Study Bekhorot folio 32B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
יגאל״ דכתב רחמנא למה לי? אם אינו ענין לחרמים — תנהו ענין למעשר. אימא תנהו ענין לבכור? מעשר גאולה כמותו.
be redeemed” that God writes, why do I need it? If it is not referring to the matter of dedications, as can be inferred from the baraita, apply it to the matter of the animal tithe offering, teaching that it may not be sold. The Talmud raises a difficulty: One can say that instead of applying it to the animal tithe offering, apply it to the matter of a firstborn offering. The Talmud rejects this possibility: The prohibition against selling extends to the animal tithe offering, concerning which the expression of redemption is written, just like dedications, which is not so concerning the firstborn offering.
רב אשי אמר: ״לא יגאל״ דמעשר — לא ימכר הוא. אמר רב אשי: מנא אמינא לה? דכתיב: ״והיה הוא ותמורתו יהיה קדש לא יגאל״.
§ Rav Ashi says that the prohibition against selling the animal tithe offering is not derived from dedications, but rather from the case of the animal tithe offering itself. The phrase “It may not be redeemed,” written with regard to the animal tithe offering, is to be understood as meaning: It may not be sold. Rav Ashi further says: From where do I say this? As it is written: “Then both it and that for which it is substituted should be holy; it should not be redeemed” (Leviticus 27:33).
אימתי עושה תמורה — מחיים, אימתי אינו נגאל — מחיים, הא לאחר שחיטה — נגאל, הא בעי העמדה והערכה!
Rav Ashi elaborates: When does the animal tithe offering render a non-sacred animal for which it is exchanged consecrated as a substitute? Only when the animal tithe offering is alive. Similarly, when may the animal tithe offering not be redeemed by its owner? Only when it is alive, which indicates that it may be redeemed after its slaughter. But when redeeming a sanctified animal, it requires standing and valuation, i.e., it has to be set standing before a priest for him to evaluate it and only then is it redeemed (see Leviticus 27:11–12). How, then, can the animal tithe offering be redeemed after having been slaughtered?