Commentary for Bekhorot 4:7
הֶחָשׁוּד עַל הַבְּכוֹרוֹת, אֵין לוֹקְחִין מִמֶּנּוּ בְּשַׂר צְבָאִים וְלֹא עוֹרוֹת שֶׁאֵינָן עֲבוּדִין. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, לוֹקְחִים מִמֶּנּוּ עוֹרוֹת שֶׁל נְקֵבָה, וְאֵין לוֹקְחִין מִמֶּנּוּ צֶמֶר מְלֻּבָּן וְצוֹאִי, אֲבָל לוֹקְחִין מִמֶּנּוּ טָווּי וּבְגָדִים:
If one is suspect regarding firstborns, venison or untreated hides may not be bought from that person. Rabbi Eli'ezer says: Hides of female animals may be bought. Bleached or dirty wool may not be bought, but spun wool and clothes may be bought.
Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
החשוד על הבכורות – a Kohen who is suspected of placing/attaching a blemish on a firstling.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Introduction
Our mishnah deals with a person who is suspected of not treating his first born animals as holy. For instance, he slaughters an unblemished first born, or he intentionally blemishes it. The problem with such a person is that we must be concerned that many of the products that he might sell are actually derived from first borns who were illicitly slaughtered (or sheared).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
בשר צבאים – for it (i.e., deer/gazelle meat) is red and he switches it with the meat of a calf, and sometimes, when he sells the firstling of a pure calf and he said that it is the meat of a deer/gazelle, where we aren’t troubled by a firstling.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If one is suspected in connection with first borns, one must not buy from him even deer's flesh or unprocessed hides. The law of the first born applies only to domesticated animals cows, sheep and goats. Seemingly, one could buy deer’s flesh from a person suspected of slaughtering his first born animals without concern. However, the mishnah rules that we must be concerned even with this because the meat of a calf can look like the meat of a deer. We must be concerned that he is really selling the meat of a calf and just telling people it is deer meat. One also can’t buy from him unprocessed hides, lest they come from a first born. However, one may buy from him a processed hide because if he had slaughtered a first born he would want to sell it is quickly as possible so that he would not be caught.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
ולא עורות שאינן עבודים – but of tanned [hides] we buy from him, for if it is a firstling, he would not trouble himself with it, for he holds that the house of the Rabbis will hear of it and will cause him to lose [money] from it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Rabbi Eliezer says: one may buy from him female hides we may buy from him. Rabbi Eliezer says that one can buy hides from him if it is obvious that the hides come from a female, because females are not treated halakhically as first borns. We are not concerned that he would make hides from a male look like hides from a female, assumedly because this is not easy to do.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
לוקחים ממנו עורות של נקבה - - for they certainly will know it But the first Tanna/teacher who prohibits it, holds that perhaps that they sever its male genitals and treat it like the females, and when they asked him what is this incision in the place of the female genitals, he would state that the mice consumed it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
One may not buy from him washed or dirty wool, but one may buy spun wool or garments. We cannot buy from him wool, whether it has been washed or is still dirty, because we must be concerned lest it come from a first born. As we have learned, it is forbidden to shear a first born, even one that is blemished. However, we can buy wool that has been more fully processed for the same reason that we can buy processed hides. A person who illicitly shears his first born animal is going to want to sell the wool as soon as possible in order to hide his crime from the authorities.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
מלובן וצואי – they explained in the Gemara (Talmud Bekhorot 29b) that it states: wool that is cleansed of its dirt, that is to say, that he washes from its filthy matter . But we don’t say that if it if is a firstling, he does not lose his troubles/efforts and it doesn’t glisten for he holds that the Rabbis heard and causes him to lose from it, for since he troubles a small amount but is not exacting with it.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
אבל לוחקין ממנו טווי ובגדים – for if it is firstling, he would not go to the trouble all that much with them, for he stringent with his trouble for perhaps he will suffer loss from it.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
טווי ובגדים – he is not saying actual clothing. For now that is merely spun, they will purchase from him, but he needed woven clothing, but rather, clothing, that is linen made from wool which is not woven.
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