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Bechorot 30 for kids: Who Can Be Trusted?

בכורות ל׳

🔍 This daf asks when a person can be trusted about food rules and ritual purity. It also asks how someone becomes a ḥaver, a person trusted to follow these rules carefully.

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Stories from Bechorot 30

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Bechorot 30 in simple English

Rashi on Bechorot 30a, in English Tab translation (16)
  1. Kidney fat beside the thigh — the fat of the kidneys that lies against the thigh.
  2. As intestinal fat — he sold it as permitted fat called khanta, known in Old French as entrail, like the intestinal fat mentioned in Hullin 48b.
  3. Rather, it follows Rabbi Shimon — he penalizes a person only regarding something related to the prohibition. Here, the nuts were themselves the means by which the butcher committed it.
  4. Enticed with nuts — the children were drawn after the nuts.
  5. And misled the butchers’ children — he enticed them with nuts to bring him fat they stole from their fathers, then sold it as intestinal fat.
  6. He is not suspect with regard to tithes — people may buy grain from him in other years. They need tithe it only as demai, produce of uncertain tithing, not as certainly untithed produce. The Gemara explains the reasons for the entire mishna.
  7. Requires a wall — second tithe may be eaten only within Jerusalem’s walls, as it says, “And you shall eat before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:23).
  8. Ritually pure foods — the requirement to eat ordinary food in a state of ritual purity is rabbinic.
  9. Then one who is suspect — regarding ritual purity is also suspect regarding the Sabbatical Year.
  10. The mishna — says he is not suspect in a case where we have seen him observe the laws of tithes and the Sabbatical Year privately at home. Since he does so in private, it cannot be mere show.
  11. Rabbi Yannai said — the baraita, from which we infer that he is suspect, concerns someone who had been suspect regarding both the Sabbatical Year and ritual purity, then undertook to observe both.
  12. This is the view of Rabbi Akiva — that one who is suspect regarding the Sabbatical Year is not suspect regarding tithes.
  13. They considered the Sabbatical Year more stringent — so if he is suspect regarding it, all the more so regarding tithes.
  14. A certain person called another — in Rabbi Yehuda’s locale.
  15. A convert, son of a female convert — this is what he called him.
  16. May I be rewarded — for not eating Sabbatical Year produce as you did. Some explain “Rabbi Akiva, the unattributed” by citing the statement in Sanhedrin 86a that unattributed mishnayot follow Rabbi Meir, unattributed baraitot follow Rabbi Natan, and both follow Rabbi Akiva. But that cannot be the meaning: elsewhere Rabbi Menahem and Rabbi Shimon are also called “the unattributed.” Rather, many unattributed mishnayot in the Talmud follow Rabbi Akiva.
Tosafot on Bechorot 30a, in English Tab translation (5)
  1. Fat of the thigh in place of intestinal fat — Rabbenu Tam reads the text this way. Here, “in place of” means “in exchange for,” as it does in the expressions “in place of a slaughtered animal” in Chullin 94a and “in place of iron” in Bava Kamma 113b.
  2. Tithes, which require a wall, seem more stringent to him — Rabbenu Tam infers that whenever tithes are mentioned alongside the Sabbatical Year, the concern is that someone might present second-tithe produce as ordinary produce. This applies, for example, in Gittin 61b and Chullin 6a. The wording “tithes” supports this: when the concern is that produce has not been properly tithed, the text calls it untithed produce or doubtfully tithed produce.
  3. Then someone suspect with regard to purity is also suspect with regard to the Sabbatical Year — The Gemara takes this to be the baraita’s implication because its explicit statement needs no teaching: someone trusted about purity is plainly trusted about the Sabbatical Year, since he follows the practice of those who eat ordinary food in ritual purity.
