פטר חמור

יהוה spoke further to Moses, saying, “Consecrate to Me every male first-born; human and beast, the first [male] issue of every womb among the Israelites is Mine.”

“And when יהוה has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as [God] swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, you shall set apart for יהוה every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be יהוה’s. But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every male first-born among your children.

והיה כי יביאך AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS WHEN [THE LORD] SHALL BRING THEE … [THOU SHALT SET APART etc.] — There are some of our Rabbis who learned from this statement that the firstborn who were born in the wilderness were not thus hallowed. He who says that these were thus hallowed explains this “coming” (i. e. this verse, which appears to make the hallowing of the firstborn dependent upon their arrival in the land) as follows: if you observe it (this command) in the wilderness, you will be privileged to enter the land and to observe it there (cf. Bekhorot 4b).

והעברת This word והעברת is an expression for “setting apart”. Similarly it says, (Numbers 27:8) “And ye shall set his inheritance apart (והעברתם) for his daughter” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 13:12:1).

שגר בהמה DROPPED BY BEAST— a premature birth; and this is termed שגר because its mother casts it out (שגר) and expels it (שלחתו) from the womb before its due time (שגר is a synonym of שלח “to let go”). Scripture teaches you that although it is a premature birth it is nevertheless holy by reason of its being first born, in so far that it exempts from the law regarding the firstborn the young that comes (is born) after it (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 13:12:2). It is true that an animal that is not a premature birth) is also called שגר, as (Deuteronomy 7:13) “the שגר of thy kine” (where it speaks of blessing this, and it is therefore evident that it cannot there denote a premature birth), but this שגר (i. e. its use here) is intended only to tell us something about a premature birth, because, you see, it has already written in this verse: “Every first offspring of the womb”! And if you say that also the firstborn of an unclean animal (and not a premature birth) is implied by שגר (and that this also must be hallowed) then I reply that Scripture comes and expressly states in another passage, (Deuteronomy 15:19) “[All the firstling males that are born] of thy herd and of thy flocks (thus only clean animals) [shalt thou sanctify etc.]”. Another meaning may be given in explanation of והעברת כל פטר רחם “thou shalt set apart every first born of the womb” — viz., that Scripture by the term פטר רחם is speaking of the firstborn of man (consequently the following words, שגר בהמה, need not denote an animal of premature birth, but an animal born in the natural course as it certainly means in Deuteronomy 7:13, and we thus avoid the necessity of here assigning to שגר a meaning different from that which it bears in the latter passage).

פטר חמור AND EVERY FIRST OFFSPRING OF AN ASS — but not the first offspring of other unclean animals. This exception is the enactment of Scripture, because the firstborn of the Egyptians are compared to asses (Ezekiel 23:20; Bereishit Rabbah 96); and a further reason for this exception is because they (the asses) were of assistance to the Israelites when they left Egypt, for there was not a single Israelite who did not take with him from Egypt several asses laden with the silver and gold of Egypt. (Bekhorot 5b).

Everything that has been proscribed in Israel shall be yours. The first [male] issue of the womb of every being, human or beast, that is offered to יהוה, shall be yours; but you shall have the male first-born of human beings redeemed, and you shall also have the firstling of impure animals redeemed. Take as their redemption price, from the age of one month up, the money equivalent of five shekels by the sanctuary weight, which is twenty gerahs. But the firstlings of cattle, sheep, or goats may not be redeemed; they are consecrated. You shall dash their blood against the altar, and turn their fat into smoke as an offering by fire for a pleasing odor to יהוה. But their meat shall be yours: it shall be yours like the breast of elevation offering and like the right thigh.

§ The Gemara returns to discussing the redemption of firstborn donkeys: Rabbi Ḥanina said: I asked Rabbi Eliezer in the great study hall: In what way are firstborn donkeys different from firstborn horses and camels, i.e., other non-kosher animals, which are not redeemed? Rabbi Eliezer said to me: It is a Torah edict. And furthermore, donkeys assisted the Jewish people at the time of their exodus from Egypt, as there was not one member of the Jewish people that did not have ninety Nubian donkeys with him, which were considered to be of superior quality, laden with the silver and gold of the Egyptians.