Quick Answer: An Israeli rabbinical court can issue a succession order or probate an estate, but only under Section 155 of the Inheritance Law 5725-1965, and only if every interested party consents in writing. Without that consent the file belongs to the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or the Family Court. Even when a religious court does take the file, it applies the civil Inheritance Law by default. It can decide the estate according to religious law only where the adult, competent heirs have specifically agreed to that in writing, and never in a way that cuts the share of a minor, an incapacitated heir, or an heir who did not sign.

A question comes up in almost every diaspora family that loses a parent with property in Israel. A relative in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak calls and says the family is taking the estate to the beit din because that is how it should be done, and asks the heirs abroad to sign a short Hebrew form. Some heirs sign without reading it. Others panic, having heard that under religious law a daughter inherits nothing while there are sons.

Both reactions come from the same gap in information. Israel really does run two parallel court systems in family matters, and the rabbinical courts really can decide inheritance. But the door between the systems is narrow, it opens only from the inside, and any single heir can hold it shut. This guide covers exactly what that door is, what changes if you walk through it, and what to do if you have already signed something you did not understand.

1. Two Court Systems, One Estate

Israeli succession is governed by one statute for everybody: the Inheritance Law 5725-1965 (Chok HaYerusha, חוק הירושה). It is a civil, religion-neutral law. It applies to a Tel Aviv secular family, a Haredi family in Beitar, a Muslim family in Nazareth and an American Jewish family whose only Israeli asset is a Netanya apartment.

Two civil bodies normally handle succession files. The Registrar of Inheritance Affairs (HaRasham LeInyanei Yerusha, הרשם לענייני ירושה) handles uncontested applications and issues most succession orders and probate orders in Israel. The Family Court (Beit HaMishpat LeInyanei Mishpacha) takes over when someone files an objection, when the Attorney General's representative asks for it, or when the file raises a question the Registrar cannot decide.

Alongside them sit the religious courts, which have jurisdiction over marriage and divorce for their communities. For Jewish citizens and residents that is the regional rabbinical court, with the Great Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem sitting as the appellate instance. Their day job is personal status, not property, and inheritance is not part of their standing jurisdiction. Section 155 is the only bridge.

In Practice: Almost every straightforward estate should go to the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs, which operates district offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva and Nazareth under the Ministry of Justice. The application fee for a succession order is roughly NIS 520 when filed online through the Ministry of Justice portal, plus about NIS 130 for the mandatory newspaper publication under Section 67. An uncontested order typically issues within two to four months of filing, longer where an heir lives abroad and documents need an apostille. A rabbinical court file, by contrast, carries no comparable published fee schedule for succession work, and the sitting is conducted in Hebrew without an interpreter unless you arrange one.

2. What Section 155 Actually Requires

Section 155 is short, and every clause in it matters. Read in plain English, it does three things.

First, it lets a religious court that had jurisdiction over the deceased's personal status grant a succession order, grant a probate order and rule on maintenance from the estate. That jurisdiction is not automatic. It exists only where all the interested parties have given their consent in writing. An interested party means anyone whose rights the order would affect: every heir under the law or under the will, and in practice also a claimant for maintenance from the estate.

Second, it protects those who cannot protect themselves. Where an interested party is a minor, a person who has been declared legally incompetent, or a person who is absent and cannot be located, consent alone is not enough. The civil court's approval is required before the religious court can proceed on that party's behalf.

Third, and this is the part families most often get wrong: a religious court that has taken a succession file under Section 155 applies the civil Inheritance Law. Taking the file to the beit din does not by itself convert the estate to halachic shares. Religious succession rules can be applied only where the adult, competent parties have gone one step further and agreed in writing to have their rights determined that way, and even then the agreement cannot bind anyone who did not sign it.

So there are two separate consents, and they are frequently blurred together on a single sheet of paper handed to a grieving family:

  • Consent that the rabbinical court, rather than the Registrar or the Family Court, will handle the file.
  • Consent that the estate be divided under religious law instead of under the shares set out in Sections 10 to 17 of the Inheritance Law.

