Daily Mitzvah (Rambam)

And the 114th prohibition is that we are forbidden from shearing wool from sanctified animals.

The source of this commandment is G‑d's statement,1 "And do not shear your firstborn sheep."

[This verse speaks only about the firstborn animals, but] we derive the prohibition from working with and from shearing all sanctified animals from the law of the firstborn.

The details of these two commandments, i.e., working and shearing, have been explained in tractate Bechoros. One who shears anything from2 sanctified animals is also punished by lashes.

Rabbi Berel Bell is a well-known educator, author and lecturer. He and his family reside in Montreal, Canada.

From "Sefer Hamitzvot in English," published by Sichos in English.

Footnotes

1.

Deut. 15:19.

2.

The Arabic word for "any" could refer either to the amount of wool (i.e., any amount of wool, as translated above) or to the type of animal (i.e., regardless of the category of sacrifice it was designated for). It could therefore also be translated, "who shears any sanctified animal," See Kapach, 5731, note 15.