12. By reason of these blemishes they may not be slaughtered either in the Temple or in the provinces:1 [if it has] white specks or rheum [in the eye] that are not lasting; or back teeth that are defective but not uprooted; if it suffers from scurvy or warts or lichen; or if it is old or sick or evil¬ smelling; or if it has suffered an unnatural crime, or if it has killed a man according to the testimony of one witness or of its owner; or if it is of doubtful or double sex; [such may not be slaughtered] either in the Temple or in the provinces. R. Ishmael2 says: No blemish is greater than this. J But the Sages say: It does not count as a Firstling but may be shorn and used for labour.
7. i. These same blemishes, whether lasting or passing, likewise render [priests] unqualified [to serve in the Temple]. Among men are moreover added: he whose head is wedge-shaped or turnip-shaped or hammer¬ shaped, or whose head is sunk in or is flat at the back. R. Judah declares the humpbacked qualified, but the Sages declare him unqualified.
2. He that is bald-headed is unqualified. ‘Bald-headed’ means any that has not a strip of hair going round from ear to ear; but if he has that much he is qualified. If he has no eyebrows or but one — such is the gibben 4 spoken of in the Law. R. Dosa says: [Gibben means] he whose eyebrows hang down. R. Hanina b. Antigonus says: He that has two backs and two backbones.
3. He that is flat-nosed is unqualified. ‘Flat-nosed’ means one that can paint both his eyes together. If both his eyes are too high or both his eyes too low, or if one eye is too high or one eye too low; if he can see both the [lower] room and the upper chamber together, or cannot bear the sun; or if he has unmatched or watery eyes [he is unqualified]. He whose eyelashes have fallen out is unqualified by reason of his unsightliness.
4. If his eyes are big like those of a calf or little like those of a goose; if his body is too big or too little compared with his other parts; if his nose is too big or too little compared with his other parts; or if he is tzimmem or tzimme' [he is unqualified]. Tzimme' means he whose ears are too little; tzimmem means he whose ears are like a sponge.
5. If his upper lip juts out beyond his lower lip, or the lower beyond the upper, this is a blemish. If he has lost his teeth he is unqualified by reason of his unsightliness. If his breasts hang down like a woman’s, if his belly is swollen, if his navel protrudes, if he suffers from falling sickness even but rarely, if lockjaw comes upon him, if his stones or his male organ are too big [he is unqualified]. If he has no stones or but one, this is he that hath his stones broken,s spoken of in the Law. R. Ishmael says: [It means] any whose stones are crushed. R. Akiba says: Any that has wind in his stones. R. Hanina b. Antigonus says: Any whose complexion is very dark.
6. If his ankles or knees knock together; or if he is afflicted with swellings [in the feet] or is bow-legged (‘bow-legged’ means any whose soles come * In the Temple they may not be slaughtered since they are blemished; and in the pro¬ vinces they may not be slaughtered (as being definitely invalid) for common food until they suffer one of the previously specified blemishes.
1 Variant: Simeon. ’ The beast of double sex 4 Lev. ai*. In modern translations usually rendered 'crookbackt’.
together and whose knees do not touch); if he has a swelling on the big toe; if his heel juts out backwards, or if his sole is as wide as that of a goose [he is unqualified]. If his fingers or toes lie one above the other or are webbed but only to the [middle] joint, he is qualified; and if beyond the joint, but he has cut the tissue, he is still qualified. If he had an extra finger and he cut it off, if there was a bone in it, he is unqualified; but if there was not, he is qualified. If he had extra fingers and toes, six to each limb, twenty-four in all, R. Judah declares him qualified, but the Sages declare him unqualified. If he can use both hands alike, Rabbi declares him unqualified, but the Sages declare him qualified. If he is black-skinned1 or red-skinned or an albino, if he is too long or a dwarf, or a deaf-mute, or an imbecile, or drunken; if any have leprosy-signs that are adjudged clean, among men such are unqualified, but among beasts such are accounted valid.2 R. Simeon b. Gamaliel says: If a beast is an imbecile it does not fulfil the rule that it shall be of the choicest.3 R. Eliezer says: Moreover if any have dangling warts, among men such are unqualified but among beasts such are accounted valid.
7. These are qualified among men and invalid among beasts: a father and his son,4 one that has inner blemishes5 or that is born from the mother’s side,6 one that has suffered an unnatural crime or that has killed a man. He that has married women that are forbidden7 is unqualified until he vows to derive no benefit from them. He that suffers uncleanness because of the dead is unqualified until he pledges himself to suffer uncleanness no more because of the dead.8 8. 1. A Firstborn may sometimes be deemed a firstborn in what concerns inheritance9 but not in what concerns [the rights of] the priest; 10 and a First¬ born may sometimes be deemed a Firstborn in what concerns [the rights of] the priest but not in what concerns inheritance; and a Firstborn may some¬ times be deemed a Firstborn in what concerns both inheritance and [the rights of] the priest, and a Firstborn may sometimes be deemed a Firstborn neither in what concerns inheritance nor in what concerns [the rights of] the priest. Who is he that may be deemed a Firstborn in what concerns inheritance but not in what concerns [the rights of] the priest? He that was born after another that failed to live, though its head had emerged while it lived; or after a nine-months’ child whose head had emerged [but the child was] dead; or after an abortion that was like to a beast or a wild animal or a bird. So R. Meir. But the Sages say: [Such is accounted that which openeth the womb ] 1 1 only if there was in it aught of the form of a man. If the abortion was in the form of a sandal or an afterbirth or a fully fashioned foetus, or if what was born needed to be cut up [during delivery], what is born after them is deemed a Firstborn in what concerns inheritance but not in what concerns [the rights of] the priest. If a man had no children and married a woman that had already borne young, even if she was a bondwoman and was then made free, or a gentile and then became a proselyte, and she bore [male offspring] after she was married to the Israelite, such is deemed a Firstborn in what concerns inheritance but not in what concerns [the rights 1 Lit. ‘a Kushite’. Cf. Sukk, 3“. 2 To be brought as offerings.
g And may claim the double portion. See B.B. 81; Deut. 21”.
1(1 The redemption price of five selas.
FIFTH DIVISION: KODASHIM of] the priest. R. Jose the Galilean says: Such is deemed a Firstborn in what concerns both inheritance and [the rights of] the priest, for it is written, Whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel.1 even if it was but the first that she has borne by an Israelite. If a man that had chil¬ dren married a woman that had not given birth; or if the woman became a proselyte while she was already with child, or if she was made free while she was already with child, or if she and a wife of priestly stock, or she and a wife of levitic stock, or she and a wife that had before borne young — if they each bore [a child and it was not known which was the firstborn]; so, too, if a woman had not continued with her husband three months and married another and bore a child and it was not known whether it was a nine-months’ child of the former or a seven-months’ child of the latter husband — such are deemed Firstborn in what concerns [the rights of] the priest but not in what concerns inheritance. Who is he that is a Firstborn in what concerns both inheritance and [the rights of] the priest? If an abortion was a foetus that was filled with blood or filled with water or filled with variegated matter, or that was the like of fish, locusts, insects, or creeping things, or if it was a forty-day’s abortion, then what is born after them is deemed a Firstborn in what concerns both inheritance and [the rights of] the priest. j 2. Neither what is born from the side [of the mother] nor what is born after it is deemed a Firstborn, whether in what concerns inheritance or ini what concerns [the rights of] the priest. R. Simeon says: The first [is deemed a Firstborn] in what concerns inheritance, and the second in what concerns the five selas [that fall to the priest as the price of redemption].
3. If a man’s wife had not before borne young and she bore two males,® he must give five selas to the priest. If one of them died within thirty days the father is exempt. If the father died and the sons remained alive, R. Meir says: If they paid before they divided the inheritance, then they have paid; but if not, they are exempt. R. Judah says: The property is liable. If she bore a male and a female the priest can claim nothing.
4. If two women that had not before borne young bore two males,3 their husband must give ten selas to the priest. If one of them died within thirty days and he had paid the money to one priest, the priest must give him back five selas; if to two priests, he cannot exact aught from them. [If the two women bore] a male and a female or two males and a female,3 he must pay1 five selas to the priest; if two females and a male, or two females and two males,3 the priest can claim nothing. If one of the women had already borne young but the other had not, and they bore two males, he must pay five selas to the priest. If one of them died within thirty days, the father is exempt. If the father died and the sons remained alive, R. Meir says: If they paid before they divided the inheritance, then they have paid; but if not, they are exempt. R. Judah says: The property is liable. If they bore a male and a female, the priest can claim nothing.