You can agree to the first and refuse the second. Many families do exactly that, usually because they want a rabbinical court to resolve an unrelated family dispute at the same time, or because a parent's stated wish was that the beit din handle everything.

In Practice: Before you sign anything, ask for the document in full and have it translated by someone who is not a party. Two specific things to look for in the Hebrew text: the phrase bhaskamat kol hatzdadim (with the consent of all parties), which identifies the jurisdictional consent, and any reference to din Torah or halacha governing the division, which is the second and far more consequential consent. If the document does not name every heir individually, the consent is incomplete on its face. Where a minor is an heir, the Family Court must approve, and the Attorney General's representative in succession matters (B'Koach Ha'Yoetz Ha'Mishpati) is notified and can object. Budget four to eight weeks for that approval alone.

3. Where Civil and Halachic Shares Diverge

The consent question only matters because the two systems produce genuinely different numbers. Under the Inheritance Law, where there is no will, the estate is divided as follows: the surviving spouse takes the movables of the shared household and the family car outright under Section 11(a), plus half the remaining estate where the deceased left children or parents. The children share the other half in equal parts, sons and daughters alike, with a deceased child's share passing down to that child's own descendants under Section 14.

Classical halachic succession works on different principles. Sons inherit the estate; daughters inherit only where there are no sons or their descendants. The firstborn son takes a double portion of the father's estate in assets the father held at death. A widow does not inherit her husband under Torah law at all, though she holds substantial claims against the estate through her ketubah, a right of maintenance, and the right to remain in the marital home. A husband does inherit his wife.

Put concretely, take an estate of an apartment in Rehovot worth NIS 2,400,000 and a bank account of NIS 600,000, left by a widower with two sons and one daughter. Under the Inheritance Law each child takes a third: NIS 1,000,000 in value. Under a straightforward halachic division the daughter takes nothing from the estate itself, the firstborn son takes NIS 2,000,000 and the second son NIS 1,000,000. That is a NIS 1,000,000 swing for one signature.

In real rabbinical court practice the outcome is rarely that stark. Dayanim routinely encourage a compromise (pesharah) in which daughters and widows receive a meaningful share, and many will not approve an arrangement that leaves a daughter destitute. But the negotiating baseline shifts entirely, and it shifts against the heirs who were going to receive an equal share under the civil law.

In Practice: Run the arithmetic on both models before any family meeting. Pull the current market value of the Israeli property from a licensed appraiser (shamai mekarke'in), which costs roughly NIS 2,500 to NIS 5,000 for a residential valuation, and get the bank balances via a Section 43 disclosure application if the family is not sharing them. A daughter or a widow being asked to sign a Section 155 consent should treat the difference between the two figures as the real subject of the conversation. Israeli law imposes no inheritance tax, so nothing about the tax position changes based on which court issues the order. What changes is who receives what.

4. Sharia, Christian and Druze Courts

Section 155 is not limited to rabbinical courts. It refers to any religious court with personal-status jurisdiction over the deceased, so the same mechanism is open to the Sharia courts, the recognized Christian ecclesiastical courts, and the Druze religious courts.

For Muslim families this comes up often. The Sharia courts apply the Islamic law of succession (fara'id), a detailed system of fixed fractional shares in which a daughter generally receives half a son's share and a widow's portion depends on whether there are children. As with the rabbinical courts, the Sharia court can only take a succession file where all interested parties consented in writing, and the same protection applies to minors and absent heirs.

The Israeli courts have taken a hard look at one recurring pattern: a woman signing away her inheritance share in favor of her brothers, under family pressure, shortly after a death. Where a renunciation or consent appears to have been extracted rather than freely given, it can be challenged. The point is the same whichever community you belong to. Section 155 exists to give families a genuine choice, not to give the loudest relative a procedural shortcut.

The mechanics are simple, which is why they are easy to get wrong.

Consent must be in writing and it must be yours. A brother's statement that "everyone is on board" is not consent. An email saying you are willing to consider it is not consent. Israeli practice expects a signed document, and where an heir is abroad, a signature verified by an Israeli consulate or by a notary with an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention.

Consent must also be informed. A signature on a Hebrew document obtained from an heir who does not read Hebrew, without translation and without independent advice, is vulnerable. Raise the objection promptly and in writing, because delay is the single factor most likely to defeat a challenge.

Refusing is straightforward. You do not need a reason and you do not need to justify yourself to the family. Write to the rabbinical court file, with a copy to the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs, stating that you do not consent to religious court jurisdiction under Section 155 and that you request the file proceed before the Registrar or the Family Court. One refusal from one interested party ends the question.

In Practice: If you have already signed and now want out, act within days rather than weeks. Send a written withdrawal to the specific regional rabbinical court holding the file (there are regional courts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tiberias and Safed, among others), naming the deceased and the file number, and file a parallel notice with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs. Israeli lawyers charge roughly NIS 3,000 to NIS 8,000 to handle a jurisdictional objection of this kind, against an estate share that is frequently worth six figures in dollars. Once the religious court has issued its order the position hardens considerably, and your remaining routes are an appeal to the Great Rabbinical Court, generally within 30 days, or a petition to the High Court of Justice.

6. Halachic Wills and the Half-Male Deed

There is an older answer to this problem that predates the State of Israel, and observant families still use it.

Halacha does not recognize a will that simply redirects the Torah's order of inheritance. Traditional practice therefore achieves the same result indirectly, most commonly through the shtar chatzi zachar (שטר חצי זכר), the "deed of half a male share." The father acknowledges a large debt to his daughter, payable from his estate an hour before his death. The debt is forgivable if, and only if, the sons voluntarily give her a share equal to half of what a son receives. Faced with a choice between paying the whole debt and honoring the arrangement, the sons honor the arrangement. The daughter is provided for and no rule of halachic succession has been overridden.

Modern drafting uses a related device. A will is structured as a gift effective from now and after death (matanah mehayom ul'achar mitah), which transfers a present interest during life while postponing possession. Many Israeli attorneys who serve religious clients draft a single document that satisfies the formal requirements of Sections 19 to 23 of the Inheritance Law and carries a halachic mechanism inside it, sometimes accompanied by a rabbinic approval letter.

This route is usually better than a Section 155 consent for one practical reason. The testator makes the decision while alive and competent, with the terms visible to everyone, instead of leaving the heirs to negotiate the point over a grave.

In Practice: If you want an Israeli will that works in both systems, budget NIS 4,000 to NIS 12,000 for drafting by an attorney experienced in halachic estate planning, more where there are foreign assets and a US or UK will to coordinate with. Deposit the signed will with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs under Section 21 of the Inheritance Law for a fee of approximately NIS 110 to NIS 130. Deposit does not validate the will, but it creates an official record that surfaces automatically when anyone applies for a succession order, which is exactly what you want if a relative later argues the family always intended a din Torah. Review the document after any marriage, divorce, birth, or purchase of Israeli property.

7. After the Order: Appeals and Registration

A succession or probate order issued by a religious court under Section 155 has the same standing as one issued by the Registrar. Israeli banks will release funds against it, the Land Registry (Tabu) will register the transfer of an apartment, the Israel Land Authority will process a leasehold, and the Companies Registrar will record a share transfer.

Expect friction anyway. These orders are unusual enough that a bank's legal department may take several extra weeks to satisfy itself, particularly where the heirs are non-residents and the compliance file already includes foreign identity documents and source-of-funds questions. Send the order to the institution with a certified English translation and a covering letter that cites Section 155 directly.

On appeals: a decision of a regional rabbinical court is appealable to the Great Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, usually within 30 days. The civil Supreme Court does not sit as a general appellate court over religious court rulings. It intervenes, sitting as the High Court of Justice, on narrow grounds, most importantly where the religious court acted outside the jurisdiction Section 155 gave it. If the consent of an interested party was missing, forged, or given by someone who lacked capacity, that is precisely the kind of jurisdictional defect the High Court will examine.

