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Week 161 - Wednesday - 25 December 2002

BEKHOROT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 2

If a blemish appeared on it during its first year, it is permitted to keep it all the twelve months; after its year one is permitted to keep it only for thirty days.

Kehati

In the preceding mishnah we learned that a bekhor must be eaten within its first year. According to the Gemara, the year of an unblemished bekhor is counted twelve months from its eighth day when it is fit to be offered up on the altar. A blemished animal's year is counted from the day of its birth if born after a full pregnancy, and fit for eating on the day of its birth; if it is uncertain whether or not there was a full pregnancy, its twelve months also are counted from the eighth day after birth (Gemara and Rashi R.H. 6b). Our mishnah contains further lessons concerning the eating of the bekhor within its first year.

If a blemish appeared on it during its first year, it is permitted to keep it all the twelve months from its day of birth (or from the eighth day after birth) - as stated above; if a blemish appeared after its first year of life, e.g., nowadays when it must be kept until blemished (Bartenura) one is permitted to keep it only for thirty days from the day the blemish appeared, after which he must eat it.

According to the Gemara he may keep it for thirty days also if the blemish appeared at the end of the year; e.g., if it appeared fifteen days before the end of the year, he may keep it for fifteen days beyond the end of the year. Some commentators associate the second section of our mishnah with a bekhor kept by a priest with no immediate need of the meat whom the Sages granted an extension of thirty clays. An Israelite, however, must wait until he finds a priest (Tosafot).

BEKHOROT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 3

If one slaughters a bekhor and shows its blemish - R. Yehudah permits. R. Meir says, Since it was slaughtered without the instructions of an expert, it is forbidden.

Kehati

A bekhor on which a blemish appeared may not be slaughtered without the permission of an expert versed in the symptoms and laws concerning blemishes, who is authorized by a Nasi in Eretz Israel or by an Eretz Israel law court authorized to release a bekhor by virtue of its blemish. Our mishnah deals with a blemished bekhor slaughtered without such authorization, and the blemish was shown to an expert after the slaughtering.

If one slaughters a blemished bekhor and afterwards shows its blemish to an expert – R. Yehudah permits to eat it if the expert found it to be a permanent blemish.

R. Meir says, Since it was slaughtered without the instructions of an expert - i.e., without first showing him the blemish - it is forbidden - in the case of a withered spot in the eye which may have changed owing to the death agony. R. Yehudah likewise forbids, since, what now seems permanent, may have looked like a passing blemish when the animal was alive. R. Yehudah disagrees with R. Meir concerning a blemish whose symptoms do not change upon death, when, since the expert found it to be a permanent blemish that existed before the slaughtering, it may be eaten. R. Meir, however, treats unchanging blemishes stringently as a precautionary measure, because of the changing blemishes in the eye; hence any bekhor slaughtered without an expert's permission is forbidden and must be buried, as must a bekhor that died naturally (Gemara). The halakhah follows R. Meir.

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