Comentario sobre Behorot 9:8
יָצְאוּ שְׁנַיִם כְּאֶחָד, מוֹנֶה אוֹתָן שְׁנַיִם שְׁנָיִם. מְנָאָן אֶחָד, תְּשִׁיעִי וַעֲשִׂירִי מְקֻלְקָלִין. יָצְאוּ תְּשִׁיעִי וַעֲשִׂירִי כְּאַחַת, תְּשִׁיעִי וַעֲשִׂירִי מְקֻלְקָלִין. קָרָא לַתְּשִׁיעִי עֲשִׂירִי וְלָעֲשִׂירִי תְּשִׁיעִי וּלְאַחַד עָשָׂר עֲשִׂירִי, שְׁלָשְׁתָּן מְקֻדָּשִׁין. הַתְּשִׁיעִי נֶאֱכָל בְּמוּמוֹ, וְהָעֲשִׂירִי מַעֲשֵׂר, וְאַחַד עָשָׂר קָרֵב שְׁלָמִים וְעוֹשֶׂה תְמוּרָה, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי מֵאִיר. אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה, וְכִי יֵשׁ תְּמוּרָה עוֹשָׂה תְמוּרָה. אָמְרוּ מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי מֵאִיר, אִלּוּ הָיָה תְמוּרָה, לֹא הָיָה קָרֵב. קָרָא לַתְּשִׁיעִי עֲשִׂירִי וְלָעֲשִׂירִי עֲשִׂירִי וּלְאַחַד עָשָׂר עֲשִׂירִי, אֵין אַחַד עָשָׂר מְקֻדָּשׁ. זֶה הַכְּלָל, כֹּל שֶׁלֹּא נֶעֱקַר שֵׁם עֲשִׂירִי מִמֶּנּוּ, אֵין אַחַד עָשָׂר מְקֻדָּשׁ:
Si salieron dos al mismo tiempo, las cuenta de dos en dos. Si contaba [los dos] como uno, el noveno y el décimo se echan a perder. Si el noveno y el décimo salieron al mismo tiempo, el noveno y el décimo se echan a perder. Si llamó al noveno "décimo", al décimo "noveno" y al undécimo "décimo", los tres son santos: el noveno se puede comer cuando se mancha, el décimo es el diezmo y el undécimo se sacrifica como una ofrenda shelamim , y puede hacer una temurah - [estas son] las palabras del rabino Meir. Rabí Judá dijo: ¿puede una temurah hacer otra temurah ? Dijeron en nombre del rabino Meir: si fuera una temurah , no se habría sacrificado. Si llamó al noveno "décimo", décimo "décimo" y undécimo "décimo", el undécimo no es santo. La siguiente es la regla general: donde el nombre del décimo [animal] no ha sido desarraigado, el undécimo no es sagrado.
Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
This is the reading: יצאו שנים כאחד מונה אותן שנים שנים מנאן אחד, תשיעי ועשירי מקולקין – if two [animals] came out as one (i.e., at the same time) one next to the other at the width of the opening and he counted them as one pair, he counts all of them two by two, pair-by-pair, and the tenth pair is holy with the sanctity of tithing. And the same law applies if he counted them by threes or by fours.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Introduction
The final mishnah of the tractate deals with a case where the person erred when counting his animal tithes or a case where multiple animals came out of the pen at the same time. An interesting phenomenon to note in this mishnah is the power of words if he calls something the tenth animal, it is often holy, even if it was not actually the tenth animal that came out of the pen. This matches the typical rabbinic emphasis on the power of language to actually transform the status of real things.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
מנאן אחד – to the first two [animals] that came out he counted as one, and to the third, is the second and to the fourth is the third.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If two [lambs] came out at the same time, he counts them in pairs. If all of the animals come out in pairs (kind of like Noah’s ark!) then he counts them in pairs. When he gets to the tenth pair, which are the 19th and 20th animals, both are holy. Another explanation for this section is that if two come out at the same time he counts them as two, as if they came out one at a time.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
תשיעי ועשירי מקולקלין – because the ninth according to his counting is really the tenth, and the tenth according to his counting is really the eleventh, and because of this, they are spoiled and they should be put out to pasture until they develop a blemish. But this is not similar to calling the tenth – the ninth or the eleventh – the tenth, for the tenth is a tithe and the eleventh is offered as peace offering, for there, it came out one by one, and when he reached the tenth and called it the ninth, and to the eleventh and he called it the tenth, he confirms to the entire world that the ninth according to his counting is the tenth of the animals/cattle, and that the tenth is the eleventh, but he himself changed and erred, therefore, the tenth is a complete tithe, and the eleventh is offered as a peace offering from the decree of the King, as we explain further on. But here, when two went out [of the corral/pen] and he did not make it clear that it was the tenth, that he calls it the ninth, which is the tenth, it is not a complete tithing of its own, as he himself also stated that it is not, therefore, they are spoiled.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If he counted [the two] as one, the ninth and the tenth are spoiled. If he counted two as one, then both the ninth and tenth have been spoiled. The animal that he calls ninth is the tenth and should have been the tithe. The animal that he calls tenth is not the tenth but rather the eleventh. In other words, one actually is the tenth and one is called the tenth. Therefore both animals have to go out to pasture and can be eaten only when they are blemished.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
שלשתן מקודשים – as it is written (Leviticus 27:32): “All tithes of the herd [or flock],” to include the ninth and the eleventh. It is possible that I also include even the eighth and the seventh. You said, for since and it is holy (see the end of Leviticus 27:32), and his error is sanctified, what is not holy is only that which is near/next to it, meaning to say, the tenth itself which is next to it/adjacent to its body, even his error is not sanctified other than which is adjacent/next to the tenth – which is the ninth from before it and the eleventh from after it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If the ninth and the tenth came out at the same time, the ninth and the tenth are spoiled. If the ninth and tenth both come out at the same time then both are potentially the tenth and as in the previous section, both must go out to pasture until they become blemished at which point they may be eaten.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
