Talmud zu Bava Batra 9:1

MISHNAH: If somebody was married to two women who both died, and then he died, and the orphans demand their mothers’ ketubot, if [the estate] is sufficient only for both ketubot they split evenly³³If there are n sons, the estate is divided into n equal parts. If one of the children is a male firstborn, the estate is divided into n+1 parts and the firstborn takes two. If there are no sons, only n daughters, the estate is divided into n equal parts.. If there was an excess denar, these take their mother’s ketubah and those take their mother’s ketubah³⁴The remainder is split evenly between the heirs.. If the orphans say³⁵If the ketubot were unequal, the sons of the mother with the larger ketubah would be interested to receive the ketubah rather than the inheritance. Similarly, if the ketubot were equal but one wife had few sons, the other many, the few sons would gain if they could split their mother’s ketubah between them and not have to share with their many halfbrothers. These are willing to take some property at an inflated value in order to receive more than the other woman’s sons., we accept the properties of our father for the value of an extra denar in order to take their mother’s ketubah; one does not listen to them but one appraises the properties in court.

If a convert died¹⁰⁶He failed to start a Jewish family. Since he no longer is a member of his Gentile family and did not acquire Jewish heirs, his property becomes ownerless. and Jews plundered his property, if there were slaves, either adult or underage, they gain their freedom¹⁰⁷Since they become ownerless, they go free, cf. Note 94. This Tanna holds that the ownerless slave does not need a bill of manumission. In the Babli, 39a, Rav Naḥman explains that since the rules of bills of manumission are derived from those of bills of divorce, since a widow does not have a bill of divorce, the slave who gains freedom by his master’s death does not need a bill.. Abba Shaul said, the adults gain their freedom, the minors do not become free. Why? They are no longer property after their owner’s death¹⁰⁸And can be acquired by anybody who takes them.. Then even adults? Rebbi Abba said, since adults are competent to acquire themselves, they gain their freedom. Minors, who are not competent to acquire for themselves, do not gain their freedom. Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said, practice follows Abba Shaul¹⁰⁹The Babli, 39a/b, agrees and is ambivalent in the matter, as is the Yerushalmi.. The opinions of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi are contradictory. There, Rebbi Simon in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi and Rebbi Yossi ben Shaul in the name of Rebbi said: A person who has given up hope to recover his slave⁸⁸It is a general rule that anything abandoned becomes ownerless and may be taken by anybody who finds it. If a person gives up hope to recover something he lost, this is abandonment (Baba meṣi‘a 2:1, first line). It is stated later that an adult slave, being able to become a responsible person, acquires himself if he becomes ownerless. Since then he is a full Jew, if the owner later finds him, he cannot reduce him to slavery. But the former slave cannot marry a Jewish partner without a bill of manumission. is not entitled to enslave him¹¹⁰And he asserts that the master has to write a bill of manumission for the slave. But the adult slave who gains his freedom by his master’s death does not need a bill of manumission.. They said, what Rebbi Joshua said about enslaving, if he did not give, he did not give¹¹¹The owner cannot be forced to write a bill of manumission for the absconded slave.; perhaps practice would be to enslave him, therefore he has to write him a bill of manumission¹¹²It may be that any ownerless slave is automatically free without a written document; it also may be that the runaway slave whose master has given up hope of recovery is not free. Therefore, that slave cannot marry in the Jewish community without being formally freed.. And here, he says so! We heard that Rebbi Joḥanan said, Rebbi Joshua ben Levi taught us that correctly, perhaps practice follows Abba Shaul¹¹³Practice follows Abba Shaul, not as a necessity but as recommended action.. The slave girl of Rabba bar Zuṭra ran away and he gave up hope to recover her. He went to ask Rebbi Ḥanina and Rebbi Joshua ben Levi. They said, he is not entitled to enslave her¹¹⁴Even if he found her later, he could not bring any action to recover her as a servant.. How is it to write her a bill of manumission? They said to him, if you wrote, you did the right thing¹¹⁵He cannot be forced to write a bill but, since the runaway girl probably will reappear as a Jewish woman in some distant community and marry there, for the benefit of the community it is appropriate that the former owner write her a bill of manumission and appoint a local person to receive it in her stead (since one may give benefits to absent persons without their knowledge) to legitimize the children from any marriage she might contract.. Rebbi Ḥanina in the name of Rebbi Ismael ben Rebbi Yose: A slave who married as a free person¹¹⁶The Babli, 39b/40a, and the editio princeps read בַּת חוֹרִין “a free woman” instead of בֶּן חוֹרִין “a free man” in the ms. One has to assume that the Venice typesetter was influenced by the Babli since the ms. shows no correction by the editor of the print; the text makes perfect sense as it stands. Since a slave cannot marry, if the master organizes a marriage for him it is obvious (a) that the owner manumits the slave and (b) that the woman he marries must be free. in the presence of his master gained his freedom. Rebbi Joḥanan said, yesterday I was sitting and formulating: If somebody writes a document of preliminary marriage for his slave or a document of definitive marriage for his girl slave, Rebbi says, they acquired¹¹⁷He accepts the marriage document as a bill of manumission; the slave acquires his own legal personality with the marriage document., but the Sages say, they did not acquire¹¹⁸Since a slave’s hand is his master’s hand, a slave cannot acquire a document for himself unless he first was manumitted.. The first Tanna¹¹⁹R. Ismael ben R. Yose. follows Rebbi: he acquired.