Комментарий к Бамидбар 27:11

לשארו הקרוב אליו ממשפחתו TO HIS KIN THAT IS NEXT TO HIM OF HIS FAMILY — The term משפחה used in connection with inheritance denotes kinship only on the father’s side (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:3; Bava Batra 119b).

AND IT SHALL BE UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL A STATUTE OF JUDGMENT. The meaning thereof is that this judgment should be for all [future] generations, and not only for now when they inherited the Land [hence the expression “a statute, i.e., a permanent one, for all the children of Israel in all future generations”].

והיתה לבני ישראל לחוקת משפט, “This shall be for the Children of Israel as a decree of justice.” This will be a law from now on not only for the people that were about to enter the Holy Land.

ונתתם את נחלתו לשארו הקרוב אליו ממשפחתו, “and you will give his inheritance to the closest (surviving) member of his family.” This verse is the source of the sages in Baba Batra 11 ruling that the husband inherits his wife. The sages use the letter ל in the word ונתתם and the letter ו in the word לשארו to construct a new word, i.e., לו, which is the basis for assigning the wife’s property to the husband upon her death. The word שארו is understood as “his wife.”

Nothing constitutes family except from the father’s side. (Divrei Dovid) Though Scripture often writes “According to their families, their paternal house,” nonetheless, here concerning inheritance where a daughter is considered like a son when he has no son, males and females are inevitably equated. Thus, one might have said that the mother’s [family] was also termed “family” in this matter, so Rashi informs us [that this is not so].

AS THE ETERNAL COMMANDED MOSES. This means: “as I have commanded you,” and the usage here is similar to [that in the verse], This is the statute of the law which the Eternal hath commanded.¹⁶⁵Above, 19:2. Since G-d Himself is speaking, one would have expected the verse to say: “This is the statute which I have commanded.” There are many similar cases.

כאשר צוה ה', “as the Lord had commanded.” Actually, we would have expected the Torah to write; “as I have commanded you,” seeing the whole paragraph is G’d’s dictation. However, we have to use this stylistic change as being similar to Exodus 24,1 “and to Moses He had said: ‘ascend to the Lord.’”