Bechorot 53 – Animal Tithe Today

When one has ten or more sheep, goats, or cows born in his flock in a particular year, he has to give animal tithe. He gathers the animals in a pen and lets them out one by one, through a narrow opening. He counts, and marks every tenth one with red dye, saying, “This one is animal tithe.” The tithe animals are brought as sacrifices in the Temple, and are eaten by the owner and his guests in Jerusalem. When there is no Temple, the owner waits till the animals get a blemish, and then he can slaughter them. This is also true for animals born outside of Israel, except that their tithe is not brought to Jerusalem.

Today, however, animal tithes would be problematic, because of multiple prohibitions associated with them. As Rav Huna had described, the farmers used to place the animals' mothers outside the pen, with the result that orphaned and bought animals – from whom tithe need not be separated – would remain inside. The Sages thus instituted not to separate tithes at all, based on the multiple similar situations where the animal tithe would not apply, and about which general population might have been ignorant.

Art: Albertus Verhoesen - A Summer Landscape With Cows And Sheep By A Pool And A Milkmaid Watching

Bechorot 52 – Firstborn Gets Double

Firstborn son gets a double portion in the inheritance from his father's estate, but not from his mother's. The Torah said, “to him applies the law of the firstborn.” Even though it is talking here about him, the son, it also hints that this law applies only to “him”, the father, and not to “her”, the mother.

If some time passed between the death of the father and the division of the estate, and the property has meanwhile improved (fruit grew on trees), the firstborn does not get a double share in those improvements, but only a regular one, like the rest of the sons. Of course, when he gets the double share of the land, it may happen that together with it he will double share of the improvements, but he will have compensate his brother for them. The Torah said that he gets double from “all that is found in his father possession” to tell us that he does not get from what comes to the estate later, after death. He also does not get a double portion from the money owed to his father but uncollected at the time of death.

Art: Bartolome Esteban Murillo - The Prodigal Son Receiving His Portion Of Inheritance

Bechorot 51 – Firstborn Redemption with Real Estate

To redeem a firstborn one can give to a Kohen either five shekel coins or goods worth that amount. However, lands, slaves, and loan documents cannot be used for redemption. Why not? When the Torah said, “A firstborn is redeemed from one month old”, it included all means of payment. When it continued, “According to the valuation of five shekels of silver”, it limited the available means somewhat, and when it again generalized, “You shall redeem”, we interpret it to mean that only payments similar to the specified ones are included. Just as coins are movable and have intrinsic value, so too all similar items are included. What's excluded? Lands, because they are not movable. Slaves, because they have the laws of the land. Loan documents, because they are pieces of paper not worth anything by themselves, but only because of the obligation recorded in them.

If the father wrote the Kohen a note which said “I owe you five shekels”, he has created the obligation and needs to pay at. However, this does not redeem his son, so he needs to pay another five shekels. If the Kohen wants, he can return five shekels as a present.

Art: Jan Steen- A woman counting coins at a table

Bechorot 50 – Shekel, Selah, and Other Currencies

The amount given to a Kohen to redeem the firstborn son is “five shekels by the sanctuary standard, where the shekel is 20 gerah.” In the times of the Second Temple the names of the coins changed. Since a common payment was a half-shekel, donated yearly by each Jew to the Temple for atonement sacrifices, this half-shekel was called a "shekel," and the full shekel was instead called a "selah". That is why our ruling was formulated in terms of "shekel by the sanctuary standard," and not just a "shekel."

The same “shekel of the sanctuary standard” was used for other payments prescribed by the Torah: the fifty-shekel payment of the rapist and of the seducer of a virgin young girl, and a one hundred-shekel payment of the defamer of his new bride.

These payments can be made with money or with goods, except for the half-shekel collected yearly for sacrifices. They are paid in Tyrian mintage, which was pure silver and eight times more valuable than the “provincial” coins used, for example, for a two hundred-zuz payment of a Ketubah given in the case of divorce. A sanctuary shekel is .8 oz. silver.

Art: Auguste Charpentier

Bechorot 49 – Cases of Firstborn Mix-ups and Deaths

If the firstborn son died within thirty days, even if the father had already given the redemption money to a Kohen, the Kohen must return it, because it was given early on the expectation that they child was viable and would survive. If the son died after thirty days, the father must still give the money. If the son died on the thirtieth day, this is a proof that it was not viable, and the Kohen returns the money. Rabbi Akiva is not certain if it is a proof, so if the Kohen got the money, he need not return it, but the father need not give it now.

If a man had two firstborn sons from two wives, and he redeemed the two boys with ten coins, and then one of the boys died, then if he gave all ten coins to one Kohen, the Kohen returns five coins. However, if he gave it to two different Kohanim, then he cannot get his money back, because each Kohen can say that perhaps he got the money for the son that is alive, and it is the other Kohen who got the money for the one who died.

Art: George Frederic Watts - Death Crowning Innocence

Bechorot 48 – Firstborn Both for Inheritance and the Kohen

One who is a firstborn both for his father and his mother is an obvious case that need not be mentioned. Rather, the first case of this ruling is when a woman has a miscarriage, but an embryo is so undeveloped that it looks full of water or multicolored matter, like a fish or a crawling animal, or if she aborts it on the fortieth day after conception – all these are not considered births, and the next child is a firstborn both for inheritance and for the Kohen.

A firstborns son born by Cesarean section and the naturally born that follows him – neither is a firstborn for either inheritance – because the Torah said “And they bore him sons,” and Caesarean is not a classical birth, or the Kohen – because the child needs be both the first and to open the womb. Rabbi Shimon considers the first one firstborn for inheritance, because in his opinion the Caesarean section is legally included in giving birth. He also regards the second one a firstborn for giving the Kohen five silver coins, because he considers either of the two conditions – first birth or first to open a womb – sufficient.

Art: Nicholas Gysis - New Arrival

Bechorot 47 – How Does One Recognize a Face?

Once a child shows its forehead from its mother's womb, it is considered born; at this moment the lives of the baby and of its mother become equal. However – said Resh Lakish – for the purposes of firstborn inheritance, it is not considered born until his face appears. If he retracts his head and another child appears, the other child will be the firstborn. That is because the word “recognize” is used talking about the firstborn, and for that the complete face must be seen. Rabbi Yochanan says that even here the forehead is enough. Resh Lakish poses multiple questions to Rabbi Yochanan, which the latter answers by emending the rulings. Finally, he answers that perhaps recognizing a firstborn by the forehead is possible while in other situations a full face is needed.

If a woman did not wait for the prescribed three months before remarrying, and her firstborn child does not know the true father, he is the firstborn for the Kohen but not for inheritance. But then he should not get any inheritance, since he can't prove paternity! He should sue the other children jointly with the next son, claiming that between them one is a firstborn.

Art: Franz Cusaude - The Gosnall Twins