011a הכל ממירין פרק ראשון תמורה יא ע"א - HAKOL MEMIRIN CHAPTER ONE TEMURAH

This is what it means: one may consecrate limbs and effect an exchange with them^[1], but one may not effect an exchange [of limbs] with them.

הכי קאמר מקדישין איברין וממירין בהן כו' - This means: one consecrates a single limb and then exchanges the same animal with it. [The Gemara] teaches this: 'and effect an exchange with them' [is needed] because 'one consecrates limbs' does not mean a single limb alone, but that the sanctity spread to the whole animal. A single limb alone could not be described as 'and effect an exchange with them', since even R' Yosi, who holds that limbs may be exchanged for peace-offerings^[2], concedes that peace-offerings may not be exchanged with them, and certainly limbs with limbs. As for the second half of this beraisa, 'but one may not effect an exchange', it teaches that one may not exchange for peace-offerings: if one says 'this limb of an animal is a tmurah', it is not sanctified. This means the rule for initial consecration is stricter than for tmurah: when one consecrates one limb, the sanctity spreads to the whole animal; but in tmurah, when one says 'this limb is a tmurah in place of this whole animal', it is not sanctified.

And [if] fetuses^[3] were consecrated in their mothers' wombs, one may not effect an exchange with them.

ועוברין שקדשו במעי אמן - For example, the young of sacred animals: although they are sacred, one may not exchange an animal with them while they are in the womb. This is not because [the sanctity of] the sacred is stricter than tmurah, but because the Tanna taught 'and one exchanges with them with an animal that was consecrated through a limb', and taught regarding fetuses that one may not exchange with them. This is the view of R' Yehudah, who says the young makes tmurah; for if the Rabbis held that, even a limb would not make tmurah.

It is only the young of sacred animals in the womb that do not effect tmurah.

So then, do limbs effect tmurah?

But we learned^[4] in a Mishnah: the young do not effect tmurah.

Whose view is this? It is that of Rabbi Yehudah.

If it is Rabbi Yehudah, do limbs become sacred?

But Rabbi Yehudah does not hold that.

One who says, 'The leg of this one is an olah,' [then] all of it is an olah^[5].

He said to him: What are we dealing with here? A case where the act makes it terefah^[6].

Shall we say it is like a dispute between Tannaim? [Consider] one who slaughters a sin-offering and finds a live ben arba in it. [The Tanna] teaches:

One [teaching] says: It is not eaten except by male priests, it is not eaten except within the curtains, and it is not eaten except for one day^[7].

אלא לזכרי כהונה - It enters one's mind [to think] it is like a sin-offering. We are speaking of one who sets aside a pregnant animal: for if he set aside an empty (non-pregnant) animal and it became pregnant, all agree that, since it is sanctified only through its mother, it is ordinary (chullin); but the young of sacred animals are sacred in their formation, when born, and not while in the womb.

And another [beraisa] teaches: It is eaten by all people, eaten in any place, and not eaten in the courtyard^[8].

What, is this not a dispute between Tannaim^[9]?

מאי לאו תנאי היא - For the first Tanna, sanctity takes effect on the limbs in their own right; when [the animal] is pregnant at the time of consecration, it is sanctified at once, unlike the young of sacred animals. For the later Tanna, sanctity takes effect on the fetus only through its mother, and it is like other young of sacred animals, which are sanctified only in their formation. He therefore says 'alive' to make a special point: we do not say that since it is alive, its formation is counted as complete; and even for the later Tanna it should be sanctified through its mother like other young of sacred animals. This teaches us that since its months were not complete, it has not reached its formation.

[The one] who holds that sanctity takes effect on fetuses, and [the other] who holds that sanctity does not take effect on fetuses.

No: these Tannaim dispute this point.

לא - This [Mishnah] does not refer at all to one who sets aside a pregnant animal, but to a sacred animal that became pregnant; and about this they dispute: the first Tanna holds that the young of sacred animals are sacred in their formation, and when born they are sacred, not in the womb.

