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Reintroducing The Shtar Chatzi Zachar

14) Selling a Shtar Chatzi Zochor

The Shvus Yaakov[84] writes that a daughter may sell her Shtar Chatzi Zochor to someone else, even before she has claimed with it. Even if the Shtar Chatzi Zochor contained a clause that said that it may be claimed by her or her descendants after her (which could be compared to the case of someone who gave a present and said at the time “Ve’acharecho leploni – and after you it should pass to so-an-so” in which case the recipient cannot sell it for more than his lifetime, after which it automatically passes to the second recipient, as the giver specified, even if the first recipient sold it) in this case we interpret this clause to be merely a linguistic embellishment (Shufra de’shtaroh). The real intention was that it should be a genuine Shtar Chatzi Zochor that can be claimed by her or her descendants after her; there was no intention to deny her the right to sell it if she so desires.[85]

The Shvus Yaakov further takes issue with the Ponim Me’iros who writes that she cannot sell it, and proves that she can. In this he was already preceded by the She’eris Yosef[86] who also writes that she is able to sell her Shtar Chatzi Zochor.

There is an additional point to this. A woman who possesses a shtar and gets married, can no longer sell or forgo this shtar without the agreement of her husband, seeing as a husband has certain rights in her property as long as they are married. Although the standard text of the Shtar Chatzi Zochor contains a clause that expressly disallows her from forgoing her debt without her husband’s agreement, the Shvus Yaakov[87] writes that there is no need for this to be written in the shtar, and thus even if it were left out the rules would not change. If the daughter wished to either sell or forgo her Shtar Chatzi Zochor, she would be obliged to get her husband’s consent.[88]

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