Bekhorot 25 – בכורות כ״ה | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha

What Bekhorot 25 teaches

Hand-plucking hair to inspect a blemish or make room for the slaughtering knife is fully permitted ab initio on a firstborn.
Akavya ben Mahalalel and the Rabbis debate whether wool shed from a blemished firstborn before slaughter remains forbidden for use.
Rabbi Yoḥanan explains that an unlocated blemished animal in a herd resembles an unlocated grave in an excavated field.

The sugyot

The Gemara clarifies whether plucking animal hair violates shearing on Festivals and in consecrated animals, analyzing unintentional labor and the red heifer.
The Gemara limits pre-slaughter hair plucking to handwork and proves plucking to reveal a blemish is permitted ab initio.
The Mishnah debates whether wool shed from a blemished firstborn animal becomes permitted upon slaughter, and clarifies the status of dangling wool.
The Gemara examines whether shed firstborn wool requires prior expert authorization to be permitted, and reinterprets mixtures of blemished animals.

Halachot from the daf

Plucking and preparing bird feathers on Shabbat
Trimming black hair tips on a red heifer
Prohibition of shearing and working with a firstborn animal
Plucking hair by hand to clear space for slaughtering a בכור
Plucking hair לכתחילה to examine a blemish on a consecrated animal
Wool shed or plucked from a blemished firstborn animal
Status of tangled dangling wool on a slaughtered firstborn
Nullification of firstborn shearings intermingled with ordinary wool
Wool detached from a firstborn animal during its lifetime
Mixture of firstborn shearings with non-sacred wool

Gems from the Daf

Learn Bekhorot 25 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.