392. Ransom Note: The obligation to redeem firstborn sons

Way back in parshas Bo, we discussed the obligation to redeem firstborn animals. Here, we address the obligation to redeem firstborn sons. The reason, as we stated Mitzvah #18, is that God killed all the firstborns in Egypt, both man and animal. By sparing the firstborns of Israel, they became specially dedicated to Him. In fact, the firstborns were originally intended to serve as the priests in the Temple, but that right was forfeited and given to the Tribe of Levi following the incident with the Golden Calf.

Every person of non-Levite stock must redeem his firstborn son by giving five silver shekels to a kohein in a ceremony called a pidyon haben (redeeming the son). The Torah tells us (Exodus 13:2), “whatever opens the womb of both man and beast is Mine.” From here we see that a firstborn son after a stillbirth or certain miscarriages is not considered “firstborn” for the purpose of this mitzvah, since he did not “open the womb.”

The obligation to redeem a child begins when he is 30 days old, when he has demonstrated viability. A father is obligated to redeem his son; if the child grows up and this has not been done, he must redeem himself. If either parent is a kohein or a Levi, the child does not have a pidyon haben. (A woman who marries from a kohein or Levite family to an Israelite family legally becomes an Israelite, but she’s still genetically descended from Levi on her father’s side.)

This mitzvah applies to Israelites in all times and places. In the Talmud, it is discussed in the tractates of Kiddushin (29a-b) and Bechoros (starting on 46a). It is codified in the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah 305. This mitzvah is #80 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos and #54 of the 77 positive mitzvos that can be fulfilled today in the Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar.