For the source text click/tap here: Ketubot 103
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our Mishna teaches that when a man dies, his children cannot insist that his widow move out of his house, even with a promise to support her. In fact, if she wants to remain, the orphans are obligated to give her a place in the house according to her needs (some say that she has full access to the house, as she did while her late husband was alive) and support her there.
In this context, our Gemara tells of various commands that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi gave while on his deathbed. To his children his instructions were: “Take great care with regard to your mother’s honor, keep my candle burning and my table set, each in its proper place, and my servants, Josef Heifani and Shimon Efrati should serve me in my death as they did during my lifetime.”
We explore the medical causes of the patriarch’s death with modern medical speculation as well as various possible directives we might extrapolate from his last will.