On today’s pages, Bekhorot 21 and 22, the rabbis discuss how to determine whether an animal has previously given birth, eventually concluding that the answer requires a knowledgeable shepherd. Liel…
On today’s page, Bekhorot 20, Rabbi Yehoshua wastes no time correcting Rabbi Yishmael when his former student gets a point of halacha wrong. But years before that rebuke, Rabbi Yehoshua had…
On today’s page, Bekhorot 19, the rabbis discuss the rite of the Egla Arufa, or the decapitated calf, sacrificed whenever a stranger was murdered by an unknown assailant as a way to shock us all into…
On today’s page, Bekhorot 18, a ewe gives birth to two males whose heads appear at precisely the same moment, leaving the rabbis with a problem: Which one is actually the firstborn? What follows is a…
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 16 and 17, the rabbis ask what happens when an animal no longer looks the way its species is supposed to look. Centuries of breeding and natural change make that ancient…
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 14 and 15, a discussion of private altars raises a surprisingly fundamental question: Why should sacrifice be confined to the Temple in Jerusalem? From backyard altars to…
On today’s page, Bekhorot 13, the rabbis ask why the humble donkey, alone among non-kosher animals, has a firstborn that must be redeemed. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed offers three answers involving…
On today’s page, Bekhorot 12, the rabbis wrestle with sheep-goat hybrids and the mysterious koy, an animal so difficult to classify that the sages couldn’t even agree on what it was. With some help…
On today’s episode, we set aside Bekhorot 11 to celebrate Sukkot with Professor Richard Hidary and his new book, Discovering the Jewish Holidays: Eight Talmudic Readings. Drawing on Michelangelo,…
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 9 and 10, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya completes his astonishing mission against the 60 sages of Athens, proving that winning an argument sometimes requires considerably more…
