Bekhorot 23 – בכורות כ״ג | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha
What Bekhorot 23 teaches
- Rabbi Yoḥanan rules a carcass transmits impurity until unfit for dogs, whereas Bar Padda requires edibility for a resident alien.
- Animals nurse only their biological offspring, so nursing mothers are presumed to have already given birth previously.
- An undisputed mishna establishes final halakha even if an external baraita records an opposing tanna’s dissent.
The sugyot
- The Gemara debates whether nullified impurity revives when meeting its kind, concluding that carcass meat requires dog edibility to defile.
- Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel rules that an animal is presumed to nurse only its own offspring, establishing certainty regarding firstborn status.
- Rav rules halacha follows all undisputed mishnayot in the chapter, which the Gemara establishes applies to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel despite a contradictory baraita.
Halachot from the daf
- Impurity of red heifer ashes mixed with ordinary ashes
- Impurity of animal carcass meat mixed with slaughtered meat
- Putrefaction threshold removing ritual impurity from an animal carcass
- Susceptibility to ritual impurity of fish brine mixed with water
- Purchasing a nursing animal from a gentile
- Whether milk discharge exempts an animal from bekhorah
- Halachic authority of Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov
Gems from the Daf
- Iyun of the day: Nullification of Carcass Meat Regarding Carriage Defilement
- Daf prep: Before you learn Bekhorot 23
- 3 to remember: Bekhorot 23: three things to remember
- The Passuk: When a Carcass Ceases to Be a Carcass
- Halachot: Nullified Impurity, Decomposition, and Presumptions of Bekhorah
- The Rambam’s view: Nullified Impurity and the Threshold of Decomposition
- Tosafot: Nullification, Carrying, and Decay on Bekhorot 23
- Machloket: When Does Rotten Meat Stop Imparting Ritual Impurity?
- The inner dimension: When a Carcass Surpasses an Unrefined Scholar
- Words to know: Bekhorot 23: words to know
- Masechet so far: The masechet so far, chapter by chapter
- Elsewhere in Shas: Bekhorot 23 elsewhere in Shas
Learn Bekhorot 23 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.