Dear Aaron,



The Sages disagreed about the prohibition against slaughtering a father and son on the same day.

It is taught: “on the same day as his offspring” is practiced for females and not for males. Chananyah said: “It is practiced both for males and for females” (Chulin 88b). Halacha was ruled according to the Sages.

The amazing thing is that the Sages utterly ignore what is explicitly written. “Ox” is male and not female. When the author of the Torah meant the female of the species, “heifer” was used: “Take for yourself a pure red heifer” (Numbers 19:2) — see the commentary of Nachmanides (Leviticus 22:28).

But that is the way of the Talmudic Sages — to ignore what is written and turn the author of the Torah into a lunatic. As Ibn Ezra wrote, “How is it possible in a human language that a man would speak one word and mean another? One who supposes so would be considered a madman” (Daniel 1:1).

As for your question: How do we know who the father is? It refers to cases where the father is known, such as an ox and heifer who lived together, alone, in the homeowner’s yard…



Sincerely,



Daat Emet