Kommentar zu Wajikra 27:32

תחת השבט [WHATEVER PASSES] UNDER THE ROD — When he is about to tithe them (the cattle), he passes them through a door one after the other and the tenth he strikes with a rod smeared with red dye so that it should afterwards be recognised as being one of the tithe. Thus he does to the young sheep and to the calves of each separate year (Bekhorot 58b).

תחת השבט, “beneath the rod.” The legislation to tithe the tenth animal born in one’s flock applies only to animals which were not purchased by the owner of the flock but were born of his flock. The legislation does not apply to flocks owned in partnership either (Bechorot 56). The same halachah applies to the requirement to give the firstborn male animals in one’s flock to the priest. At least this is the opinion of Rabbi Ilai who says that if the mother animal is owned jointly there is no need to give the firstborn male animal to the priest. These opinions are based on the expressions בקרך, “your cattle,” (sing.) and בצאנך, “your flock,” (sing) in Deut. 15,19. If someone had purchased sheep in the market he is not obligatd to either tithe them or give the firstlings to the priest. Our sages in Sotah 27, commenting on Leviticus 22,27, use the various examples named in that verse as the basis for ruling that animals born of animals which crossbred such as a billy-goat with a sheep, or which were not born but came into this world through cesarean section are not subject to this legislation. Such expressions as שור או כשב או עז כי יולד, “ox or sheep or goat which are born,” are all dissected to yield these halachot. Expressions such as “it has to remain with its mother for seven days,” (ibid.) are interpreted to mean that animals orphaned at birth are not subject to the legislation discussed here, all because both here and in chapter 22 the decisive consideration is the animal’s being suitable as a sacrifice at that time. Seeing that an animal whose mother died at birth can never fulfill the condition of spending seven days on earth during the lifetime of its mother and can therefore not qualify as a potential sacrifice, its owner is also not subject to the legislation described by the Torah in our paragraph.

And calves. Because this mitzvah only applies to cattle and the flock as it says, “tithes of cattle and the flock.”

העשירי יהיה קדש, every tenth (animal) shall be declared holy.” If someone while counting, erroneously called the ninth “tenth,” or called the eleventh “tenth,” he is taken by his word and that animal also becomes holy, and the animal is offered as a peace offering. (Sifra)

יהיה קדש [THE TENTH] SHALL BE HOLY [UNTO THE LORD] — inasmuch as its blood and its fat portions have to be burnt on the altar; the flesh, however, may be eaten by the owner, for we do not find it enumerated among “the gifts of the priests” (Numbers ch. 18), nor do we find in the Torah elsewhere that its flesh should be given to the priests.

That is that He commanded us to extract a tenth of the animals that are born to us each year, to offer their fat and blood and to eat the rest in Jerusalem. And that is His saying, "And all tithes of the herd or flock" (Leviticus 27:32). And that is the animal tithe. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the last chapter of Bekhorot. And there it is explained that this commandment is practiced also outside of the Land and also not in the presence of the Temple. However the Rabbis decreed - lest [people] eat it without a blemish because we have no Temple (which prevents the eating of such an animal) - and said that it is only practiced in the presence of the Temple. But when the Temple was built, it was practiced both in the Land and outside the Land. (See Parashat Bechukotai; Mishneh Torah, Firstlings 6.)