8. Practical Steps for Heirs Abroad

If you are an heir living outside Israel and this issue has landed in your inbox, work through the following.

  • Establish what the family is actually proposing. Ask for the Hebrew document, the name of the court, and the file number. Have it translated independently.
  • Check the Registrar's records. An application may already be pending. Any interested party can inquire into the status of a file with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs, and a search will show whether a will was deposited under Section 21.
  • Get your own Israeli lawyer, not the family's. The attorney who drafted the parents' documents and who is close to the sibling in Israel cannot represent competing heirs on a question that redistributes value between them.
  • Decide the two consents separately, in writing, and communicate the decision to the court rather than only to your relatives.
  • If you refuse, expect the file to move to the Registrar or the Family Court and to proceed under the equal-share rules. That is the default position, not a hostile act.

Families under grief compress decisions that deserve months into a single week. Nothing in Israeli succession law requires you to sign a jurisdictional consent quickly. The estate is not going anywhere, the assets remain frozen either way until an order issues, and there is no deadline in Section 155 that penalizes an heir for thinking it over.

In Practice: Where the family is genuinely divided, one workable middle path is a written estate distribution agreement (heskem chalukat izavon) under Section 110 of the Inheritance Law, signed by all the heirs and approved by the court. It lets the family land wherever it wants on the halachic-civil spectrum, including giving a firstborn son a larger share by choice, without handing jurisdiction to a religious court and without anyone waiving rights blind. Redistribution among heirs under an approved distribution agreement is generally treated as part of the estate division rather than as a taxable gift, provided no consideration comes from outside the estate. Confirm the tax treatment with an Israeli tax adviser before signing, because the Israel Tax Authority looks closely at cash paid in from outside the estate.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Section 155 of the Inheritance Law 5725-1965 conditions the religious court's jurisdiction on the written consent of every party with an interest in the estate. If you are an heir and you do not sign, the file stays with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or the Family Court. Your consent must be your own signature on a document filed with the court, not a relative's assurance that you agree.
Under the civil Inheritance Law, yes, in equal shares with sons. Sections 10 and 11 make no distinction between male and female children. Classical halachic succession is different, and it can only be applied to an Israeli estate through Section 155, which requires the written consent of the adult heirs who would lose out. Without that consent, the equal-share rule governs, whatever the family's religious practice.
Yes. An order issued under Section 155 has the same legal effect as one from the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or the Family Court. Banks, the Tabu, the Israel Land Authority and the Companies Registrar all accept it. Because these orders are less common, expect the institution's legal department to take longer over the file, usually a few extra weeks. Send a certified English translation with the original.
Raise it immediately, in writing, with the rabbinical court and with your own lawyer. Consent under Section 155 must be genuine and informed, and a signature obtained without translation or independent advice can be challenged. Once the court has issued its order, your route is an appeal to the Great Rabbinical Court, generally within 30 days, or a petition to the High Court of Justice on jurisdictional grounds. Both are slower and more expensive than objecting at the outset.
Yes. The section refers to any religious court with personal-status jurisdiction over the deceased, so it covers the Sharia courts, the recognized Christian ecclesiastical courts and the Druze religious courts. The written consent requirement is identical in each case, and so is the protection for minors, incapacitated heirs and heirs who cannot be located.

Related Guides

Intestate Succession in Israel: Who Inherits Without a Will Succession Orders in Israel: What They Are and How to Obtain One Estate Distribution Agreement in Israel (Heskem Chalukat Izavon) Rabbinical Court vs. Family Court in Israel Contesting a Will in Israel: Grounds, Process and Realistic Outcomes
Adv. Eli Shimony
Adv. Eli Shimony
Licensed Israeli Attorney · Founder, IsraelLaw.info

Eli Shimony Law Office · Editorial policy

Eli Shimony is a licensed Israeli attorney advising foreign nationals, overseas investors and diaspora families on Israeli inheritance, probate and civil law. He founded IsraelLaw.info to give English speakers accurate, practical guidance on navigating the Israeli legal system.