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Bekhorot 39 – בכורות ל״ט | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha

What Bekhorot 39 teaches

• Missing an internal organ disqualifies an offering, but once blood is collected, even losing most flesh still allows sprinkling.
• Piercings and gum injuries only disqualify a firstborn if exposed on the outer surface, excluding concealed molars and inner gums.
• A damaged genital sheath is a permanent blemish, but complete tearing is not because the tissue can fully regenerate.

The sugyot

• The Gemara asks what specific conditions are required for the therapeutic feeding test of a firstborn with eye secretions, leaving the requirements unresolved.
• The sugya defines the intervals for inspecting eye blemishes and debates whether an unhealed blemish is permanent retroactively or only from that point onward.
• The Mishnah enumerates additional blemishes that disqualify a firstborn animal: a nose or lip that is pierced, notched, or split.
• Nasal and lip defects only constitute disqualifying blemishes when located on the outer, visible surfaces of the animal.
• The Mishnah defines mouth blemishes, debating whether damage to internal oral structures qualifies as an exposed, disqualifying blemish.
• The Gemara emends a baraita to clarify the boundary of inner teeth and reveals a three-way dispute over blemishes on the תיומת.
• The Gemara examines whether internal lack disqualifies sacrifices, concluding it does, but after blood collection even massive loss does not invalidate the sprinkling.
• The Gemara seeks to link internal lack to a baraita on testicular damage, but reframes the dispute as what constitutes an externally recognizable blemish.
• The Mishnah enumerates permanent blemishes of the reproductive organs and tail that disqualify sacrificial animals and permit slaughtering a בכור.
• The Gemara restricts the blemish of the genital sheath to a partial notch in the pouch, as complete removal regenerates and the organ heals.
• The Gemara defines a statutory fingerbreadth as one-fourth of a handbreadth (a thumbbreadth), debating whether this standard applies to tzitzit or Temple measuring rods.

Halachot from the daf

• Testing eye secretions through fodder to determine permanent blemish
• Status of an eye blemish treated under irregular feeding conditions
• Retroactive permanence of an unhealed blemish regarding redemption and me'ilah
• Blemishes involving a pierced, split, or damaged nose
• Whether a perforation between the animal's nostrils constitutes a blemish
• Disqualification of a sacrifice due to internal organ lack or redundancy
• Substance removed from a sacrifice after slaughter but before blood reception
• Loss of sacrificial meat or fats between blood reception and sprinkling
• Whether bruised, crushed, torn, or cut testicles disqualify an animal
• Blemishes in genital sheath and female genitalia
• Blemishes in tail bone, split tip, and inter-vertebral flesh
• Blemish in the genital sheath of a male animal
• Measuring tzitzit dimensions using the thumb's width
• The required number of threads in each tzitzit tassel

Gems from the Daf

• Iyun of the day: Internal Deficiency in Sacrificial Animals
• Daf prep: Before you learn Bekhorot 39
• 3 to remember: Bekhorot 39: three things to remember
• The Passuk: Visible Defects and the Slaughter of the Firstborn
• Halachot: Internal Deficiencies and Protocols for Eye Blemishes
• The Rambam’s view: Testing Eye Discharges and Doubtful Blemishes
• Tosafot: Dividing Days, Organs, and Threads of Fringes
• Machloket: Do Testicular Defects Disqualify a Sacrificial Offering?
• The inner dimension: Serving with the Hand That Remains
• Words to know: Bekhorot 39: words to know
• Masechet so far: The masechet so far, chapter by chapter
• Elsewhere in Shas: Bekhorot 39 elsewhere in Shas

Learn Bekhorot 39 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.