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A Yissachar / Zebulun Partnership in Loving Memory of Yishak ben Simcha A"H & Felicia bat Miriam A"H
Rabbi Joseph Dana

Torah Lecture

Mishnah Baba Kama 2:3

Lectured by Rabbi Joseph Dana

Published
September 26, 2024
Duration
3:21
Lecture code
RJD-MBK-2-3

This transcript was auto-generated and polished for readability. While we aim for accuracy, errors may occur. If you notice a mistake, please click to submit corrections.

In the last two Mishnayot, we went into detail about Regel (foot) and Shen (tooth). We'll elaborate more with specific cases in this Mishnah. The Mishnah says: If you have a dog or a goat that jumped from one roof onto a person's private property and broke kelim (damaged vessels) when it landed, the owner of the animal pays full damages, because the animal is mu'ad (forewarned) to jump from a roof onto something else. A normal movement of a dog or a goat is to jump. So when it comes to these two animals, the usual movement of an animal that damages vessels is part of, and therefore it is Nezek Shalem (full damages). The compensation has to be for the full damages, because it's the usual way that these animals move. We have to point out here, like we said earlier, that in order for it to be Nezek Shalem, and for the Mazik (damaging party) to have to pay the Nizak (damaged party), it has to happen on the property of the damaged individual. That's the only way it would work, in order to have Nezek Shalem.

We continue with another case. If there's a dog who grabbed onto a roll that was baking in coals, and the dog grabbed onto that roll, there were very hot coals stuck to it, and the dog went to a gadish (pile of grain) that was in the other person's property, with the roll in its mouth and coals on it. The dog ate the roll, but as it was eating, the coals attached to it fell off and set fire to the pile of grain. We say: For the roll—the theft of the roll—the owner has to pay full damages. It's part of Shen: the animal ate the chararah (the roll), so it pays Nezek Shalem. But for the pile of grain, ve'al ha-gadish (for the pile of grain), the owner only has to pay half damages. The grain wasn't damaged by the dog's body. If it was damaged by the dog's body, it would probably be part of Regel. What it was damaged by was the coal. How did the coal get there? It got there by rolling off of the bread, rolling off of the roll, so it's similar to tzerorot (the pebble) that we discussed in Mishnah Aleph (first Mishnah) of this Perek (chapter). We said that for tzerorot, only half payment is paid to the damaged party. We have to point out again here as well: the damage has to happen here. It has to happen on the property of the person who's getting damaged. It can't happen elsewhere. Like we pointed out earlier in the Perek, it has to happen on the property of the person who's facing that damage.