Bekhorot 34 – בכורות ל״ד | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha
What Bekhorot 34 teaches
- Shmuel permits slaughtering and eating a dying firstborn whose blood was drawn medically, even though the procedure left a lasting blemish.
- The Rabbis permit slaughtering an intentionally blemished firstborn only after a separate, natural blemish subsequently develops on the animal.
- Rabbinic penalties target the transgressor rather than his property, so a son may slaughter a firstborn his deceased father intentionally blemished.
The sugyot
- The Gemara demonstrates that the disputes over bloodletting a firstborn and protecting uncertain teruma stem from specific textual expositions rather than general principles.
- Shmuel rules like Rabbi Shimon of the baraita, permitting one to slaughter a firstborn upon a blemish caused by life-saving bloodletting.
- The Mishnah debates whether one who intentionally blemishes a firstborn is permanently barred from slaughtering it or only until another blemish occurs.
- The Gemara harmonizes contradictory penalties in intentional blemishing versus excising tzara'at for both Rabbi Eliezer and the Rabbis.
- Rav Pappa questions whether a second blemish immediately removes the rabbinic penalty of a excised blemish, leaving the ruling unresolved.
- The Gemara asks whether penalizing a father who blemished a firstborn extends to his son, resolving that rabbinic penalties target the offender, not his heir.
Halachot from the daf
- Causing a blemish to a firstborn animal via indirect causation
- Separating impure heave-offering and deriving benefit from burning it
- Whether an unintentional act is permitted across all Torah prohibitions
- Slaughtering a בכור that was intentionally blemished
- Penalizing intentional excision of a leprous mark
- Removing signs of leprosy after definitive certification of impurity
- Postponing inspection of leprous marks during wedding celebrations and festivals
- Penalizing a son after his father intentionally blemished a firstborn
- Penalizing an heir when the owner sold his slave to a gentile
- Penalizing an heir when labor was scheduled for Chol HaMo'ed
- Penalizing an heir when a field was improved during Shevi'it
Gems from the Daf
- Iyun of the day: Rabbinic Penalties on Heirs
- Daf prep: Before you learn Bekhorot 34
- 3 to remember: Bekhorot 34: three things to remember
- The Passuk: Safeguarding Sacred Gifts Through the Torah's Words
- Halachot: Blemishing a Firstborn and Handling Impure Teruma
- The Rambam’s view: Intentional Blemishes and the Scope of Rabbinic Penalties
- Tosafot: Unintentional Blemishes, Scriptural Bans, and Sabbatical Penalties
- Machloket: Safeguarding Doubtful Teruma and the Promise of Elijah
- Words to know: Bekhorot 34: words to know
- Masechet so far: The masechet so far, chapter by chapter
- Elsewhere in Shas: Bekhorot 34 elsewhere in Shas
Learn Bekhorot 34 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.