Midrash for Bekhorot 36:40
זכר ונקבה הזכר לכהן
since he is desirous that a mizwah<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A good deed, by rearing the firstlings of the priest in his ground. Therefore it is as if the ground belonged to both. The ground also is like the shepherd in the case where two gave animals in charge of a shepherd and therefore they divide the surviving animal.');"><sup>15</sup></span>
Sifrei Devarim
(Devarim 15:20) "And if there be in it a blemish": This tells me only of an animal that was born unblemished and became blemished. Whence do I derive (the same for) one that was born blemished! From "every blemish." Whence do we derive (the same for animals that are) scrofulous, warty, scabbied, old, sick, or malodorous? From "every." I might think that they could be slaughtered (and eaten) outside Jerusalem; it is, therefore, written "lame or blind': "lame" and "blind" were in the category (of blemished animals). Why did they leave that category (for special mention)? To make them the basis for a comparison, viz.: Just as "lame" and "blind" are distinct in being external blemishes, which do not heal, so, all (blemishes which render a bechor subject to slaughtering and eating outside Jerusalem) must be of that kind.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy