Bava Batra 111 - October 14, 12 Tishrei

Today's daf is sponsored by Geelit and Eric Sommer in honor of Shai Seliger, his wife Hadar, to his parents, our dear friends and fellow daf learners Oren and Rachel Seliger upon Shai’s safe return from a year of fighting in Gaza. "Am Yisrael is grateful to you and all the other men and women fighting to protect us and to their spouses and families for all their sacrifices." Today's daf is sponsored by Sara Sacks "in honor of Rabbanit Michelle Farber who has made daf yomi accessible to me and a pleasure to learn." Our learning will also be in memory of those killed in Ba"ch Golani yesterday and for the refuah shleima of all the injured soldiers.  Where in the Torah is a source for the law that a son or daughter inherits from their mother? The law is derived from a verse about a daughter and then learned for the son by a kal v'chomer argument from the inheritance from a father. The rabbis and Rabbi Zecharia ben haKatzav disagree about whether the laws of inheriting from the mother are the same as the father, and the son precedes the daughter, or whether they divide her property equally. The argument for the latter (Rabbi Zecharia ben haKatzav's opinion) employs the dayo principle, laws derived by kal v'chomer cannot be stronger than the original law. Since the law is stated by the daughter and learned by kal v'chomer to the brother, the brother can't have more strength than the daughter to inherit in place of her. The dayo principle is derived from God's punishment of Miriam when she spoke lashon hara about Moshe. How can the rabbis not employ dayo here if dayo is derived from the Torah? Some rabbis held like Rabbi Zecharia and even some who held that Rav held that way. But Rav Nachman was adamantly against this position as he believed that neither Rav nor Shmuel held that way. Rabbi Yehuda Nesia had an encounter with Rabbi Yanai where he asked the source for the law that a son precedes the daughter in their mother's inheritance. When Rabbi Yanai responded with a heikesh, comparison, between one who inherits from a mother and one who inherits from the father from the word 'matot', Rabbi Yehuda questioned why doesn't a firstborn doesn't get a double portion from his mother's inheritance just as he does from his father? Rabbi Yanai was so offended by the question that he did not respond. Abaye, Rav Nachman and Rava each bring verses to explain why it was obvious to Rabbi Yanai that a firstborn would not get a double portion from his mother, but only Rava's is accepted. Where in the Torah is a source for the law that a husband inherits from his wife? Two different drashot are brought (in braitot) and Rava and Abaye each explain the first one in a different manner.