If one buys an animal from an idolater and does not know whether she had already borne her first offspring, then Rabbi Ishmael says that the guidelines are as follows: if the animal is a goat and it produces a male offspring within her first year, that animal definitely belongs to the kohen. A goat is capable of kidding once it her first year, but not twice, as she will in the following years. Thus, a kid in her first year is the firstborn. After that, since we don't know if it had offspring while in the possession of the idolater, it is a firstborn out of doubt, that is, it is let to graze until it develops a blemish, and is then consumed by the owner. For an ewe the period is two years, and for a cow – three.
Rabbi Akiva said to Rabbi Ishmael, “If the law was that only actual birth exempts from the law of firstborn, it would be indeed as you say. But since even a miscarriage also exempts from it, it is never a definite firstborn, unless we know for sure.”
Art: Edward Atkinson Hornel - The Little Goat Herd
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