Bechorot 46: Autopsy; Firstborn Male Redemption/Inheritance

Before reviewing part of today's daf, it is important to mention part of yesterday's day, Massechet Bechorot 45.  Yesterday we learned that the rabbis used the death of a probably very young prostitute to perform an autopsy and learn about the number of bones in the human body.  The Gemara says that  her body was boiled and then examined.  This would go against Jewish law in a number of ways: desperation of a dead body, examining a woman's body, etc.  The rabbis believed that these indignities were necessary to learn more about the human body toward bettering medical information and care.  Interesting where the rabbis can justify their decisions.  Steinsaltz notes that boiling a body to help with an autopsy was not generally utilized until over fifteen hundred years later.

We have learned about firstborn animals, and we begin Perek VIII today with laws regarding firstborn children.  The Torah teaches us about the redemption of firstborn male children (Sehmot 13:2, Bamidbar 18:15-16) and the double portion of inheritance that goes to a firstborn male child (Devarim 21:15-17).  The same child will likely be redeemed and receive the double portion.  However, there are situations where this might not happen.

Firstborn redemption relies on peter rechem, the child that opens his/her mother's womb.  Inheritance laws require that the child is reishit ono, the first-fruit of his strength".  The father could have a number of firstborn sons who should be redeemed.  He can only have one firstborn son who will receive the double portion of his inheritance.  This is true even if that child had already born children from another marriage.

Our first Mishnayot demonstrate different situations that might affect the status of the firstborn child regarding these laws.  Some of these include cases of miscarriage or stillborn children.  These children might impact the status of the firstborn live child regarding redemption, for it may not have "opened her womb".  However, inheritance laws will not be affected by these circumstances.

To speak of miscarriage and stillborn children without noting the context - the emotional, physical, psychological and other effects of these events - undercuts the ways that people might respond to these laws.  Similar to yesterday's autopsy of a young woman's dead body (and the rabbis believe that she was young because she had fewer bones that we know exist in an adult), the context is ignored.  This reflects, at a very minimum, the absence of women in the development of rabbinical literature.