Bekhorot 2,3, and 4

0:00College football is back. So, Hilton called to me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality. Need a room to match your lucky number? We got you. Want to make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey? Oh, that smells lucky. Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition. Even a marching bandwreck up call it 555 and 55 seconds. Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day. Hey there and welcome back to take one. The podcast that brings you just one brand new. Patriotal Medici day brand new. You heard it. You heard the theme music. Change. It can only mean one thing we are now at the cusp of a brand new track date, masikhet becholot. And as always, we would not dare. Even dip our toe in a new masikhet without the benefit,

1:03the wisdom, the guidance of our rabbi, our friend, our teacher, the man behind dailytelma.org, which all of you need to subscribe to right now because it is the graduate version, the next step in the evolution, the best thing to happen to daily Daffyomi podcast since take one. Rabbi David Mashevkin, how exciting, Brad Mashikhet. The L, what an absolute privilege and pleasure. And this is actually a very exciting track date. Now, masikhet bechoros is really about the sanctification of new borns, primarily newborn animals, but also for first born children. Somebody has a first born son. There is a ritual known as a pidiome haban where we redeem that first born child. So there are special laws that govern the sanctity of first born animals. And I think the question behind this track date is quite obvious.

2:06What is with our obsession with birth order? As somebody, I don't know about, well, you, L.I. believe do not have siblings. You're an only child. So you are both, you're the one and only. So you, you probably appreciate this track date more than I do. But I have three older sisters and a younger brother. So why is it that my first sister, my oldest sister has this, you know, exciting title? I am not the bechoros, my oldest sister, who cares who is born first? And I think the question is only further developed. And maybe the beginning of a glimpse towards an answer is the way that we see God describe the Jewish people right in the heart of the Exodus story. If you open up the fourth chapter of Exodus, I believe the 22nd verse, but you should probably double check and make sure that I'm not lying.

3:06In the fourth chapter of Exodus, the 22nd verse, God describes the Jewish people as Benin Bichori Yisrael, my child, the first born, the Jewish people. What is it about a first born that the Jewish people themselves are described as the first born of God? And you know what's really fascinating? I came to this answer when I was watching the Steve Martin documentary. It's a two part documentary on Apple TV. And it is about the life of Steve Martin, who very famously had a really famous comedy career still on SNL, only murders in the building. I happen to love Steve Martin. I've been watching for decades. I have to mention father of the bride, but at the very end of the document, it's the white hair thing. It's the right thing. We have a kind of, we should have a joint WhatsApp group of premature white hair. I don't know if I would consider myself a comedian, but if that's what it takes to get

4:09into the WhatsApp group, I'm doing it in a second. And it's the very end of the documentary. He describes his decision to start a family much later in life. At the very end of the documentary, there is a moment where he says something that is so beyond profound. I actually have it in front of me, and I would like to read it to you. Steve Martin says he had this incredible career, SNL movies, television, three amigos, father of the bride, the list goes on. But then he says the following. Why did I have a family later in life? He says this. One kid says Steve Martin, I think is the biggest door you ever walk through in life. You go from being a ship out on the seas of the world to suddenly being a harbor in the port for someone else to be a harbor in the port for someone else. The reason why firstborns have so much significance is not because of the importance of the first

5:11born is because of what it does to the parent. The transforms as my son one time told me you used to be a dovid, but I made you into a dadda. A child and the first born child is that big door that you step through. And we sanctify that door because it transforms literally the purpose of individual life, but it transforms the purpose of the world. The world is not just filled with options. When you have kids without children without family, the world is just options. It's it's you know, go on adventures, go on vacations, see the world explore. The moment a parent has a child, whether it is an animal parent or a human parent or even Kiviyakhal if one could say it and we do God himself. We go from the world of options, which can be exciting and wonderful to the world of responsibility.

6:12The moment that a child comes into this world and it's that first child, we transition from the world of options into now, I am a port in the harbor for somebody else. And that is why in Jewish law and in Jewish practice, we spend so much effort sanctifying the first born. Not because the first born is so important, not because being born first is so amazing, but because what that first birth does in the eyes of the parents. This journey through Masech's Bichoro's, if you pay very close attention, we are going to see literally the secrets of Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood. What is this all about? Because being a first born transforms our very existence. And we so to speak are the first born of God. We are that responsibility that transformed God that we now say God. The world is not just about creating wonderful things, the world needs to be about responsibility

7:15for one another. And that begins in tractate Bichoro's. Can not wait to learn it together with you. My dear friend, as always, thank you so much for being our guest. My absolute privilege and pleasure. This has been Take One. If you enjoy the show and we hope that you do, you are really going to love the new-ish book by Liel called How the Tomahd Can Change Your Life, surprisingly modern advice from a very old book. You can get it now at your favorite local or online bookstore. Please go rate and review Take One on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Take One is a tablet studio's production. The show is hosted by Liel Liebowitz and produced by Josh Cross and Eli Axelrod with Tall Allroyd. You can email us at podcasts at tabletmag.com. I hope we have made your day a little bit more Tall Music.