For the source text click/tap here: Chullin 137
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How many sheep must be sheared for the law of Reishit HaGez – offering the first shearing to a kohen – to apply?
In the Mishna (daf 135a) we learn that this was the subject of a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel. Beit Shammai points to the passage in Sefer Yeshayahu (7:21) to conclude that there must be a minimum of two sheep; Beit Hillel brings a passage from Sefer Shmu’el (I 25:18) from which he learns that there must be at least five sheep for the obligation to take effect.
Issi bar Hini and his son were travelling from Bavel to Eretz Yisroel. They met R’ Yochanan who overheard Issi teaching his son our Mishnah, that wool of sheep is obligated in the mitzvah of the first shearings. Issi used the word “רחלים “for sheep, which is the masculine form of the plural for sheep.
In our text, the precise wording appears as “רחלות, “in the feminine form. R’ Yochanan corrected him and instructed him to teach the Mishnah with the text as we have it. Issi resisted and claimed that he was using the masculine form of the word, as it appears in the Torah, in Bereshis (32:15) when describing the two hundred sheep sent by Yaakov to Eisav. R’ Yochanan then explained that the wording used by the Torah and that used by the sages is not necessarily the same.
We explore the commentaries on Gen 32:15 as well as the gifts to the priests.