Bekhorot 28 – בכורות כ״ח | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha

What Bekhorot 28 teaches

If a firstborn develops a blemish right before year-end, the owner receives only enough days past the year to complete thirty.
Post-slaughter inspections are valid for bodily blemishes according to Rabbi Yehuda, because only specific eye cataracts alter after death.
Court-authorized expert judges like Rabbi Tarfon are entirely exempt from paying restitution for mistaken rulings that cause monetary loss.

The sugyot

The Gemara debates the scriptural derivations for eating a firstborn over two days and granting a blemished firstborn to the priest.
The Gemara clarifies whether thirty additional days apply to a blemished firstborn after its first year or only complete thirty days from injury.
The Mishnah debates slaughtering an uninspected blemished firstborn, and mandates burial and damages when a non-expert erroneously authorizes slaughter.
The Gemara defines the dispute over post-slaughter blemish inspection as bodily blemishes, concluding that only certain eye cataracts change after death.
The Gemara shows that an anonymous mishna requiring a firstborn to be buried applies according to all opinions when the blemish changes post-mortem.
The Gemara clarifies why an unauthorized person who erroneously permits a firstborn pays half for cattle but only a quarter for sheep.
A judge whose erroneous ruling caused an irreversible loss must pay damages, but an authorized expert is exempt from personal liability.
The Gemara explains that an erring judge pays only because he נשא ונתן ביד (physically acted), not because of דינא דגרמי.
A cow whose womb was removed is kosher, and a court-authorized expert who mistakenly deemed it unkosher is exempt from monetary restitution.
The Gemara clarifies that Rabbi Akiva exempted Rabbi Tarfon both because errors in explicit Mishnayot are void and because expert judges are immune.
One may not slaughter a firstborn based on a paid inspector unless he is a peerless expert paid under strict safeguards against bias.

Halachot from the daf

Giving a blemished firstborn kosher animal to a kohen
Maintaining an unblemished and blemished firstborn in the present era
Time limit when a blemish occurs late in the year
Slaughtering a bekhor prior to showing its blemish to an expert
Liability of a non-expert who authorized the slaughter of a bekhor
Permissibility of a slaughtered firstborn examined for blemishes only post-mortem
Accepting witness testimony on corneal eye blemishes examined post-mortem
Eating a בכור slaughtered on the ruling of a non-expert
Liability of a non-expert who erroneously permits a בכור
Compensation by a non-expert who erroneously permits a firstborn animal
Liability of a judge who errs in evaluation of legal opinions
Liability of an erring judge who did not execute the verdict physically
Liability of an expert judge whose erroneous ruling caused irreversible loss
Legal effect of a judicial error in an explicit Mishnah
Liability of an expert judge who errs in judicial deliberation
Accepting payment for inspecting firstborn animals to determine blemishes

Gems from the Daf

Learn Bekhorot 28 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.