Inheritance, Maternal Status, and Self-Redemption in Bekhorot

How Tosafot harmonizes gentile inheritance, clarifies maternal exemptions in redemption, and resolves when a son must redeem himself.

Gentile Inheritance and the Firstborn

The Gemara discusses a gentile who fathered children, converted, and subsequently fathered another son. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish argues that the son born after conversion is considered a firstborn for inheritance because gentile offspring are not subject to inheritance laws. Rashi explains this to mean that gentiles have no legal standing in inheritance once they convert.

Tosafot challenges this reading from a passage in Kiddushin 17b, which explicitly teaches that a gentile inherits his father by biblical law. How then could the Gemara assert here that gentiles are entirely outside the laws of inheritance? Tosafot answers that the Gemara does not deny basic inheritance to gentiles, but refers specifically to the firstborn's double portion (תורת בכורה), an institution that applies solely to Israelites.

אלא לאו בני נחלה נינהו דקאמר הכא היינו תורת בכורה

Rather, 'they are not subject to inheritance' stated here means the law of the firstborn's portion. (Tosafot on Bekhorot 47a:4:1)

The Maternal Line in Redemption

The Gemara cites Rav Adda bar Ahava, who rules that when the daughter of a Levite gives birth to a firstborn son, the child is exempt from redemption. If the father is an Israelite, biblical lineage usually follows the father's house. Rav Pappa therefore maintains that this exemption applies only when the mother conceived from a gentile, who possesses no halakhic lineage.

In contrast, Mar son of Rav Yosef cites Rava that the exemption applies even when the father is an ordinary Israelite. The Torah specifies פטר רחם (the opening of the womb), establishing that redemption depends strictly on the maternal womb,. Tosafot notes that the halacha follows Mar son of Rav Yosef, establishing that a child born to a Levite woman or a priest's daughter married to an Israelite is exempt from redemption.

ואהא סמכינן השתא לפטור בן לויה וכהנת אשת ישראל מחמש סלעים

And upon this we rely nowadays to exempt the son of a Levite woman or a priest's daughter who is the wife of an Israelite from the five sela coins. (Tosafot on Bekhorot 47a:15:1)

Redeeming Oneself Without a Father

The Gemara examines a disqualified priest, a חלל (profaned priest), whose father died within thirty days of birth,. Rav Chisda rules that since the father did not live long enough to acquire the redemption coins, the son must redeem himself. Similarly, when a pregnant woman converts, the son must pay his own redemption upon reaching maturity,.

Tosafot raises a fundamental difficulty based on Kiddushin 29a. There, the Gemara derives that anyone whom others are not commanded to redeem is not commanded to redeem oneself. Because this father was never legally obligated to redeem his son, why should the son be obligated to redeem himself?

Tosafot resolves this by distinguishing between gender and circumstance. A woman is inherently excluded from the mitzvah, as no father is ever commanded to redeem any daughter. A son, however, belongs to the male category where redemption normally applies; he merely lacks an obligated father, leaving him personally obligated to redeem himself.

לא דמי האי בן לאשה דלא שייך בה בשום אב פדיון כלל אבל הכא אם היה לו אב ישראל היה חייב לפדותו

This son is not comparable to a woman, in whose case redemption never applies to any father at all; whereas here, if he had an Israelite father, the father would have been obligated to redeem him. (Tosafot on Bekhorot 47b:1:1)

Tosafot limits gentile exclusion solely to the firstborn share, anchors maternal exemptions in the womb, and obligates a fatherless male in self-redemption.

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