18. To enable a father to give a gift while alive and avoid issues of things not yet in existence, they instituted in olden-day Europe a “shtar chatzi zachar,” the contents of which were more or less as follows: the father obligated himself to gift a massive sum to his daughter, a sum that was much more than what the daughter deserved, with the payment time being one hour before his death. He made a condition that if, after his death, his sons would give his daughter half of one male’s share of the property he owned at the time of his death, his debt to his daughters was null. To avoid having to give the massive sum the father committed, the heirs would give the daughter half of a male’s share (Rema Choshen Mishpat 281:7).
19. When was it written? Some people made this shtar when their daughters became of marriageable age, based on the above reasons (Maharik 13; Maharam Mintz ibid.). Others wrote the shtar chatzi zachar at a later point, but before they died (Gesher HaChaim 1:19:1; Minchas Yitzchok 2:95); this is the minhag of those who write it today.
20. Land. When the shtar chatzi zachar was originally instituted, it said that the daughters accepted half of a male’s share of everything other than land and sefarim. “Land” refers to the deceased’s living quarters; the consensus of most poskim is that the daughters get a share of real estate and houses that were for business enterprises (Teshuvos Beis Chinuch 14; Shevet Yaakov 112; Rabbi Akiva Eiger 1:129).
21. The reason they did not give daughters land was so that it would remain in the family and not get transferred to a different family (Nachalas Shiva 21:4:6), or because land inheritance is explicit in the Torah and Chazal did not want to uproot something that is explicit in the Torah; movable property is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah (Chasam Sofer Even HaEzer 1:147). There are additional reasons as well.
22. When writing a shtar chatzi zachar today, one can include land since the main part of an inheritance is land and houses. However, the poskim argue whether it is enough to omit the words “besides for land” from the shtar, thereby including land in the obligation (Hagrav Neventzal) or whether land needs to be listed explicitly to be included in the shtar (Igros Moshe Even HaEzer 1:110). Therefore, it is best to list it explicitly.
23. Half a share or the equivalent of a whole share. The original institution of a shtar chatzi zachar gave daughters half of a male’s share so each of the sons still got double what the daughters got. However, according to most of the reasons, a person can give his daughters the equivalent of a male’s whole share. Based on the main reason we give a share to daughters – to avoid igniting the fire of conflict and fighting between sons and daughters – many people today give their daughters the equivalent of a male’s share, and the estate is divided equally between the sons and daughters. If they would only give the daughters half of a male’s share, it would still cause fights and conflicts, and Chazal’s solution would be ineffective.
