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Ten Minute Halacha

Fulfilling a Dead Man's Commitment to Tzedakah

12 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 13.129 Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

Good evening everybody. So the yeshiva this year is Loni Masechas Ksubas. There is a Gemara in Ksubas and Da'af, Samach Zayin Ambez, that tells us about the time, I think it was Marukva, was dying and that he had committed half of his money to tzedakah.

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Chapter 2: What is the significance of committing to tzedakah before death?

13.149 - 23.963 Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

So the Gemara asks, Baran Mevazvez, Ali Mevazvez, Yosef Michomesh, are you not supposed to give more than 20% of your money to tzedakah? And the Gemara says, no, when you're dying it's different, because the whole concern of being Mevazvez, Yosef Michomesh,

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that you might become poor and you're not going to be able to provide for yourself you're going to need to take money from other people but there's no such concern when a person is going to die so I don't want to talk about that but I want to talk about a similar case a person who was not planning on dying and had committed a sum of money to tzedakah and then he died unplanned so is there an obligation to fulfill the commitments of a dead man meaning a person before he died

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having no intention of dying, committed money to tzedakah, and then he died, and he had not yet given the money, are the Yerushalayim now responsible to give that money to tzedakah? So what brought about this conversation? It relates to a recent Gemara we did in the Dafyomi.

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At the beginning of Masachus Menachos, the Gemara discusses a Yoledes who has to bring a Karban Chatas and a Karban Ola, and she already brought her Karban Chatas, and then she dropped dead. So the Gemara discusses, do the Yorshim bring her Karban Ola for her? So the Gemara says, yes, they do, they have to bring her Karban Ola for her. What does that mean?

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They bring her karbanola for her if she had already designated an animal for the karbanola? Or they bring the karbanola for her even if she had not yet designated an animal for karbanola? And they have to do it anyway. And the crux of the issue is do we assume shibuta da reysa or shibuta lav da reysa?

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is there a Shibut on her estate to pay for a Karban Ola, in which case, even if she didn't designate an animal in advance, we're going to have to bring a Karban Ola from her estate? Or do we say, there's no Shibut on her estate, Mi Dar Raisa, and therefore only if she had designated the animal, we have to bring the Karban from her estate.

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The Gemara Paskins and Kedushin Dav Yirgimal, Shibuta Dar O Raisa, and even if she did not designate the animal for a Karban Ola, Her yorshim do have to take care of it. There's a shiba and a chasim. They're going to have to pay for her karbanolah from her estate to fulfill that obligation.

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So what does this have to do with our discussion of a person who was posik tzedakah before he died and then he dropped dead? So there is a machlokas about our very shayla, about the person who had promised money to tzedakah. and then died before being able to deliver on the promise. And this is a machlokas between Rav Yosef Cairo and Rav Moshe Yisrael.

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Now typically when there's a machlokas between Rav Yosef Cairo and Rav Moshe Yisrael, you say, what's him in? We're in Shulchan Aruch. What's if? Nowhere in Shulchan Aruch. This does not appear in Shulchan Aruch. This appears in their Chuvah Svarim.

Chapter 3: What happens if someone dies without fulfilling their tzedakah commitment?

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That is the Avkas Rochel. Comes along the And the Ramah disagrees and he says no. The obligation to give tzedakah is a chovah al-gufo shel ha-noder. It is a personal obligation that the person who took that neder is obligated. And it's like any other mitzvah.

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A dead man is not chayiv in tefillin, a dead man is not chayiv in tzitzis, a dead man is not chayiv in matzah, and a dead man is not chayiv in tzedakah. So he has no obligation to follow through on that commitment. At the end of that, Shubas Ramad says that Ram Padua, Ramad's cousin, agreed with him. that he agreed that there's no obligation.

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And the Ramah says, and I have a raya from a tshuva in the Rishonin. There's a tshuva sarivash, the Ramah says, in two places, in Siman Shin Chav Chas and in Siman Shin Lamed Hei, about somebody who sold the Dover Shalom B'li Olam. So the halach is in Chashmish V'sim Reishtas, See, if Dalit, if you sell a damash lo bali olam, the kinion is not hal.

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But then the mochar obligated himself for the shavua that he's going to give the lokeach, the item, when it is bali olam. So the rivash writes that he is certainly obligated to fulfill that promise and to give the item when it is bali olam, because he has generated a chiev on himself. But if he dies, the Yerushalayim don't need to make good on that promise.

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Chapter 4: How does the Gemara address obligations after death?

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Because it is a chuvah on the gufo shel mocher. It is not a shibud mamon. It's a shavuah. A shavuah, a commitment, a promise to do something is a personal chiv. It is not a shibud mamon. And therefore, says the Ramad, the same would apply for someone who committed to give tzedakah. You committed to give tzedakah, so you have an obligation.

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And if there's no you anymore, then there's no obligation anymore. The obligation does not carry over to the estate. The Ketzos argues, though, that the Beis Yosef would respond very simply, that Shavua is very different. Shavua is fundamentally not a monetary obligation.

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It's a mitzvah of bal yachel devaro and isser of bal yachel devaro, which usually relates to things like ochel, alo ochel, I commit to do this, to not do that. The fact that in this case it happens to be a guy made a promise relating to money doesn't change the fundamental nature of it as not being a monetary obligation.

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tzedakah on the other hand is fundamentally a monetary obligation and therefore not a chuv on the guf ha'adam it actually carries with it shibu to dar raisa and that's how the afkas rochel undoubtedly would respond says the ktzos then the ktzos says and even the ramah why is the ramah makel over here that the yershim don't have to do it because there is no shibu on his mamon yeah because it was his own personal promise it was like the ramah compared it to his shivua

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That's if the Chi of Tzedakah was generated by his own personal commitment. But if the Chi of Tzedakah was generated by Beis Din being posaik on him that he had to give, so then even the Ramah would be moda. That it's up to the... that it's up to the yorshim to pay for it from the estate. Beisim could be posting tzedakah on a person who becomes a shota.

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It has nothing to do with the person's promise or his commitment. It's a monetary obligation that's imposed on the estate. So what do you do? You have machlokas, mechaber and ramah, but not mechaber and ramah, machlokas, avkas, rochel, and tshuvas ramah. So we're used to thinking, oh, I know what to do. If I'm a Sephardi Jew, I follow...

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the Beit Yosef, and if I'm an Ashkenazi Jew, I follow the Ramah, because after all, Ashkenazim Paschan like the Ramah. So if Shachter Shlito often points out, Ashkenazim do not Paschan like the Ramah. The Ramah Paschans like Ashkenazim. And this is a good example of that, meaning the Ramah in the Mappa is trying to, tries to alert us to what the accepted Pesach and Ashkenaz was.

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So he fills in when the Mechaba writes something, that's the accepted Pesach in Sfarad. So the Ramah fills in what the accepted Pesach in Ashkenaz is. And that's why Ashkenazim follow our Ashkenazi traditions. But in the Chubas HaRamah, he's not trying to fill in what the accepted Pesach in Ashkenaz is. In the Chubas HaFkas Rochot, it's not. It's just analyzing the Surya.

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So it's a regular Machlokas between 92 Boscom, you figure out. Who has the stronger raias? Who has the better argument to make? And you're asking like that. So there is a chasam sofer, who says that if a person commits money to tzedakah and dies, meaning very clearly like the mechaber. And he says no one argues.

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