Study Beitzah folio 26A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אם יש בו מום — יעלה וישחוט, ואם לאו — לא ישחוט. רבי שמעון אומר: כל שאין מומו ניכר מבעוד יום, אין זה מן המוכן —
If it has a permanent blemish, owing to which it may be slaughtered and eaten, he may raise it from the cistern and slaughter it; but if it does not have a blemish, or if its blemish is temporary, he may not slaughter it. R' Shimon says: Even if it has a blemish, it is prohibited to slaughter it, as any firstborn animal whose blemish is not perceptible while it is still day, i.e., on the day before the Festival, is not considered to be among the animals prepared prior to the Festival for use on the Festival.
גמ׳ במאי קא מפלגי? אי נימא ברואין מומין קמפלגי, דרבי יהודה סבר: רואין מומין ביום טוב, ורבי שמעון סבר: אין רואין מומין ביום טוב, ולפלגו ברואין מומין דעלמא!
Talmud: The Talmud asks: With regard to what principle do R' Yehuda and R' Shimon disagree? If we say that they disagree about whether or not one may examine blemishes on a Festival, such that R' Yehuda holds that one may examine blemishes on a Festival, and R' Shimon holds that one may not examine blemishes on a Festival, if so, let them disagree with regard to examining blemishes in general on a Festival and not only with respect to the particular case of a firstborn that fell into a cistern.
בכור שנפל לבור אצטריכא ליה, סלקא דעתך אמינא: משום צער בעלי חיים לערים ולסקיה כרבי יהושע — קא משמע לן.
The Talmud answers: It was necessary to teach the disagreement with regard to the case of a firstborn that fell into a cistern, as it could enter your mind to say that because of the matter of the suffering of living creatures, one should employ an artifice to circumvent the halakha and raise the animal from the cistern. This would be in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehoshua, who states elsewhere (37a) with regard to a different case that one may employ an artifice in order to rescue an animal that fell into a cistern on a Festival. Therefore, the Mishnah teaches us that R' Yehuda and R' Shimon disagree even in the case of a firstborn that fell into a cistern.