One [Tanna] holds that the young of sacred animals are sacred in their formation; the other holds that the young of sacred animals are sacred in their mothers' wombs.

בהווייתן - The Torah used this wording because the young are included in it, as it is written (Deuteronomy 12): 'Only your holy things which you have... etc.' And the Master said: 'which you have'; these are the young. This is in chapter 2 of Bechorot (14a).

Alternatively, you may say^[10]: it is one Tanna.

ואיבעית אימא חד תנא הוא - These two beraisot [agree] that sanctity takes effect on the fetuses at once, like R' Yochanan. The one that teaches that a fetus is not sanctified in the case of one who consecrates an animal and afterward it became pregnant holds that the young of sacred animals are sacred in their formation; and the one that teaches that it is sanctified at once, unlike other young of sacred animals, holds that a fetus is not a limb of its mother when she was consecrated while pregnant.

One of these two beraisot [deals with] one who consecrates an animal and afterward it became pregnant; the other [deals with an animal] that was consecrated while pregnant.

It is taught: Rabbi Eliezer says: kilayim, a terefah, a yotze dofen^[11], a tumtum and an androgynos are neither sanctified nor do they sanctify.

Shmuel said: they are not sanctified for tmurah, and do not sanctify [to effect] tmurah.

לא קדושין בתמורה - For if they are ordinary (chullin) and one exchanges them for a sacred animal, they are not taken [as tmurah]; and even a tmurah that takes effect on animals with permanent blemishes^[12] does not take effect on them; and all the more so, if one consecrated them outright, they are not sanctified.

ואין מקדישין - [The Gemara asks:] Once it is made a tmurah, if they are sacred and one exchanged a chullin animal with them... Rabbi Meir explains how this could be: since they have no body-sanctity whatsoever, how could they sanctify and make tmurah? They are merely wood.

And it is taught: Rabbi Meir says:

Since they are not sanctified, how can they sanctify?

You can find [a case] only where one consecrates an animal and afterward it became terefah, [or where] one consecrates a fetus that came out through the side.

אי אתה מוצא - That they should be sacred: for one would need to teach 'they do not sanctify' only in the case of one who consecrates an animal and afterward it became terefah; and this is a sanctity that took effect before its blemish.

במקדיש ולד במעי אמו - That sanctity took effect on it at once, and afterward it came out through the side. These words were needed to say that they do not sanctify; and the end of the matter is explained in chapter 'Yesh b'Korbanot' (below, 17a).

Evidently a fetus is sanctified.

They say: a tam in a tamimah's womb; even Bar Pada^[13] agrees that it is sanctified.

They disagree only about a tam in the womb of a blemished^[14] [mother].

Bar Pada holds: since its mother is not consecrated [for body-sanctity], it too is not sanctified in body.

And R' Yochanan holds: these are two animals; it is the mother who is not consecrated, but it [the fetus] is sanctified.

Another version^[15] of the text says:

But [regarding] kilayim, a tumtum and an androgynos, you can find [a case] only in the young of sacred animals.

כלאים וטומטום ואנדרוגינוס אי אתה מוצא אלא בולדי קדשים - That a sacred animal became pregnant from them after consecration, so the fetus is sanctified, as the Mishnah says: 'one who consecrates a fetus and it comes out through the side'. This fetus is not sanctified in its own right to make tmurah. If it did not come out through the side, it is sanctified with the first sanctity, body-sanctity, and makes tmurah. And one cannot answer that it is 'value-sanctity'^[16]: for if it were value-sanctity, it would not make tmurah even if it came out through the womb.

[This is] like Rabbi Yehudah, who says the young makes tmurah. These are the ones that are not sanctified in themselves, but other fetuses are sanctified.

Abaye^[17] said: a tam in a tamimah's womb, all agree, is sanctified in its own body.

Rather, they disagree about [a fetus] in the womb of a blemished [mother].

Bar Pada holds: since its mother too is not sanctified in body, it too is not sanctified except for value.

