Disposing of Sanctified Meat and Priestly Holdings

How the Talmud defines the prohibition of selling animal tithes, permits absorbing value into bones, and allows blemished firstborns to be fed to gentiles.

Absorbing Tithe Meat Value into Bones

The meat of an animal tithe offering, known as מעשר בהמה (animal tithe), remains strictly prohibited from sale even after it sustains a permanent blemish and is slaughtered. However, an owner is permitted to sell parts that are not meat, such as hide or sinews, and may absorb the meat's value into those permitted parts. The Gemara questions whether this mechanism of הבלעה (absorption of price) may be extended to the animal's bones.

The Gemara resolves that bone sale depends entirely on commercial utility. For a בהמה דקה (small livestock), bones possess no intrinsic utility or market demand, so absorbing meat value into them is unlawful. Conversely, bones of a בהמה גסה (large livestock) or bones sold pursuant to local craft traditions carry actual value and may legally absorb the meat's price. The Rambam codifies this distinction, ruling that an owner may bundle the meat price into the bones only when the bones have significant value.

וְאִם הָיוּ דְּמֵי הָעֲצָמוֹת יְקָרִים וְהִבְלִיעַ דְּמֵי הַבָּשָׂר בִּדְמֵי הָעֲצָמוֹת מֻתָּר

And if the price of the bones was high and he included the price of the meat in the price of the bones, it is permitted. (Mishneh Torah, Firstlings 6:8)

The Total Prohibition on Tithe Sales

Regarding a בכור (firstborn offering), Scripture dictates that it may not be redeemed, yet the priest may lawfully sell it while alive. By contrast, the Torah uses the term 'it shall not be redeemed' regarding animal tithe to establish a sweeping ban on any sale, whether alive or slaughtered, unblemished or blemished.

Rav Ashi explains that the Torah specifically utilized the term of redemption to teach that the animal tithe cannot be sold or redeemed. Had Scripture written 'it shall not be sold,' one might have thought it could still undergo redemption onto money. Sefer Mitzvot Gadol codifies that attempting to sell or redeem animal tithe breaches a negative commandment. The Minchat Chinukh adds that biblical lashes apply to the live animal. The tithe remains strictly forbidden to sell.

Status of Dedicated Priestly Property

In developing the scriptural source for the laws of animal tithe, the Gemara examines the status of חרמים (devoted property / dedications). A baraita clarifies that property devoted to priests possesses two distinct phases depending on who holds it.

As long as the consecrated property remains with the donor, it is considered holy like Temple property and cannot be redeemed. Once delivered to the priest, however, it transforms into ordinary private property. The Rambam rules that priestly dedications remain consecrated in the owner's domain and become non-sacred upon delivery to the priest. The Arukh HaShulchan notes that while in the donor's house, such property is exempt from standard tort damages because it is sacred.

חֶרְמֵי כֹּהֲנִים כָּל זְמַן שֶׁהֵן בְּבֵית הַבְּעָלִים הֲרֵי הֵן הֶקְדֵּשׁ לְכָל דִּבְרֵיהֶם

Priestly dedications, as long as they are in the owner's house, are consecrated in all respects. (Mishneh Torah, Appraisals and Devoted Property 6:5)

Feeding Blemished Firstborns to Gentiles

The Mishnah presents a dispute regarding who may partake of a blemished firstborn animal after slaughter. Beit Shammai restrict its consumption to a fellowship composed solely of priests. Beit Hillel permit non-priests to partake, and according to Rabbi Akiva's formulation, they allow it to be fed to anyone.

Rabbi Akiva derives from Deuteronomy that a blemished firstborn may be eaten 'like a deer or a gazelle,' placing its meat in the category of ordinary food once properly slaughtered. The Rosh and Ohr Zarua confirm that the halacha follows Rabbi Akiva and Beit Hillel. The Rambam codifies that the priest may feed it even to a gentile. In the Shulchan Arukh, Maran rules that today a blemished firstborn slaughtered on the testimony of an expert may be fed to a non-Jew; the Rema does not add any gloss here.

הבכור בזמן הזה ישהנו עד שיפול בו מום ושוחטו על פי מומחה ואוכלו [בכל מקום] ומאכילו אפילו לעובד כוכבים

A firstborn in this era: one detains it until it develops a blemish, slaughters it based on an expert, eats it, and feeds it even to an idolater. (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 306:5)

Animal tithe can never be sold directly or redeemed, whereas a properly slaughtered blemished firstborn becomes fully secularized personal property of the priest.

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