Comentario sobre Behorot 9:2
מַעְשַׂר בְּהֵמָה מִצְטָרֵף כִּמְלֹא רֶגֶל בְּהֵמָה רוֹעָה. וְכַמָּה הִיא רֶגֶל בְּהֵמָה רוֹעָה, שִׁשָּׁה עָשָׂר מִיל. הָיָה בֵּין אֵלּוּ לְאֵלּוּ שְׁלשִׁים וּשְׁנַיִם מִיל, אֵינָן מִצְטָרְפִין. הָיָה לוֹ בָאֶמְצָע, מֵבִיא וּמְעַשְּׂרָן בָּאֶמְצָע. רַבִּי מֵאִיר אוֹמֵר, הַיַּרְדֵּן מַפְסִיק לְמַעְשַׂר בְּהֵמָה:
Los animales diezmados se unen siempre que estén a una distancia de pastoreo [el uno del otro]. ¿Y qué es la distancia de pastoreo? Dieciséis millas [romanas]. Si había entre estos [animales] y estos [animales] treinta y dos milésimas de pulgada, no se combinan. Si [sin embargo] tenía un [animal] en el medio, los lleva al medio y los diezma. El rabino Meir dice: el [río] Jordan se divide por cuestiones de diezmar animales.
Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
כמלוא רגל בהמה רועה (as much as the full capacity of the radius) – like the are able to be guarded by one shepherd when the cattle graze and remove themselves one from the other. And this is sixteen mil (note: a “mil” is 2000 cubits), and thusly, the eye of the shepherd controls them (i.e., they cannot be hidden from sight). But if he has five animals in this village and five [animals] in another village which is sixteen mil distant one from the other, he brings them into one pen and tithes them. But if the they are more distant, they are exempt, as it states in the Biblical verse (Jeremiah 33:13): “sheep shall pass again under the hands of one who counts them, implying if they can be counted by one shepherd, they are called “sheep,” that they can pass underneath the staff to be tithed, and if not, not (see Talmud Bekhorot 54b)
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Introduction
A person must tithe the tenth animal of each of his “herds.” The question is how far apart can animal’s be and still be considered as belonging to the same herd? Our mishnah deals with this issue.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
שלשים ושנים מיל אינן מצטרפין – because it was necessary to teach nearby [in the Mishnah] that if he had a flock in the middle, those in the middle combine with the sides, thus it teaches , that if the sides are distant from each other thirty-two mil, the middle ones do not combine them.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Animals are combined for purposes of tithing so long as they can still pasture within the distance that cattle wander. If the animals are close enough together such that the shepherd can keep an eye on them while they are out pasturing, they are considered as one herd.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
מביא ומעשרן באמצע – it is stated that it doesn’t actually bring in the middle.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
And what is the distance over which they wander while pasturing? Sixteen mils. This distance is determined to be 16 mils. A mil is about a kilometer, so 16 mils is equivalent to about 10 miles. If an owner has animals wandering around and grazing at less than this distance, they all count as one herd. But if they go beyond this distance, they don’t count as one herd and if there are ten of them born in one year, they do not join together for the purpose of tithing.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
הירדן מפסיק – that if he had five cattle from here (i.e., in the land of Israel) and five cattle from there (i.e., from the other side of the Jordan River) and the Jordan River in the middle, they do not combine and are exempt. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If there was between two groups of animals a distance of thirty-two mils, they do not combine for the purpose of tithing. If however there was one in the middle [of the distance of thirty-two mils] he brings them into the middle and tithes them. Animals separated by 32 mils, are considered to be at a “wandering distance” from one another, but not a “pasturing distance.” If all of the animals are separated by more than 16 mils, they do not join together for the sake of tithing. However, if there is one animal exactly in between the two separate herds, this animal can join the two separate herds together, and they are tithed together. In other words, if the herd to the east is 16 mils from the one in the middle which is 16 mils from the herd to the west, the middle animal joins the other two herds together.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Rabbi Meir says: the [river] Jordan is regarded as forming a division as regards the tithing of animals. Rabbi Meir says that if one has herds on opposite sides of the Jordan, they do not join together for tithing, because the Jordan separates them.
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