Daf Yomi Arcade, Bekhorot 18, 6 October 2026
שֶׁמָּא שְׁתֵּיהֶן יָלְדוּ נְקֵבוֹת תְּחִלָּה
Two ewes give birth in the night and nobody sees which lamb came from which mother. A firstborn male goes to the kohen, but only if we know it's a firstborn. Today's daf works out what the kohen is guaranteed when every "perhaps" is still open, starting with a corpse lying exactly halfway between two towns.
A slain person is found in a field. The Torah says "the town nearest (קְרוֹבָה) to the corpse" brings the egla arufa, the heifer whose neck is broken. Slide the body along the road and try to put it exactly between the towns.
Two questions decide what happens when it's a tie. Can two human measurements ever come out exactly equal? (אֶפְשָׁר לְצַמְצֵם) And does the singular "kerova" exclude two equally-near towns? For each combination, choose what follows.
Each night, some ewes lamb and nobody watches. A first-timer ewe's first lamb, if male, belongs to the kohen. A ewe that has lambed before owes nothing. Every ewe bore at least one lamb. Build possible worlds: tap a newborn, then tap a mother to add it to her birth order (first in line = born first). Tap a placed lamb to take it back. Find the worst world for the kohen, because he only gets what every world gives him.
Newborns in the straw
When the kohen gets "one of the two males" but nobody knows which, one lamb is plump and one is lean. Hand each lamb out according to each sage.
The lamb the owner keeps grazes until it gets a blemish and is then slaughtered. Does the kohen get the gifts from it: the foreleg, jaw and maw? Tap the tray to load it (gifts owed) or leave it empty (exempt), for each sage.
Play the four parts above.
Bekhorot 18 finishes the heifer-between-two-towns question from 17b, closes Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva's twin-lamb mishna, and opens a new mishna about two ewes lambing together. Rabbi Akiva's "they assess" (מְשַׁמְּנִין) turns out to mean "the fat (שׁוּמָּן) is what's in dispute."
Part of the Daf Yomi Arcade, a new game from every daf. Texts and links via the Sefaria API.