Bechoros 6:12 - 7:1

לא במקדש – because they are not appropriate, for one does not offer up in the Sanctuary any other than the most choice.

ולא במדינה – that they are not lasting/permanent to release them from their sanctity, but rather we set them aside until another lasting blemish befalls them and they are slaughtered for it.

גרב (itch) – a kind of moist boil from without and from within. And the boil mentioned in the Torah is a blemish, for it is a dry boil.

יבלת (wart) - on the white of the eye and it has no hair in it. But above (see Mishnah 10 in our chapter) when we considered blemishes that we slaughter [the firstling] we were speaking about when it has hair.

ובעל חזזית – there are two varieties of lichen. The Egyptian lichen is the lichen written of in the Torah which is moist from the outside and dry from the inside, and it is a blemish that does not return to health, and the Master stated (see Talmud Bekhorot 41a) – Why is it called lichen? Because it continues to cling [to the body] until the day of death, but the lichen that is taught here is a kind of boil that has a cure.

ומזוהם – that a bad smells goes out from it.

ושנעבד בו עבירה - (see Tractate Zevakhim, Chapter 8, Mishnah 1) that it (the firstling) had sexual relations with a woman or that it put a man to death with the testimony of one witness, for there is only witness - neither with carnal connection with beasts nor with goring.

או על פי עצמו – that there is no witness there at all, but the owners stated that we saw it (i.e., the firstling) that it had copulated in an unnatural way or that it put someone to death, it (i.e., the animal) is not stoned by their word. For if there were two kosher witnesses testifying in the matter, the bull would be stoned, and it is prohibited to derive benefit from it.

וטומטום ואנדרוגינוס – that they are doubtfully male and are Holy, doubtfully female and not holy.

אין לך מום גדול מזה – it is referring to the beast of double sex, that in the place of females, it is like a blemish, for it is like firstling with a blemish, and it is slaughtered in the provinces, and it is prohibited to use its shearing and its labor.

וחכמים אומרים אינו בכור – it is a creature of its own kind. And it may be sheared and worked. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

מומין אלו – that invalidate the firstling, invalidate the Kohen in his Divine service, whether they are permanent or transient all the while that they are upon him.

הכילון (one whose head has the shape of a basket/wedge shaped – see Talmud Bekhorot 43b) – that his head is pointed from above and wide below. And it is similar to the covering of a wine jug which is called an אכלה (or אוכלא/basket or אובלא/perforated trough – vessel made of willow trigs) – therefore it is called a כילון.

והלפתן (turnip-shaped) – that his head is similar to a turnip, that it is wide from above and becomes narrower from below.

מקבן (one whose head is mallet-shaped – see Tractate Bekhorot 43b) – that his head is similar to a mallet, in that the forehead protrudes outward and similarly, his neck from behind him, but his temples are even with his head, and he is similar to a hammer – that is a mallet that goes forth from before him and from behind him.

ושראשו שקוט (whose head is abruptly bent, angular; forehead receding abruptly – see Talmud Bekhorot 43b) – This is our reading. There are those who explain that his head protrudes greatly, and extends outward towards his face. But there are those who explain that it does not protrude at all in front of him, like the matter that it leaps from behind him, that his head does not protrude from behind him at all, and that he is lacking, that it is similar to one that a piece of him is severed from behind him. But the language of שקיפס, is that of a lump of brittle stone that was thrown at it (an idolatrous statue) [see Sanhedrin 64a), that a piece from him was taken. And in the Tosefta it counts also a sunken neck/צואר שקוע, that his head is placed between his shoulders and it is similar to one who has no neck.

ובעלי החטוטרת ר' יהודה מכשיר – that when he has a bone in the hump/hunch, everyone does not dispute that it is a blemish. But they dispute, when it doesn’t have a bone. Rabbi Yehuda holds that it is a mere piece of flesh, but the Rabbis hold, as Scripture States (Leviticus 21:21): “No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect [shall be qualified to offer the LORD’s gift],” those who are fit within the seed of Aaron shall serve, but he who is not fit among the seed of Aaron shall not serve. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.