  4. The mishna refers to a case where we saw him observe the law privately, in his home — That is, he was careful about the Sabbatical Year. This seems to imply that an ordinary am ha’aretz is suspect about Sabbatical-Year produce, just as he is about purity. Yet Gittin 61a distinguishes an ordinary am ha’aretz from a woman specifically suspected of violating the Sabbatical Year, suggesting that ordinary amei ha’aretz are suspect about purity but not about the Sabbatical Year. One cannot prove otherwise from the permission to sift and grind grain for an am ha’aretz: that case may concern other years, or produce known not to be from the Sabbatical Year. Similarly, according to Rava, it concerns produce known to have been tithed; he does not accept Abaye’s answer that most amei ha’aretz tithe their produce. Our passage also challenges Rabbenu Tam’s explanation in Ketubot 24b: he says that ordinary amei ha’aretz, though suspect about doubtful tithes, are not suspect about the Sabbatical Year. He therefore rejects Rabbenu Shmuel’s explanation that the claims “mine is new and my fellow’s is old” concern Sabbatical-Year law, and explains them instead as ordinary sales talk meant to praise one’s goods. But according to Rabbi Ilai here, someone suspect even about the rabbinic rules of purity is suspect about the Sabbatical Year. Surely, then, ordinary amei ha’aretz, who are suspect about tithes required by Torah law, would also be suspect about the Sabbatical Year. It is strained to say that every reference to an ordinary am ha’aretz who is not suspect about the Sabbatical Year means one observed keeping its laws privately. Another difficulty is the mishna in Demai 3:4: one who takes wheat to a Samaritan miller or an am ha’aretz miller need not worry about tithes or the Sabbatical Year. Its mention of the Sabbatical Year suggests that an ordinary am ha’aretz is suspect. One can answer that it is mentioned because of the Samaritan, or that the am ha’aretz there is specifically known to be suspect. The same applies to the cases of buying a lulav from an am ha’aretz during the Sabbatical Year and of giving dough or a pot of food to a neighbor to prepare. One might ask: If these cases concern someone known to be suspect, how can Chullin use the neighbor’s case to prove that the Sages imposed restrictions on mixtures containing doubtfully tithed produce? Perhaps a known suspect is less trustworthy than an ordinary am ha’aretz about the first tithe, as Gittin 61b implies according to Abaye. The answer is that the argument in Chullin works according to Rava, who makes no such distinction.
  5. In Rabbi Yehuda’s locale, they treated the Sabbatical Year as especially stringent — That is why someone suspect about it was also suspect about tithes. But Shabbat 17b says that people are not suspect about the priestly portion, since, as Shmuel says, a single grain can discharge the obligation for an entire heap. Why, then, suspect this person about second tithe? As with consecrated property, something worth a mina can be redeemed onto a coin worth a peruta. Rav Achai’s She’iltot states explicitly that fourth-year vineyard produce can be redeemed for a small sum, and second tithe and fourth-year produce follow the same rule. It also seems permissible to do this from the outset today, as with consecrated property in Arakhin 29a. Although Gittin 65a discusses a device for avoiding the additional fifth in second-tithe redemption today, when its obligation is rabbinic, the Gemara could have asked why any device is needed when the produce can be redeemed for a peruta. Instead, it raises another objection. Indeed, it is common practice to redeem fourth-year vineyard produce worth a mina for a peruta. The answer is that tithes differ from the priestly portion: sometimes a person has no peruta available for redemption, or has less than a peruta’s worth of second tithe and does not want to spend a whole peruta on it.
Rashi on Bechorot 30b, in English Tab translation (32)
  1. Suspect with regard to tithes is suspect with regard to Sabbatical Year produce — All the more so, one suspect with regard to Sabbatical Year produce is suspect with regard to tithes.
  2. And who are the Rabbis? Rabbi Meir — For he says below that one suspected of violating one matter is suspected with regard to the entire Torah.
  3. He is like a Jewish transgressor — We do not say that he is a gentile, as though he had never converted.
  4. If he betroths — If he betroths a woman after abandoning his religion, the betrothal is valid.
  5. The practices of a ḥaver — The Tosefta in Demai explains: He must not give teruma or tithes to an am ha’aretz, prepare ritually pure foods in the home of an am ha’aretz, or eat ordinary food unless it is ritually pure. He must also tithe what he eats, sells, and buys.
  6. Details of the Sages’ laws — A stringency established by the rabbis.
  7. The duties of a Levite — To sing, serve, and guard the gates.
  8. Among the sons of Aaron — This implies that he must observe all the laws governing Aaron’s descendants; only then shall he have the right thigh as his portion.
  9. Practices in private — Before formally accepting ḥaver status before us, he observed its rules. We need not suspect that he does so merely for appearances.
  10. He is accepted — We regard him as a ḥaver and trust all his statements.
