About this episode
Some cases are brought, with different circumstances, where the wife received property from the husband with her children and the rabbis deliberated whether she was able to also demand her ketuba money. Rav Huna explained that if a person on their deathbed wrote all of his property to another without specifying a language of inheritance or gift, we see whether the heir was a relative or not. If the heir was a relative who was in line to inherit, they received it as inheritance. If not, they receive it as a gift. Rav Nachman questions Rav Huna, "Why didn't you say directly that you hold by Rabib Yochanan ben Broka!" Rav Nachman answers his own question by quoting a case where the ruling was worded in the same way as Rav Huna's ruling. Still, it was unclear what was the relevance of the inheritance/gift differentiation in both rulings. Rav Ada bar Ahava suggested that the ramification was whether the deceased widow could demand food supplements from the heir. However, Rava rejected this suggestion and explained the ramifications - if the deceased had promised it only to the heir until their death, and after the property would go to someone else. If it is considered an inheritance, this statement is disregarded, but if it is a gift, it is upheld. Is it permitted to bypass one's son's inheritance and give one's property to someone else? Does it make a difference if the son does not behave appropriately or does not behave appropriately toward the father? Is there a debate about the latter question in the Mishna or do both tannaim agree? Two sources are brought to answer this question. The first source explains that Yosef ben Yoezer bypassed his son and a story is told about the aftermath. However, the story is inconclusive regarding this question as there are two different versions of the punchline of the story. A second source, a statement of Shmuel to Rav Yehuda, proves that there is a debate between the tannaim. Another story is told of one who bypassed his sons and passed his inheritance to Yonatan ben Uziel who in turn returned a third of it to the sons. Shamai attacks him for doing it but he proves to Shamai that he was correct.