Chasidut for Bava Batra 316:5
וטעמא מאי אמר אביי הואיל והוחזקה נחלה באותו שבט:
<b><i>GEMARA</i></b>. In whose established right of ownership?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Does the estate remain according to R. Akiba? ');"><sup>12</sup></span> — R. Elai said: In the established right of the ownership of the heirs of the mother. R. Zera said: In the established right of the ownership of the heirs of the son. When R. Zera went up [to Palestine] he adopted<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'stood'. ');"><sup>13</sup></span> the principle of R. Elai.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Rabbah adopted the principle of R. Zera', which follows in current editions is to be deleted. (V. BaH, R. Gersh. and R. Han, a.l.) — [It is, however, well to remember that R. Elai was a Palestinian and that R. Zera must have become aware of R. Elai's view only after he came to Palestine when he was led to abandon his own opinion, whereas Rabbah, who still remained behind in Babylon, retained the view of his colleague, R. Zera. Considered in this light, the reading in our current editions is quite in order.] ');"><sup>14</sup></span>
Kedushat Levi
Since the generation who left Egypt as adults did not get to the land of Israel, only their sons, it follows that the parents did not achieve their שלימות, “maturity” until their sons had made the Land of Israel their ancestral heritage. This is the meaning of “the dead inherited the living.”
This statement in the Talmud about the dead inheriting the living, also explains another statement in the Talmud Sanhedrin 104, according to which a son [while alive Ed.] can confer spiritual merits on his [deceased] father, whereas his deceased father cannot confer merits on his surviving son. The Talmud bases this on the example of the second generation of the Israelites bestowing merits on their fathers after they carried out the task set by G’d for this people of settling in the Holy land and observing the Torah there. Avraham after his death, or Yitzchok, after his death, could not confer merits on their respective sons that these had not acquired during their respective lifetimes.