Mishnayos Bechoros Perek 1 Mishnah 1
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בכורות פרק א׳ משנה א׳
With regard to one who purchases the fetus of a donkey that belongs to a gentile, and one who sells the fetus of his donkey to a gentile although he is not permitted to sell a large animal to a gentile, and one who enters into a partnership with a gentile in ownership of a donkey or its fetus, and one who receives a donkey from a gentile in order to care for it in exchange for partnership in its offspring, and one who gives his donkey to a gentile in receivership, in all of these cases the donkeys are exempt from the obligations of firstborn status, i.e., they do not have firstborn status and are not redeemed, as it is stated: “I sanctified to Me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal” (Numbers 3:13), indicating that the mitzva is incumbent upon the Jewish people, but not upon others. If the firstborn belongs even partially to a gentile, it does not have firstborn status. Priests and Levites are exempt from the obligation to redeem a firstborn donkey; this is derived from an a fortiori inference: In the wilderness the firstborn were redeemed in exchange for the Levites, as it is stated: “Take the Levites in exchange for all the firstborn among the children of Israel and the animal of the Levites in exchange for their animals” (Numbers 3:45). If the priests and Levites rendered exempt the firstborn children and donkeys of the Israelites in the wilderness from being counted firstborns, it is only logical that the priests and the Levites should render the firstborn of their own donkeys exempt from being counted firstborns.
הַלּוֹקֵחַ עֻבַּר חֲמוֹרוֹ שֶׁל נָכְרִי, וְהַמּוֹכֵר לוֹ אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאֵינוֹ רַשַּׁאי, וְהַמִּשְׁתַּתֵּף לוֹ, וְהַמְקַבֵּל מִמֶּנּוּ, וְהַנּוֹתֵן לוֹ בְקַבָּלָה, פָּטוּר מִן הַבְּכוֹרָה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר ג), בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲבָל לֹא בַאֲחֵרִים. כֹּהֲנִים וּלְוִיִּם פְּטוּרִין מִקַּל וָחֹמֶר, אִם פָּטְרוּ שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּמִּדְבָּר, דִּין הוּא שֶׁיִּפְטְרוּ שֶׁל עַצְמָן:
Bartenura
הלוקח עובר חמורו של נכרי. כשהוא במעי אמו ובכור הוא. ולהכי נקט עובר חמורו, שאין לך בהמה טמאה קדושה בבכורה אלא פטר חמור בלבד, ואיידי דזוטרן מיליה דפטר חמור, פסיק ושרי ליה. וכל הנך פרקי אחריני מיירי בבכור בהמה טהורה:
אף על פי שאינו רשאי. למכור לנכרי בהמה גסה. מפני שנעשית בה מלאכה בשבת:
והמשתתף לו. אפילו חלק הנכרי מסוים וידוע, כגון ידו או רגלו של בכור, או של אמו. כל זמן שאם יחתך ממנו אותו אבר תשאר הבהמה בעלת מום הרי זה שותפות נכרי ופטור:
והמקבל ממנו. שהחמורה של נכרי וישראל מקבלה ומטפל בה כדי שיהו חולקין בולדות אבל גוף הבהמה של נכרי:
פטור מן הבכורה. אותו עובר שקנה מן הנכרי או שמכר הוא לנכרי אינו קדוש, הואיל ויש לנכרי חלק בו או באמו, שנאמר (במדבר ג׳:י״ג) הקדשתי לי כל בכור בישראל, ולא בנכרי:
אם פטרו את של ישראל במדבר. הלוים לא פטרו בהמתן של ישראל במדבר, דפטר בהמה, בהמה פטרה, כדכתיב (שם) ואת בהמת הלוים תחת בהמתם. אלא הכי קאמר, הלוים הפקיעו קדושת בכורי ישראל במדבר, כדכתיב (שם) קח את הלוים תחת כל בכור כו׳, ואם הפקיעה קדושת הלוים את קדושתן של ישראל, דין הוא שתפקיע את של עצמן, ומאחר שלמדנו שהופקעה קדושת בכורה מעצמן של לוים, למדנו שפטרי חמוריהן פטורין מן הבכורה, דכתיב (שם י״ח) אך פדה תפדה את בכור האדם ואת בכור הבהמה הטמאה תפדה, כל שישנו בבכור אדם ישנו בבכור בהמה טמאה, וכל שאינו בבכור אדם אינו בבכור בהמה טמאה. אבל מבכור בהמה טהורה לא נפטרו כהנים ולוים, כדלקמן:
הלוקח עובר חמורו של נכרי – when it is in the womb of its mother and it is a firstling (i.e., male or female). And for this reason, it (i.e., the Mishnah) took [the words], “the fetus of his donkey,” for there is no holy unclean animal with regard to its first-born other than the firstborn of a donkey alone, but since the words are few of the firstborn of the donkey, he decided and permitted it. But all of these other chapters speak of a first born of a pure animal.
אף על פי שאינו רשאי – to sell to a heathen a large animal, because of work on Shabbat that would be performed by it (see Tractate Avodah Zarah, Chapter 1, Mishnah 6 – where the Halakha is established that it is forbidden to sell a heathen a large animal – originally owned by an Israelite).
והמשתתף לו – even if the portion of the heathen is substantial and known, as for example, the [yet unborn] firstborn’s arm or leg, or that of its mother. Any time that if they would sever from it that limb, the animal remains with a blemish – this is the partnership of the heathen and it is exempt [from redemption].
והמקבל ממנו – that the female donkey belongs to the heathen that an Israelite receives and takes care of it in order that they will divide its offspring, but the body of the animal belongs to the heathen.
פטור מן הבכורה – that fetus that he (i.e., the Israelite) purchased from the heathen or that he sold to the heathen is not holy, for since the heathen has a portion in it or in its mother, as it states (Numbers 3:13): “I consecrated every first-born in Israel, [man and beast, to Myself, to be Mine],” but not of the heathen.
אם פטרו את של ישראל במדבר – the Levites did not exempt the animals of the Israel in the wilderness, that the first-born of the cattle, [the] cattle [of the Levites] replaced [and redeemed] it, as it is written (Numbers 3: 45): “and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle,” but rather, this is how it should be read: The Levities released/served as ransom the holiness of the first born of the Israelites in the wilderness, as it is written (Numbers 3:45): “Take the Levites in place of all the first-born among the Israelite people, [and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle; and the Levites shall be Mine, the LORD’s],” but if the sanctity of the Levites released/ransomed the sanctity of the Israelites, it is a law that they would release/ransom themselves. But after we learned that the sanctity of the first-born was released/ransomed from the livestock of the Levities, we learned that the released/ransomed of their donkeys are exempt from [the rules governing] the first-born, as it is written (Numbers 18:15): “but you shall have the first-born of man redeemed, and you shall also have the firstling of impure animals redeemed,” all that the first-born of man has, the first-born of impure animals have, and all that the first-born of man doesn’t have, is not found in the first-born of impure animals. But from the first born of pure animals, the Priests and Levites were not exempt, as we learn ahead.