Daf Yomi with Rabbanit Dr. Tamara Spitz

This week we will learn about caesarean-born animals and the animal born after them: Rabbi Tarfon treats both as doubtful firstborns, while Rabbi Akiva says neither is a bechor. Chapter 3 then deals with an animal bought from a non-Jew whose birth history is unknown, using Rabbi Yishmael’s age brackets and Rabbi Akiva’s physical signs of a prior birth to decide. The section ends by assuming a nursing animal is nursing its own young, and not another animal’s.For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-bechorot

This week we will learn about which animals are and are not obligated in bechor, the first born of a kosher animal,  including animals born from cross-species unions, animals bought from non-Jews, and cases where the fetus emerged unusually, with the underlying principle that only an animal that truly “opens the womb” in the normal sense acquires kedushah, sanctity. We will also learn about cases of safek (doubt) in bechor status, when two animals give birth simultaneously and it is unclear which offspring is the firstborn, or when one of the mothers had previously given birth and the other had not.For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit⁠⁠⁠ https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-bechorot

This week we will continue learning about the sanctity of the first-born donkey, and why the donkey requires redemption. We will also learn that one may not derive any benefit from the carcass of a donkey killed by arifah (neck-breaking, the alternative to redemption), and that even a small sheep fulfills the mitzvah of redemption.For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit⁠⁠ https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-bechorot

We will begin Masechet Bechorot and learn that there are 3 types of firstborns: Kosher animals, Donkeys and Humans. Each type is redeemed in its own unique way. We will begin to learn about the first-born donkey this week.For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit⁠ https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-bechorot

This week we will finish Masechet Chulin with the twelfth perek on shiluach hakan (sending away the mother bird), establishing that the mitzvah applies only to kosher birds encountered incidentally in the wild (ki yikarei). The Gemara asks the major question of whether one must proactively seek out a nest to perform the mitzvah or whether it only applies when one actually wants the eggs. We end the masechet with the conclusion that if the light mitzvah of shiluach hakan earns the promise of long life, how much more so do the weightier mitzvos, with the Gemara resolving that these rewards are fulfilled in olam haba, the next world.Hadran Alach Masechet Chulin!For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-chulin/⁠