5. If two men’s wives that had not before borne young bore two males,3 each must pay five selas to the priest. If one of them died within thirty days and they had paid the money to one priest, he must give them back five selas; but if to two priests, they cannot exact aught from them. If the wives bore a male and a female,3 the fathers are exempt, and the son mu^t redeem 1 Ex. 131. 1 And it is not known which was bom first.
J And it is not known which is the child of which.
himself;1 if two females and a male, or two males and two females, the priest can claim nothing.
6. If the wife of the one man had already borne young, but the wife of the other had not, and they bore two males,2 he whose wife had not before borne young must pay five selas to the priest; but if they bore a male and a female the priest can claim nothing. If the son died within thirty days, although he had paid [the five selas] to the priest, the priest must give them back; if the son died after thirty days, even if he had not paid, he must pay the priest. If the son died on the thirtieth day, it is reckoned as if he died the day before. R. Akiba says: If he had paid he cannot exact it [from the priest], and if he had not paid he need not pay. If the father died within thirty days, the presumption is that the son was not redeemed unless proof thereof is produced; if he died after thirty days, the presumption is that the son was redeemed unless they can say3 to the son that he was not redeemed. If a man must redeem both himself and his son,4 he comes before his son. R. Judah says: His son comes before him, since the duty of redeeming him rested upon his father, and the duty of redeeming his son rests upon him.
7. The five selas due for the [Firstborn] son5 should be paid in Tyrian coinage; the thirty due for the slave [that was gored by an ox]6 and the fifty due from the violator7 and the seducer,8 and the hundred due from him that hath brought up an evil name,9 are all to be paid according to the value of the shekels of the sanctuary, in Tyrian coinage. Aught that is to be redeemed10 may be redeemed with silver or its value, save only the Shekel-dues. 1 1 8. The price of redemption may not be paid in slaves or in bonds or in land; so, too, in [the redemption of] aught that has been dedicated. If a man wrote a bond for a priest [saying] that he owed him five selas, [even after redeeming his bond] he is still in debt to him for [the five selas], and his son is not accounted redeemed; therefore, if he was minded [not to exact the five selas afresh] the priest has the right to give it to him, [but only] as a gift. If a man set apart the redemption price of his son, and it was lost, he is answerable for it and must replace it, for it is written, It shall be thine; and Thou shalt surely redeem it.12 9. The Firstborn takes a double share of his father’s goods, but he does not take a double share of his mother’s goods, and he does not take a double share of the increased value,13 or [a double share] of what is expected to accrue14 to the estate in like manner as [he receives a double share] of what is already held in possession; and the same applies to the wife in what con¬ cerns her Ketubah,15 and to the daughters in what concerns their mainten¬ ance,16 and to him that performs the levirate marriage;17 none of these may 1 Since it cannot be in doubt that he was the firstborn male.
- And it is not known which is the child of which.
1 Variant: unless proof can be brought.
* e.g. if, after a man (who was a firstborn son) had a firstborn son, proof was brought that that man’s father had not paid the five selas for the man himself.
s Num. 181*. 'Shekels of the sanctuary' are there prescribed; these are assumed to have been pure silver, like the Tyrian shekel, and so twice the value of the ordinary current shekel which was alloyed with copper.
10 Like the firstborn son, or dedicated produce. They may be redeemed with copper coin up to the required value.
< 1 The half-shekel which every Israelite must pay yearly to the Temple (see p. 152, n. 2). Such may only be paid in silver. 12 Num. i8u.
17 Of the estate after the death of the father and before the division of the property.
17 See p. 218, n. 1. He inherits his dead brother’s property.
FIFTH DIVISION: KODASHIM take aught of the increased value or of what is expected to accrue to the estate as they may of what is already held in possession.
io. These do not revert [to their first owners] in the year of Jubilee:' the Firstborn’s portion, what a man inherits from his wife, what he inherits that performs levirate marriage, and what is given as a gift. So R. Meir. But the Sages say: A gift counts as a sale. R. Eliezer says: They all revert [to their first owners] in the year of Jubilee. R. Johanan b. Baroka says: He that inherits from his wife must restore the property to the members of her family, but he may deduct somewhat from its value.
9. i. The law concerning Tithe of Cattle2 is binding both in the Land [of Israel] and outside the Land, both during the time of the Temple and after the time of the Temple, for unconsecrated beasts but not for animal- offerings; and it applies both to the herd and to the flocks (though none may give Tithe from the one instead of from the other), both to sheep and to goats (and one may give Tithe from the one instead of from the other), both to the new breed and to the old (though none may give Tithe from the one instead of from the other).3 It might have been inferred: if from among the new breed and the old breed (which do not count as diverse kinds) Tithe may not be given from the one instead of from the other, how much more, then, from among the sheep and the goats (which count as diverse kinds) may Tithe not be given from the one instead of from the other! But Scripture says, And of the flock;* thereby classing all ‘flocks’ as one.
2. For the Tithe those cattle may be included together as one herd that are found within the distance that cattle wander while pasturing. What is the distance that cattle wander while pasturing? Sixteen miles. If there was a distance of thirty-two miles between one herd and another they cannot be included together; but if any cattle were midway between them, all are counted together with them that are midway between them, and so tithed. R. Meir says: The Jordan serves as a boundary [to a herd] for the Tithe of Cattle.
3. What a man has bought or received as a gift is exempt from the Tithe of Cattle. If brothers that are jointholders are liable to surcharge, they are exempt from Tithe of Cattle;5 if they are liable to Tithe of Cattle they are exempt from surcharge. If they acquired the cattle from the property of the house [of their father],6 they are liable [to Tithe]; but if they did not,7 they are exempt. If they first divided the cattle and then again became jointholders, they are liable to the surcharge and exempt from Tithe of Cattle.
4. All are brought into the cattle-pen to be tithed save only beasts that are cross-bred, or terefah, or born from the side [of the mother-beast], or too young, or orphans. ‘Orphan’ means one whose dam is dead or slaughtered. R. Joshua says: Even if the dam was slaughtered but its hide is still whole, the beast does not count as an orphan.8 5. There are three seasons9 for the Tithe of Cattle: a half month before 3 i.e. from what was bom before the 1st of EIul (cf. R.Sh. «l), in the stead of what was born after. * Lev. 27”. 5 Sec Shek. 1’ and notes.
6 And had not divided the herd. » If they had bought it.
4 Since it can be covered up and protected with the hide.
9 Lit. ‘threshing-floors’; here used in the sense of ‘Tithing-timc’, since the threshing- floor is both the place where grain is made fit for food and where it becomes subject to tithes.
Passover, a half month before Pentecost, and a half month before the Feast [of Tabernacles].1 So R. Akiba. Ben Azzai says: On the 29th of Adar, on the 1 st of Siwan, and on the 29th of Ab. R. Eliezer and R. Simeon say: On the 1st of Nisan, on the 1st of Siwan, and on the 29th of Elul. And why did they say the 29th of Elul and not the 1st of Tishri? Because it is a Festival- day, and it is not possible to tithe on a Festival-day; therefore they made it earlier, on the 29th of Elul. R. Meir says: The 1st of Elul is the New Year for the Tithe of Cattle. Ben Azzai says: Cattle bom during Elul are tithed by themselves.
6. All born from the 1st of Tishri to the 29th of Elul2 can be included together [for the Tithe of Cattle]. Those bom five days before and those bom five days after the New Year cannot be included together; but those born five days before and those bom five days after the seasons for the Tithe can be included together. If so, why was it said, ’There are three seasons for the Tithe of Cattle’? Because before the season has arrived it is permitted to sell and to slaughter, but after the season has arrived none may slaughter, but if a man slaughtered he is not culpable.
7. How do they levy the Tithe? They lead the cattle into the pen and make a small outlet for them so that no two can go forth together. And they count with a rod: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and the one that comes out tenth is marked with a red mark, and it is said, ‘This is Tithe’. If it is not marked with the red mark, or if they have not been counted with the rod, or if they have been counted lying down or standing, they are none the less tithed. If a man had a hundred cattle and he took [any] ten from them, or ten and he took [any] one from them, such are not [valid] Tithe. R. Jose b. R. Judah says: Such are [valid] Tithe. If one of them that was already counted jumped in among the others, the others are exempt; if one of them that was marked as Tithe jumped in among the others, they must all be left to pasture until they suffer a blemish, and after they have suffered a blemish they may be consumed by their owners.
