Study Bava Batra folio 142B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
דהוא מיית ברישא, ואין הבן יורש את אמו בקבר להנחיל לאחין מן האב.
The reason is that we presume that the fetus died first, before its mother died, and the son does not inherit from his mother while in the grave, in order to bequeath the inheritance to his paternal brothers. The halakha is that if a son dies, and afterward his mother dies, the deceased son does not inherit from his mother and subsequently bequeath the inheritance to his paternal brothers, who are not related to the mother. But in other cases, where it is not his mother’s estate, a fetus inherits property.
למימרא דהוא מיית ברישא?! והא הוה עובדא, ופרכס תלתא פרכוסי! אמר מר בר רב אשי: מידי דהוה אזנב הלטאה, שמפרכסת.
The Talmud asks: Is this to say that it is certain that the fetus died first? But there was an incident where the mother died and the fetus made 3 spasmodic motions afterward. Apparently, a fetus can die after the mother. Mar bar Rav Ashi said: That incident was just as it is with the tail of the lizard, which jerks after being severed from the lizard, but it is just a spasmodic motion which does not indicate that it is still alive.
מר בריה דרב יוסף משמיה דרבא אמר: לומר שממעט בחלק בכורה. ודוקא בן יום אחד, אבל עובר – לא. מאי טעמא? ״וילדו לו״ אמר רחמנא.
Mar, son of Rav Yosef, says in the name of Rava: The Mishnah comes to say that a one-day-old child reduces the portion of the firstborn. The firstborn is entitled to a double portion of the inheritance, and this is calculated taking into account the portion due to his dead brother. And it is in this context that specifically the portion of a one-day-old child is taken into account, but the portion of a fetus is not taken into account, even though a fetus also inherits property. What is the reason for this? God states concerning the portion of the firstborn: “If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they bore him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated” (Deuteronomy 21:15). The term “children” excludes a fetus.