Bekhorot 26 – בכורות כ״ו | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha
What Bekhorot 26 teaches
- Wool shed from a blemished firstborn remains forbidden after slaughter unless it stayed compressed naturally within the attached fleece.
- Owners must care for a firstborn sheep for thirty days and cattle for fifty days before giving them away.
- Priests cannot accept early firstborns or teruma as labor wages, though the Sages withheld requiring extra replacement tithes.
The sugyot
- The Gemara harmonizes Reish Lakish's rule requiring prior expert permission, establishes three tannaitic views, and rules like Rabbi Yehuda that shed wool is forbidden after slaughter.
- The Gemara queries whether naturally detached wool of a burnt offering is forbidden due to fear of delay, leaving the question unresolved.
- The Gemara defines when loose wool is excluded from the permitted fleece of a slaughtered firstborn, debating between folded hairs and protruding hairs.
- An Israelite must raise a firstborn before giving it to a kohen, and the firstborn must be eaten within its first year.
- The Gemara derives the rearing periods for firstborn animals—thirty days for small cattle and fifty for large—from biblical verses interpreted by the Sages.
- Priestly gifts cannot serve as labor wages, making early firstborn delivery forbidden, though the Sages withheld an additional tithing penalty.
Halachot from the daf
- Wool detached from a firstborn during its lifetime
- Status of wool detached on its own from a burnt offering
- Benefit from wool detached from a firstborn or tithe offering
- Defining loose wool of a firstborn that is prohibited after slaughter
- Obligation to care for a firstborn before giving it to a Kohen
- Timeframe for eating a firstborn and calculating its year
- Maintaining a firstborn after a blemish develops
- Tending period for a firstborn before giving to a kohen
- Giving a firstborn animal to a priest during the rearing period
- Priests or Levites assisting in labor to receive sacred gifts
Gems from the Daf
Learn Bekhorot 26 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.