THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5776 Issue XI Vayigash The $45 Billion Charitable Baby Gift May one gift his estate to charity at the expense of his children's inheritance? By Rabbi Yitzchak Grossman

To commemorate the birth of their daughter Max, Facebook co-founder, CEO and chairman Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan1 have pledged to “give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives” to “advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation”. We have previously considered the general question of the propriety of disposing of all or part of one's estate in a manner diverging from the Torah's system of inheritance; in this article, we focus on the particular question of charitable bequests.