Insights to the Daf-
>>(b) Tosfos answers that the Gemara does not ask this question on Rav Huna, because perhaps the Mishnah is discussing a Bechor that is not fit to be offered on the Mizbe'ach (such as a stillborn), and thus it does not have the Kedushah of Kodshim, and one is permitted to maim such a Bechor. (Alternatively, the Mishnah may be referring to cutting up the animal before it exits the womb, which renders it a stillborn and unfit to be offered.)<<
Rashi disagrees with Tosfos and writes that as long as neither the head nor most of the fetus has emerged then it is permitted to maim the Bechor
Tosfos also holds like Rashi.
We wrote (according to Tosfos) "the Mishnah may be referring to cutting up the animal before it exits the womb". The Meleches Shlomo on the Mishnayos (at the beginning of Mishnah 2) writes on this statement of Tosfos "for instance the emerging of the head or the emerging of the majority of the body from the side of the legs" [a breech birth]. Meleches Shlomo means that it was cut before the emerging of the head or the majority.
So according to this, Tosfos agrees to what you wrote in the name of Rashi; that as long as neither the head nor most of the fetus has emerged it is permitted to maim the Bechor.
1) The Gemara states in a few places (the first one is Bechoros 3b) that it is permitted to blemish a Bechor before it leaves the womb.
So this is not a chidush of Rashi here DH Halchu but is explicit in the Gemara. Tosfos here 69b DH Rav also cites this Gemara but discusse whether or not Rav Huna agrees with it.
2) The interesting thing about the Meleches Shlomo, that I cited above, is that he goes on the Mishnah 69b "one may cut off the limbs of the child one by one" and immediately he cites the question of Tosfos 70a end DH Mai; why is this not forbidden because one may not place a blemish in Kodashim? He cites the 2 answers of Tosfos, and then; to explain further the 2nd answer of Tosfos; that he cut it before it left to the air of the world; he cites Rashi 70a end DH Halchu that if the head or the majority of the body exits in a breech birth, it is no longer permitted to cut.
At any rate, one sees that Meleches Shlomo freely mixes the explanations of Rashi and Tosfos which suggests that he does not see that there is a dispute between them.
Dovid Bloom
R' Dovid,
Shkoyach for the Meleches Shlomo - I did not know it.
The Meleches Shlomo is a very big Chiddush, it seems to me. This does seem at all to be what Tosfos are saying. Rather, the way it is written in the Insights seems accurate. And either way Rashi should be mentioned as the first answer to the question; if the Kollel feels that this is the same answer as Tosfos' second, then that can be mentioned as well.
Moshie, Yeyasher Kochacha, that is a good point. I will suggest that Rashi should be mentioned before Tosfos.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom