Study Beitzah folio 26A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
If it has a permanent blemish, owing to which it may be slaughtered and eaten, he may raise it from the cistern and slaughter it; but if it does not have a blemish, or if its blemish is temporary, he may not slaughter it. R' Shimon says: Even if it has a blemish, it is prohibited to slaughter it,
Talmud: The Talmud asks: With regard to what principle do R' Yehuda and R' Shimon disagree? If we say that they disagree about whether or not one may examine blemishes on a Festival, such that R' Yehuda holds that one may examine blemishes on a Festival, and R' Shimon holds that one may not examin
The Talmud answers: It was necessary to teach the disagreement with regard to the case of a firstborn that fell into a cistern, as it could enter your mind to say that because of the matter of the suffering of living creatures, one should employ an artifice to circumvent the halakha and raise the a
The Talmud asks: If so, if the Mishnah mentions the case of a firstborn that fell into a cistern in order to teach that an artifice may not be employed to raise the animal from the cistern, the phrase: He may not slaughter it, is inaccurate. Rather, it should have stated: He may not raise the anima
The Talmud expresses wonder at this answer: How could one think that he may now slaughter it? Isn’t the animal unblemished? How could one imagine that it is permitted to slaughter a firstborn that is unblemished? The Talmud answers: This teaching is necessary only in a case where it developed a ble