Mesechtas Bekhorot
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Masechet Bekhorot is the fourth tractate in Seder Kodashim, the fifth order in the Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud. It contains nine chapters dealing with the detailed laws of firstborns - the laws of peter chamor (meaning a male donkey born first to its mother), firstborn of kosher animals, laws of blemishes that disqualify sacrifices and priests, and laws of animal tithing. In the Babylonian Talmud in this tractate on page 8, there is a famous Aggadah passage known as "Savei D'Bei Atuna." In the Babylonian Talmud, this tractate has 60 pages.
The Rebbe's Explanations[edit | edit source]
The tractate deals with matters of converting a non-sacred animal to a consecrated animal.
The tractate discusses what the law would be when a person made a mistake, and when tithing his animals, he called the ninth "tenth" and the eleventh "tenth," and the Mishnah states that all are sacred, and the eleventh is offered as a shelamim sacrifice and can be exchanged and made into a temurah. Rabbi Yehudah disagrees and holds that it cannot be made into a temurah, since a temurah cannot create another temurah, but Rabbi Meir believes that the eleventh has the status of a temurah, because if it had the law of temurah, it would not be offered on the altar.
The Rebbe explains in a lengthy sicha that Rabbi Meir rules according to his approach, which always emphasized the matter of quality over quantity, and he was a matter of "mountain-uprooter" rather than "Sinai", and therefore wanted to remove Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel from his position as Nasi, and therefore when Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi taught this Mishnah to his son Rabbi Shimon ben Rabbi in the name of "Acherim" (others) and Rabbi Shimon asked why he doesn't mention his name, he responded that it refers to sages who wanted to uproot the honor of the Nesiut from their house and remove Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, since all these matters are related to each other.
The Tzemach Tzedek's Explanations[edit | edit source]
- Chiddushei HaTzemach Tzedek on Masechet Bekhorot
External Links[edit | edit source]
- Masechet Bekhorot