  11. With regard to hands — He must wash his hands before eating and before touching teruma foods, since unwashed hands are considered impure to the second degree.
  12. With regard to purity — We trust him to observe the other requirements of ritual purity and regard his pure foods as fully pure, so that his teruma may be eaten as pure teruma.
  13. He is accepted — He has not excluded an entire area of practice: He accepts handwashing, which is central to eating ordinary food in ritual purity.
  14. He is not accepted even for purity — If he cannot keep the simple requirement of handwashing, all the more so he cannot keep the other requirements.
  15. How long before he is accepted? — How long must he observe the practices of a ḥaver before we accept him and regard him as one?
  16. For liquids, thirty days — After he has observed the practices of a ḥaver for thirty days, we trust him regarding the purity of liquids, whose impurity is less stringent because it is rabbinic, as explained in the first chapter of Pesaḥim.
  17. For clothing — This means regarding his clothing as that of a ḥaver. Tractate Ḥagiga says that the clothing of an am ha’aretz is considered impure through pressure-contact for those careful about purity.
  18. Twelve months — If he has observed the practices of a ḥaver for twelve months.
  19. This would be among the leniencies of Beit Shammai and the stringencies of Beit Hillel — It should then be listed among those cases in tractate Eduyyot, which names six such cases. Another explanation: The earlier teaching says that if he had practiced privately at home, he is accepted immediately. The question here is how long he must first practice privately to be accepted immediately.
  20. Because a ḥaver who accepted is not the same — One who accepted the obligations himself differs from a ḥaver’s son, who relies on his father’s acceptance and has made no acceptance of his own; his father is certainly more careful. Another explanation: The first tanna says this in support of his view that the children and household need not accept separately: A ḥaver who accepted himself differs from his son, who is not suspect. The Tosefta in Demai reads: ‘A ḥaver who went astray is not the same as a ḥaver’s son who went astray.’
  21. This teaching was taught — Even a Torah scholar must formally accept ḥaver status.
  22. In matters of purity — Do not read this as ‘in the order of the Mishnah called Purities.’ A question of law arose for them concerning ritually pure items themselves.
  23. The rabbis sent — They sent a pair of rabbis.
  24. He seated rabbis of his own — He seated some of his students who had accepted ḥaver status alongside the messengers, while he remained to consider their question.
  25. This one’s father, and so on — He said this in anger, but it was not actually so.
  26. Respect for an elder — the father and the son.
  27. Special care — an added stringency. Rabbi Chanina ben Antigonus was a priest.
  28. It retains its presumed status until disqualified — that is, until people there sell indigo dye as tekhelet.
  29. They must first accept the obligations of ḥaver status — read “first,” not “as at first.” The Tosefta does read “as at first,” meaning before we regard him as a ḥaver. Although we said earlier that his children and household need not accept separately, this case is different: they were not with him when he accepted and may have continued their former ways.
  30. They do not need to accept — if they return to the care of a ḥaver.
  31. She ties — she fastens.
  32. Tax collectors’ knots — tax collectors have seals. When someone pays the tax, they give him a seal so another collector will not demand payment.
Tosafot on Bechorot 30b, in English Tab translation (2)
  1. And the Rabbis say: He is suspected only regarding that matter — According to Rabbi Ilai above, someone suspected regarding ritual purity is also suspected regarding Sabbatical-year produce, unless we have seen him observe its laws in private. So “only regarding that matter” is not literal: it includes that matter and similar matters, but not the entire Torah.
  2. This one’s father disgraced our students — Over matters of ritual purity, just as he did to us.

Sources

Kid summary and story cards written by Tab from the William Davidson Edition English (Sefaria, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tab translation (machine-assisted) of Rashi and Tosafot, from the Vilna Edition Hebrew (public domain) on Sefaria. May contain mistakes.

In the app, the Gemara text comes from Sefaria (William Davidson Edition, CC BY-NC 4.0; Hebrew/Aramaic Vilna Edition). Rashi and Tosafot Hebrew: Vilna Edition (public domain) via Sefaria.

Also spelled: Bekhorot, Bechoros, Bekhoroth 30.