Study Bekhorot folio 46B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Talmud: Shmuel says: In a case where the head of a fetus emerged and then went back into the womb, the offspring is not considered to have been born and does not exempt the next fetus from the obligation of redemption of the firstborn, e.g., if its twin brother was born first. Shmuel says this hal
The Talmud asks: What is the reason for Shmuel’s ruling? The verse states: “All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life” (Genesis 7:22), from which it is derived: Anywhere that one has the breath of the spirit of life, i.e., if it is viable, one goes by its nostrils, i.e., its head
The Talmud raises a difficulty: We learned in the Mishnah: What is a firstborn with regard to inheritance but not with regard to redemption from a priest? It is a son who came after the miscarriage of an underdeveloped fetus, even where the head of the underdeveloped fetus emerged alive; and a fully
The Talmud asks: But if so, let the Mishnah teach: Most of it. The Talmud answers: By right, the Mishnah should have taught: Most of it, but it did not do so, since in the latter clause of the Mishnah it needs to teach: A fully developed 9-month-old fetus whose head emerged dead. It is inferred
The Talmud asks: And according to this interpretation, what is the Mishnah teaching us? Is it that once the offspring reached out its head from the womb it is considered a birth? We learn this in a Mishnah with regard to the fetus of an animal (Ḥullin 68a): If a fetus reached out its head, although