Bechoros 9:7 - 9:8

לדיר – a place surrounded by walls or reeds where they bring into it the sheep.

היה לו מאה ונטל עשרה – without any [system of] counting (i.e., marking the tenth animal with red paint)

או עשרה ונטל אחד – without any [system of] counting.

אין זה מעשר – as it is written (Leviticus 27:32): “every tenth one – shall be holy [to the LORD],” and this is not the tenth.

רבי יוסי בר' יהודה אומר הרי זה מעשר – for Rabbi Yossi holds that just as the great Terumah (i.e., the two-percent that everyone gives to a Kohen) and the tenth-of a tenth (i.e., that which the Levite gives to the Kohen after receiving the First Tithe) are given by estimation and with intention/a plan as it is written (Numbers 18:27): “This shall be accounted to you as your gift/ונחשב לכם תרומתכם,” with thought is the heave-offering , so the tithe is taken with estimation and thought, for the All-Merciful calls a tithe, as it is written (Numbers 18:24): “for it is the tithes set aside by the Israelites as a gift to the LORD [that I give to the Levites as their share]. And there is an analogy of verses in close proximity made [between] the tithing of cattle and the tithing of grain, just as the tithe of grain is taken by thought, so the tithe of cattle is taken by thought. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

קפץ אחד מן המנויין – eighteen [animals] that went out from the opening and he took the tenth [one], the nine are exempted, if one of the nine jumped into the pen/corral, all of those that are in the corral are exempt, if he does not recognize which one it is. For perhaps this one who came out as the tenth, but he is not appropriate for it, for he was already exempted. Alternatively, each one of them is doubtful if it was already numbered already and exempted, and any doubt is not eligible for being tithed.

מן המעושרים – from those already sanctified as being the “tenth” one of them jumped into the corral/pen , all of them are doubtfully tithed and they should all be sent to pasture until they develop a blemish. For whenever they are pure, it is prohibited to slaughter them outside [the Temple courtyard], but after they have been sent to pasture, they can be consumed by their owners with their blemishes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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].