The Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Manchester
Extra-Mural Lectures January-March 2000
For the full list of lectures, click here
Mar 7 Bernard Jackson: "Can Jews Make Wills (according to the Halakhah)?
And if so, can they discriminate against wives and daughters?"
Abstract: Dayan Grunfeld published a book in 1987: The Jewish Law
of Inheritance, which posed a major challenge to the normal practises
of (civil) will-making in the Jewish community. He claimed that the Halakhah
gives priority to intestate succession, and that the distribution of the
estate must follow the rules laid down in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad
(Numbers 27). It is not possible to override this distribution by
means of a civil will, or by any explicit means in Jewish law. That means,
for example, that daughters are necessarily excluded from inheritance in
favour of sons, and that widows must rely upon maintenance from the estate,
according to the terms of the Ketubah. Nevertheless, Dayan Grunfeld
drafted a Jewish form of will designed to have the effects of a civil will
without breaching the Halakhah. This lecture will trace the history
of the matter: the tension between testate and intestate succession in the
Bible itself; the steps by which the Halakhah itself came to recognise
the institution of the will; and the efforts which have been made to equalise
the succession rights of daughters with those of sons.
Bernard Jackson held the Queen Victoria Chair of Law at
the University of Liverpool from 1989-97, and is now Alliance Professor
of Modern Jewish Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies
at the University of Manchester. He has held visiting appointments in Oxford,
Paris, Bologna, Jerusalem and Harvard. He has published several books on
legal philosophy, and, in Jewish law (the topic of his doctoral thesis):
Theft in Early Jewish Law (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972) and
Essays in Jewish and Comparative Legal History (Leiden: E. J Brill,
1975). He is currently completing a new book: Studies in the Semiotics
of Biblical Law. e-mail:Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk
The Centre for Jewish Studies
The Department of Religions and Theology
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)161 275 3614; Fax +44 (0)161 275 3613
e-mail: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk