Before you learn Bekhorot 47

Where we left off

The Gemara established that proving a husband's death requires seeing his face and nose. The forehead alone is insufficient to allow his wife to remarry.

The question going in

Does a forehead's emergence alone establish the Torah's recognition requirement for firstborn inheritance?

Know before you start

יכיר (Biblical recognition of the firstborn): The Torah commands that a father recognize his firstborn son to give him a double inheritance portion. The Gemara distinguishes this textual recognition from physical identification of a dead face.
ראשית אונו (First fruit of vigor): Inheritance of the double portion depends on being the father's biological firstborn child. Prior children fathered before conversion may affect whether a subsequent son receives this title.
פטר רחם (Opening of the womb): Redemption of the firstborn applies only to the child who first opens the mother's womb. A child delivered by Caesarean section does not open the womb.
גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי (A convert is like a newborn child): A convert severs halakhic ties to past lineage upon conversion. Authorities debate whether children born prior to conversion legally negate a later son's birthright.

Who's who

Rabbi Yochanan (רבי יוחנן, Amora): Rules that children born before a father converts disqualify a subsequent son from firstborn inheritance.
Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish (רבי שמעון בן לקיש, Amora): Holds that a convert's post-conversion son receives the double portion because the convert is like a newborn.
Rav Adda bar Ahava (רב אדא בר אהבה, Amora): States that the son of a Levite woman is exempt from five sela coins of redemption.
Rav Chisda (רב חסדא, Amora): Maintains that a disqualified priestly son must redeem himself if his priestly father died within thirty days.
Rabbi Shimon (רבי שמעון, Tanna): Holds in the Mishnah that a Caesarean son takes inheritance, and the subsequent natural son requires redemption.

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