וכי יש תמורה עושה תמורה – Rabbi Yehuda holds that this eleventh [animal] is a substitute, for that which he called the “tenth” is considered like that which is in place of the tenth, but there is no substitute which imparts the status of a substitute to another, as it is written (Leviticus 27:33): “then it and its substitute shall both be holy” – but not the substitution of the substitution.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If he called the ninth the tenth, the tenth the ninth and the eleventh the tenth, all three are holy: the ninth can be eaten when it becomes blemished, the tenth is the tithe and the eleventh is sacrificed as a shelamim, and it can make a substitute, the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Judah said: can one substitute make another substitute? They said in the name of Rabbi Meir: if it were a substitute, it would not have been sacrificed. Here he really messed up the counting. The ninth, which he called the tenth, can be eaten when it becomes blemished. The tenth is the actual tithe, even though he called it the eleventh. The eleventh, which he also called tenth, has to be offered up as a shelamim offering. There is now a debate whether or not it is possible for the eleventh animal that is offered as a shelamim to make another animal into its substitute. Making a substitute means that if one tries to substitute the holy animal for another animal, the substituted animal becomes holy, even though the original one remains holy. Rabbi Meir says that this eleventh animal can make a substitute. Rabbi Judah questions this because in his opinion this animal is itself a substitute for the tenth animal, the real tithe. Since we hold that a substitute animal cannot make another substitute (and if one tries to do so, the substitution has no validity) this shelamim cannot effect a substitute. Rabbi Meir responds that the eleventh animal offered as a shelamim is not a “substitute” for if it was it couldn’t be sacrificed as a shelamim. Rabbi Meir holds that if an animal is substituted for a tithed animal, the substituted animal cannot be sacrificed. Since this is not a substitute but rather a regular shelamim, it can make another animal into a substitute.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
אמרו משום רבי מאיר – it is not a substitution. The eleventh is not a substitution for the tenth. For if it was a substitution, it would not be offered as a sacrifice, for the substitution of the tithe is not offered, as it is written (Numbers 18:17): “[But the firstlings of cattle, sheep, or goats] may not be redeemed; they are consecrated. [You shall dash their blood against the altar, and turn their fat into smoke as a pleasing odor to the LORD],” they are offered as sacrifices, but not their substitutions, and it is written concerning firstlings, and we derive tithes from it. And the Halakha is that the eleventh does not become a substitution/replacement.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If he called the ninth the tenth, the tenth the tenth and the eleventh the tenth, the eleventh is not holy. The following is the rule: wherever the name of the tenth [animal] has not been taken away from it, the eleventh is not consecrated. If he makes a mistake, but does call the tenth the tenth, then the eleventh is not holy. The general rule explains if the tenth receives its proper appellation, then anything that follows it is not holy. However, the ninth, which he accidentally called the tenth is still holy and must go out to pasture until it is blemished at which point it can be eaten. Congratulations! We have finished Tractate Bekhorot! It is a tradition at this point to thank God for helping us finish learning the tractate and to commit ourselves to going back and relearning it, so that we may not forget it and so that its lessons will stay with us for all of our lives. Although Bekhorot was mostly full of technical information, we should not lose sight of the religious idea that stands behind the idea of the holiness of the bekhor. As is well-known, the final plague on Egypt was the slaying of the first-born. The loss of every first-born, animal and human, was so great in the eyes of the Egyptians that they finally allowed the children of Israel to leave Egypt. I have often wondered why this plague caused them to finally let the people go? Surely many, perhaps even more, people died in the other horrible plagues. What was it about this plague that made it so much worse than the others? Regardless of how we answer that question, after that event, the first-borns of Israel owed God their lives and in order to express this debt, they had to be redeemed. As a first-born male, I was redeemed when I reached thirty days, and since my first child is a male, I redeemed him when he reached thirty days. While I don’t remember the first event, I remember the redemption of my own son as being a meaningful event in his life, as well as mine and my wife’s. Again, congrats on making it through Bekhorot. Tomorrow we begin Tractate Erkhin.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
כל שלא נעקר שם עשירי ממנו – wherever that he called the tenth the tenth, furthermore, he cannot advance the eleventh for what he called the tenth [which was not deprived of its proper name].
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