Study Bekhorot folio 58A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
The reason is so that animals will be readily available to those ascending to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage Festivals. The animals are tithed shortly before each of the Festivals so that their owners will refrain from selling or killing them until those times, when they gather them together to set a
And even though we learned in the Mishnah: Until the time designated for gathering arrives, it is permitted to sell and slaughter the animals, which means that there is no obligation to keep the animals until those dates and there is no concern that the owners will sell the animals before tithing t
The Talmud asks: And why does the tanna call the time designated for gathering animal tithe goren, which literally means threshing floor? The Talmud explains that it is due to the fact that the arrival of this time renders the halakhic status of new animals like that of untithed produce gathered on
The Mishnah states that according to R' Akiva the times for tithing animals are adjacent to Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The Talmud asks: And how much is adjacent [peras]? R' Yosei, son of R' Yehuda, explained that the term adjacent means not less than 15 days.
The Talmud asks: From where is this inferred? R' Abbahu said that the term peros means half. The Talmud inquires: Half of what? The Talmud answers: Half of the time during which one must learn the halakhot of Passover, and this is like that which is taught in a baraita: One asks about and teaches