Daf Yomi One Week at a Time: Bechorot

This week we will begin Masechet Bechorot and learn that there are 3 types of firstborns: Kosher animals, Donkeys and Humans. Each type is redeemed in its own unique way. We will begin to learn about the first-born donkey this week.

This week we will continue learning about the sanctity of the first-born donkey, and why the donkey requires redemption. We will also learn that one may not derive any benefit from the carcass of a donkey killed by arifah (neck-breaking, the alternative to redemption), and that even a small sheep fulfills the mitzvah of redemption.

This week we will learn about which animals are and are not obligated in bechor, the first born of a kosher animal,  including animals born from cross-species unions, animals bought from non-Jews, and cases where the fetus emerged unusually, with the underlying principle that only an animal that truly “opens the womb” in the normal sense acquires kedushah, sanctity. We will also learn about cases of safek (doubt) in bechor status, when two animals give birth simultaneously and it is unclear which offspring is the firstborn, or when one of the mothers had previously given birth and the other had not.

This week we will learn about caesarean-born animals and the animal born after them: Rabbi Tarfon treats both as doubtful firstborns, while Rabbi Akiva says neither is a bechor. Chapter 3 then deals with an animal bought from a non-Jew whose birth history is unknown, using Rabbi Yishmael’s age brackets and Rabbi Akiva’s physical signs of a prior birth to decide. The section ends by assuming a nursing animal is nursing its own young, and not another animal’s.