Yerushalmi Pesahim
10:1 records that Rabbi used
to fast on the day before Pesah because he was a first born. By contrast, R. Yonah, despite being a
first born is said to have disregarded this practice. The practice is presented as normative and
common in Massekhet Soferim 21:1.
Regarding the scope of
this practice, the discussion centers around how precisely we track the
practice with the midrashic memory of who died in the plague of the first born
in Egypt. The Torah says—כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת, that there was no house without someone
who died. This suggests a very expansive
definition of who died in the plague, since it was certainly not the case that
every house had a first-born son born to its father, which would be the
standard definition of first born in the context of inheritance and the
patriarchal societies of the day.
Midrashic sources thus suggest a much broader scope to the plague. Shemot Rabbah 18:3 describes the
plague of the first born as affecting all first born, both matrilineal
and patrilineal. It goes further,
suggesting that first born daughters were killed as well, and that only Bityah,
Pharaoh’s daughter, was saved on account of Moshe. Peskita Rabbati cites R. Abba b. Hama as saying that a house lacking a first born
would see its head of household (גדול הבית)
struck down. [The Mekhilta has a
different approach to the phrase כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת,
suggesting a desecration of already dead first-born and their tombs resulted in
a feeling of catastrophe and death in every Egyptian home.]
Note that these various
categories are different in terms of their resonance with other legal
categories. Patrilineal first-born are
significant with respect to inheritance, the בכורה
follows the first born of the father, irrespective of how many prior children a
given wife has had with other men. Matrilineal
first-born are significant with respect to פדיון הבן,
the redemption of the first born son. In
that context, only the mother’s first born is relevant, such that a father’s
first child in a second marriage where the wife already had a child with
another man is exempt. By contrast, female
first-born never otherwise have a legal status, and the same goes for head of
household (outside of some peripheral laws related to mourning and the start of
shiva). This unevenness plays a role for
some later interpreters in deciding which parts of these midrashim should be
actualized in the context of the fast the day before Pesah. On some level, the question is: Should the
set of people who fast be seen as derivative of other categories in halakhah,
or should the aggadah and the social realities it assumes and describes
drive the practice?
Ra’aviah II:525, based on these midrashim, says that the first
born of either the father or the mother must fast, since the plague in
Egypt was all-encompassing of both types of first born. However, he says that heads of household need
not fast; we do not go that far in putting the midrash’s mythic memory into
practice. Shulhan Arukh OH 470:1
follows this view.
The children of kohanim/b’not
kohanim and levi’im/b’not levi’im are exempt from פדיון הבן. However, Responsa Maharil
#14 says that these first born should fast—even if they are not the father’s
first-born, such that they have no legal status of a first-born in any area of
law—since at the time of the plague in Egypt, they had no special status
vis-à-vis regular first born sons and therefore must fast to reflect gratitude
and trepidation for having been saved from the plague.
Agudah Pesahim #91 follows the
midrash in saying that first-born daughters must fast as well. Responsa Maharil #14 reports that his
father-in-law in fact made his daughter, Maharil’s divorcee (!), fast on the
day before Pesah. However, Sefer
Maharil Erev Pesah #4 seems to suggest that most legal authorities did not
require this. Shulhan Arukh OH 470:1
reports the view of the Agudah. Rema
states that it is not the practice to require daughters to fast. Gra grounds this in the fact that we
have no evidence of the Torah ever prescribing a special legal status to the female
first-born in any other area.
Finally, the laws of first-born are more broadly affected by miscarriages
and stillbirths. In general, any woman
who has miscarried a significant way through her pregnancy or who has a
stillbirth does not redeem the next son born to her. However, Magen Avraham states that a first-born
son after a miscarriage still fasts on the day before Pesah, since he is still
a first-born for purposes of inheritance (through his father, presuming he is
indeed his father’s first born). He here
appeals to other areas of law to fill in details with respect to this fast. Hok Ya’akov leaves unresolved the case
of a Caesarian-section birth, since such a child neither has a פדיון הבן nor is considered the first-born for
purposes of inheritance (an interesting discussion in its own right). Based on reinforcement from other legal
categories, it would seem we should exempt, and yet based on the person’s
social status and how they would have been regarded at the time of the plague
of the first born in Egypt, they would certainly have been treated as a first
born. Kaf Hahayim says we should
resolve this doubt leniently and not require such a person to fast. Shevut Ya’akov II:16 clarifies that any
live birth, even if the child dies within 30 days, is considered the first-born
for purposes of eliminating the status of subsequent children from that
category.
In many contemporary communities, this
fast is deliberately evaded by attending a celebration completing learning, a
tradition that goes back to at least the 16th century. In this context, we might think not about who
is expected to fast, but onto whom we project expectations of first-born status
and how we maximize our tangible connection to our memory of the plague of the
first-born. We perhaps most fully feel
the after effects of כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת
by making sure that at least one person from every home, and especially all of
our first born sons and daughters, begin the day before Pesah at minyan and
joining in to an experience of meaningful learning. We can thus enter, one home at a time, into Pesah
with a profound sense of gratitude for our redemption through God’s hands.