8. If [the first] two came out together, they are all counted in pairs; if they were counted as one, they that are counted as the ninth and the tenth both become unfit for use. If the ninth and the tenth came out together, the ninth and the tenth become unfit for use.3 If the ninth was called the tenth or the tenth the ninth or the eleventh the tenth, all three become holy; the ninth may only be consumed after it has suffered a blemish, the tenth becomes Tithe and the eleventh must be offered as a Peace-offering, and it can transfer its sanctity to its Substitute.4 So R. Meir. But R. Judah says: Can one Substitute5 transfer sanctity to another Substitute? They answered in the name of R. Meir: If it had been a Substitute it could not be offered.6 If the ninth was called the tenth, and the tenth the tenth, and the eleventh the tenth, the eleventh does not become holy. This is the general rule: If the tenth was not deprived of its proper name, the eleventh does not become holy.
2 Between the first and last days of the year (the ‘natural’ year is reckoned as beginning on 1 st Tishri, the seventh month).
3 Neither is certainly tithe, so neither can be offered in the Temple; and neither is certainly not tithe, so, while they remain unblemished, they cannot be free for common use.
s He held that the eleventh was itself substituted for the tenth, when it, instead of the true tenth, was styled ‘the tenth’.
6 Since there can be no substitute for what is a Firstling or Tithe of Cattle. Cf. Tern. i*.
FIFTH DIVISION: KODASHIM 1. i. All — priests and levites and Israelites, women and slaves — may vow another’s Valuation and their Valuation may be vowed by others, and they may vow another’s worth and their worth may be vowed by others. They that are of doubtful or of double sex may vow another’s worth and their worth may be vowed by others, and they may vow [another’s] Valuation, but their Valuation cannot be vowed by others, since only their Valuation may be vowed who are surely male or surely female. A deaf-mute, an imbecile, or a minor may have their worth or their Valuation vowed by others, but they may not vow another’s worth or another’s Valuation, since they have no understanding. The worth of one that is less than a month old may be vowed but not the Valuation.
2. R. Meir says: The Valuation of a gentile may be vowed, but he cannot vow another’s Valuation. R. Judah says: He may vow another’s Valuation but his Valuation cannot be vowed by others. But they agree that he may vow another’s worth and that his worth may be vowed by others.
3. The worth or the Valuation of him that is at the point of death or condemned to be put to death may not be vowed. R. Hananiah b. Akabya says: His Valuation may be vowed since its price is fixed; but his worth may not be vowed since its price is not fixed. R. Jose says: He1 may still vow another’s worth and another’s Valuation, or dedicate aught to the Temple; and if he caused damage he is [still] liable to make restitution.
4. If a woman was condemned to be put to death they may not wait until she has given birth, but if she had already sat on the birth-stool they wait until she has given birth. If a woman was put to death use may be made of her hair;3 if a beast was put to death any use of it is forbidden.
2. 1. There can be no [valid] Valuation vow less than one sela 4 or more than fifty selas. Thus if a man had paid one selas and he then became rich, he pays nothing [more]; if he had paid less than a sela and he then became rich, he must give fifty. If he owned but five selas, R. Meir says: He need pay but one. But the Sages say: He must give them all. There can be no [valid] Valuation vow less than one sela or more than fifty selas. If a woman has strayed in her reckoning6 she may not reckon afresh before seven days or later than seventeen. No leprosy-signs7 are shut up less than one week and none more than three weeks.
2. There are never less than four ‘full’ months in the year, nor do more 1 Persons may vow to give to the Temple either the ‘valuation’ or the ‘worth’ of themselves or another. Their ‘valuation’ is fixed (Lev. 271*) by the Law at nothing for a male or female child up to thirty days; at five shekels for a male and three for a female from one month to five years old; at twenty shekels for a male and ten for a female from five years old to twenty; at fifty shekels for a male and thirty for a female from twenty years old to sixty; and at fifteen shekels for a male and ten for a female from sixty years old and upwards. On the other hand, if a person’s ‘worth’ is vowed, that person’s ‘market-value’ must be ascertained and such sum given to the Temple.
- Who is condemned to be put to death. "> False hair.
‘ Lev. 27* makes provision in the case of the poor for a reduction of the prescribed tariff; but any such reduced estimate may not fall below one sela (App. II, A}. The ‘shekel’ prescribed in Scripture is, in the Mishnah (cf. p. 541, n. 5), valued at a sela, twice the value of the later shekel.
s Although (being aged between 20 and 60 years) his prescribed valuation was fifty selas, he was so poor that the priest (Lev. 27*) reduced it to one.