תלמוד על בכורות 8:1

If it was in pieces and the head came out, what is the rule? Rebbi Yasa said, Rebbi Joḥanan and Rebbi Eleazar disagree. Rebbi Joḥanan said, its head counts for most of it. Rebbi Eleazar said, its head is like any other of its limbs¹⁴⁰Their disagreement is confirmed in the Babli, 29a.. A Mishnah disagrees with Rebbi Joḥanan: “If it came out in pieces or defective, it is born as soon as most of its body came out.” Explain it if its head came out¹⁴¹The head is called “most of the body”.. A Mishnah disagrees with Rebbi Eleazar: “If it was a regular birth¹⁴²If the head appeared first, even if it was a stillbirth with an incomplete body., when most of its head came out.” Did not the first part say, the head is nothing?¹⁴³A “regular birth” must refer to a fully formed body since otherwise the first statement, that one needs most of the body, contradicts the second, that the skull with the forehead is enough. From the last statement of the Mishnah there is no objection to R. Eleazar since it does not speak of a defective fetus. Explain it¹⁴⁴The first, but not the second statement of the second half of the Mishnah. about the incomplete body. Rebbi Jonathan and Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish; Rebbi Jonathan agrees with Rebbi Joḥanan¹⁴⁵Here ends the Genizah fragment., Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish with Rebbi Eleazar. Rebbi Ze‘ira showed the colleagues his forehead with the skull¹⁴⁶That a birth is counted only from the moment that the forehead with the greater part of the skull had appeared.. One of the house of Gamliel ben Rebbi Leani asked before Rebbi Mana: Since you say, it is a child, does this not imply that one who comes after him is firstborn neither for inheritance nor for the Cohen¹⁴⁷Mishnah Bekhorot 8:1 states that any child born after an initial miscarriage such as described in this Chapter is a firstborn for inheritance but not for redemption by a Cohen (Ex.13:15).. He said to him, explain it if both were stillborn¹⁴⁸Obviously any miscarriage produces a stillborn baby. The rules of the firstborn for inheritance have nothing to do with those of the firstborn for redemption. While the firstborn for inheritance must be born (Deut 21:15), he cannot have been delivered by caesarean section and he must be the father’s first (Deut 21:17), but not necessarily the mother’s. Since a miscarriage is not counted for the father, only for the mother, the next child still can claim the double part of the inheritance (Sifry Deut. 217)..

HALAKHAH: “Any person who has a child anywhere”, etc. Rebbi Avin asked: “His child in every respect”, even for being fruitful and multiplying¹²⁹Cf. Mishnah 6:6. Since no answer is given, it seems obvious that a bastard counts as a child. This is the interpretation of R. Mose Isserls.? Is there no difference¹³⁰The Spanish tradition, from Nachmanides to R. Nissim, reads לפריה וּלרביה ולשניות “for being fruitful and multiplying and secondary prohibitions”. between a Gentile who came to a Jewish woman and she gave birth and a Jew who came to a Gentile woman and she gave birth¹³¹In both cases, of the three partners in the creation of a child, father, mother, and God (Peah, Chapter 1, Note 116), the child has only two since legally it has no father.? “When she became Jewish and gave birth it is a first-born for inheritance but not a first-born for the Cohen.¹³²Mishnah Bekhorot 8:1. If the Gentile first has a child as a Gentile, then converts and marries the father of her child, the next child, if male, will be the father’s firstborn (since he is no relative of the other child) but does not have to be redeemed (Ex. 34:20) since he is not the first child of the mother.”