R' Yochanan holds: a fetus is not a limb of its mother^[18], and even though its mother was not sanctified as to body, the young is nonetheless sanctified as to its own body.

R' Yosi says: But in the case of consecrated things, [the Mishnah teaches]: 'One who says, the leg of this one, etc.'

תוספות

הכי קאמר מקדישין איברין וממירין - This is the reading of Rashi, meaning: if the sanctity spread through the whole animal by the sanctity of the animal, one may exchange [the animal] for the whole animal; but if one says, 'this limb of chullin shall be a tmurah', he has said nothing. It seems that for this reason Rashi felt compelled to read 'and exchanges' (ממירין), because the Gemara asks next, 'do limbs become sacred?'. For if he did not read 'and exchanges', where do we find anyone saying that limbs are sacred? Rather, since he says 'limbs exchange', it must be where he consecrated the limb and the sanctity spread through the whole animal. But it is not clear to read 'and exchanges': first, because it is not in most of the texts; and second, because the Mishnah, regarding a donkey, teaches the stricter rule of initial consecration versus tmurah, and if one read 'and exchanges' there would be no such stricter rule. So it seems he did not read it. And the question right after, 'do limbs become sacred?', is because [the Mishnah] teaches 'they consecrate fetuses and limbs', and surely a limb alone does not become sacred unless the sanctity spread through the whole animal.

השוחט את החטאת - For example, a she-goat, since a ewe cannot give birth within its first year, as stated in Bechorot (19).

ומצא בה בן ארבע חי - For [if it were] a son of five in small livestock^[19], it is not permitted to the Rabbis by the slaughter of its mother, chapter 'Behemah HaMekashah' (Chullin 74).

Notes

1. 1. Temurah: substituting another animal for a sacrifice. Both the original and the substitute become sacred, and the exchange cannot be reversed.
2. 2. Shelamim (peace-offerings): a sacrifice whose meat is eaten by the owner and the priests. The point here is that limbs may not be exchanged for it.
3. 3. Fetuses consecrated in the womb: the young of a sacred animal that was already pregnant when its mother was consecrated. They are sacred, but while in the womb they do not effect tmurah.
4. 4. The Mishnah in Tractate Temurah rules that the offspring does not effect tmurah; Rabbi Yehudah disagrees.
5. 5. One who designates a leg of an animal as an olah: the whole animal becomes an olah, because the sanctity spreads through all of it.
6. 6. Terefah: an animal with a fatal defect that will kill it within a year; it is forbidden to eat and unfit to be offered. Here the defect is what makes it terefah.
7. 7. A sin-offering's meat is eaten only by male priests, only within the curtains of the Temple courtyard, and only for one day. This is the beraisa under discussion.
8. 8. A fetus found in a slaughtered sin-offering is not itself a sin-offering, so it may be eaten by anyone anywhere, but not in the courtyard, since it is not sacred.
9. 9. A Tanna: a sage whose views are recorded in the Mishnah or in the beraisot. A dispute between Tannaim is a disagreement between such sages.
10. 10. Alternatively, you may say: the Gemara's way of offering a second solution, here reading the two beraisot as the view of one Tanna.
11. 11. Yotze dofen: a fetus that comes out through the side of the body rather than through the womb, as in a surgical delivery.
12. 12. A permanent blemish: a blemish that does not pass away, which disqualifies the animal from the altar.
13. 13. Bar Pada: a Babylonian Amora who disputes with R' Yochanan on this law.
14. 14. A blemished mother: an animal with a permanent blemish that disqualifies it from the altar, so it can be consecrated only for value and not for body.
15. 15. Another version: an alternative formulation of the same discussion, which presents the matter in a different way.
16. 16. Value-sanctity (kedushat damim): sanctity that applies only to the money value of an item, which goes to the Temple treasury. Body-sanctity (kedushat haguf) makes the animal itself a sacrifice.
17. 17. Abaye: a major Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation.
18. 18. A fetus is not a limb of its mother: it is not part of her body, so its sanctity is independent of hers.
19. 19. Small livestock: sheep and goats.