Bechoros 3:4 - 4:1

עקביה בן מהללאל מתיר [Rabbi Akavya ben Mehallalel permits] the wool for the Kohen to derive benefit from it.

וחכמים אוסרים – for if he permitted him the wool that drops off/falls out while living, he will come to wait for a firstling in order that his wool will drop off/fall out every hour, and it will come to be a snare/stumbling block that he will shear it and work on it, and those consecrated animals that are disqualified are forbidden for shearing and for work, as it is written )Deuteronomy 12:15): “[But whenever you desire,] you may slaughter and eat meat [in any of your settlements according to the blessing that the LORD your God has granted you],” you may slaughter but not shearing.

לא בזה התיר עקביה – meaning to say, not in this [case- of the hair of a blemished firstling which fell out, and which one put in a wall niche/window, and which -firstling – one slaughtered afterwards] did [Rabbi] Akavyah [ben Mehallalel] permit and the Sages prohibited, for everyone agrees that when he slaughters it, it is permitted, slaughtering provides the benefit of the wool that is attached to it to permit it after ritual slaughtering, he also benefits from that which is plucked/detached and placed in a wall niche/window. But they did not disagree other than regarding a dead animal, for that wool that is attached to it requires burial, [Rabbi] Akavya [ben Mehallalel] permits the wool that fell out from it while it was living but the Sages prohibit it as a decree lest he will delay in order to derive benefit from the wool that falls out from it every hour, and one would come to perform acts of shearing and work. But the legal decision is even after the ritual slaughter, the wool that fell out from it while living is forbidden.

צמר המדובלל (wool which dangles/clumps in the wool) – that was not detached entirely but is attached with the wool and it doesn’t fall.

את שנראה עם הגיזה – when they slaughter it and shear it after the ritual slaughter, that the wool that clumps/dangles is mixed with the rest of the shearing and does not appear as separated from it, it is permitted like the rest of the shearing.

ושאינו נראה עם הגיזה – that it went outside too much and is recognized that it is [separated] from the shearing.

אסור – it is like it fell off/dropped completely prior to the ritual slaughter. And the anonymous teaching is according to the Rabbis who dispute that of [Rabbi] Akavya [ben Mehallalel], and the Halakha is according to them.

עד כמה. להטפל בבכור – to be engaged with its (i.e., the firstling’s) raising prior to giving it to the Kohen.

בדקה עד שלשים יום ובגסה עד חמשים – In the Gemara (Tractate Bekhorot 26b), we derive it, from what is written (Exodus 22:28): “You shall not put off the skimming of the first yield of your vats. You shall give Me the first-born among your sons,” and adjacent to it (Exodus 22:29), “You shall do the same with your cattle and your flocks,” and they show an incongruity/objection, “your bull” which is mentioned earlier in Scripture to “the skimming of the first yield of your vats” which is early, and “your flocks” which is later than the “the first-born among your sons” but “the skimming of the first yield of your vats” which are the first-fruits are offered at fifty days, that the grain is ripened on Passover and we don’t bring the first-fruits until Atzeret/Shavuot, as it is written (Exodus 23:16): “and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, [of what you sow in the field], and just as you do for the “skimming of the first yield of your vats, which you do not bring until the end of fifty days, so you do for your bulls that you do not bring it until fifty days, and in the manner that you act regarding the first-born of your sons, as it is written concerning it (Numbers 18:16): “Take as their redemption price from the age of one month up,” similarly you should do for your flock that you should not bring it until thirty days.

בדקה שלשה חדשים – because its care-taking (i.e., of small cattle) is more troublesome (see Talmud Bekhorot 26b and Talmud Bava Metzia 69a), for its teeth are thin and it is not able to eat grass. And if it won’t be with its mother it will die. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

לא יתנו לו – for since its care-taking is cast upon an Israelite for fifty days, and the Kohen said to him “Within this time [period], give it to me and I will pasture/tend it.” It is similar to someone who rents it that he saves him from the trouble on the condition that he (i.e., the owner) will give it to him and not to another Kohen, and this is similar to a Kohen who helps/assists in the granary/threshing floor to thresh and to winnow in order that they will give him the heave-offerings/Terumot, and it is taught [in a Baraitha] that Kohanim and Levites who assist in the granary/threshing floor, they don’t give them have-offerings and tithes. But if [the animal] had a blemish and he said to him: “Give it to me and I will consume it, for since it was pointed out to him, e was not like the Kohen who assists in the granary.

בין תמים בין בעל מחם – whether at the time of the Temple or whether at the present time, every year it is his, he is permitted to uphold it. And a firstling with a blemish, we derive that it is given to a Kohen, and he consumes it with its blemish for since it is written (Numbers 18:18): “But their meat shall be yours,” is the plural language, whether it is pure firstling or whether it is a firstling with a blemish.