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Shabbat Parashat Eikev 5775P'ninat Mishpat: Adding on to Old Present or Setting New One?(based on Shut Chatam Sofer, Choshen Mishpat 51)Case: Along with his older daughter’s ketuba, Reuven wrote a standard shtar chatzi zachar (an obligation to a daughter, which creates the effect of the granting of a present in a will) for 1,000 gold coins. After Reuven’s second daughter got more money in that form than her sister, he wrote another document to his older daughter, for 2,000 coins, to appease her. After Reuven died, his daughter demanded 3,000 coins from her brothers. They responded that the second document was to replace the first one, not to be added to it. Ruling: The gemara (Ketubot 44a) says that when Shimon gives Levi two documents of a present or a sale, one after the other, we assume that the second one replaces the first. However, the The Gidulei Teruma points out that Rashi later in Ketubot seems to say that even regarding loans, the second replaces the first. However, it appears that Rashi agrees with the The gemara (Ketubot 44a) says that there are two ways to view the second document undoing the first: admission that the first is false; relinquishing rights (mechila) included in the first. However, we rule that mechila cannot undo an obligation found in a document, leaving only the possibility of admission of falsehood of the first document. However, such an admission is an unusual course of events, which makes sense only when there is something suspicious about the existence of two documents. In any case, there is no particular reason to say that the second shtar chatzi zachar, which works like an obligation, should indicate an undoing of the first. Thus, according to strict law, the daughter should receive 3,000 gold coins. However, due to certain local reasons to question whether the father intended to give her so much, it is proper for the sides to compromise. Top of page
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