachic divisions if/when it can be so construed to take effect before passing on. Then it is not quite a will, but a form of gift-giving. As such, a parent can give his/her property as he/she sees fit - because  the parent is technically gifting prior to passing.

5. I'm not familiar with the literature on this point, but the common wisdom is to never cut the children out,  unless there are extreme or extraordinary circumstances. Perhaps in the case of a criminal, a psychopath or a self-destructive type.  Most children should NOT be left out of the WILL.

6. How to make best use of what the family gets is tough to outline here.  IMHO Education - especially Jewish Education - should come first.  Thus, tuition for the grandchildren's Jewish/Hebrew education would typically be my top priority.  Of course, each case must be tailored as necessary.

7. The Talmud gives a guideline of allotting 10-20% towards charity. This makes sense, and can be implemented as scholarships, etc.  For example,  an estate whose net worth is $1 million might see $100k towards various charities, $100k for scholarships for the grandchildren, and $800k divided amongst the children and other worthy family members as appropriate.