Bekhorot 17 – בכורות י״ז | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha
What Bekhorot 17 teaches
- Wool from an animal that resembles another species is invalid for ritual fringes and exempt from shaatnez and tzaraat garment uncleanness.
- When twin male lambs emerge simultaneously, Rabbi Tarfon awards the priest the fatter lamb, while Rabbi Akiva gives the leaner one.
- The Sages rule natural births cannot coincide simultaneously, debating whether human measurements can ever achieve exact equality.
The sugyot
- The Gemara defends Rav Huna and Rav Yehuda regarding how many generations of offspring from a gentile's guaranteed livestock are exempt from firstborn sanctity.
- The Gemara clarifies Rabbi Meir's ruling obligating an anomalous offspring, and derives restrictions on changed animal and plant products across halakha.
- When twin lambs emerge together, the Sages rule that one must be older; the Rabbis dispute how to apportion and treat the uncertain offspring.
- The Gemara investigates whether humans can measure or produce exact equality (efshar letzamtzem bidei adam), testing proofs from the altar, vessels, and broken pottery.
Halachot from the daf
- Bekhorah status of an offspring resembling a different species
- Exemption of coarse sheep wool from the first shearing obligation
- Sacrificial disqualification of an animal resembling a different species
- Sha'atnez liability for wool of a ewe born to a goat
- Validity of wool from a ewe born to a goat for tzitzit
- Two male lambs emerging simultaneously from a first-time mother
- Claim to twin offspring when one dies or when male and female
- Priestly gifts from the remaining doubtful twin lamb
- Demarcating the altar's midpoint with a red line
- Dividing an impure earthenware oven into equal parts
Gems from the Daf
Learn Bekhorot 17 sugya by sugya on Super Daf: the Gemara in Hebrew and English with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rishonim, the Rambam and the Shulchan Arukh woven in. Free.