We'll continue talking about when the loss of an animal was unavoidable and when it was not, and the ramifications for payment or compensation that an owner gets from the shomer (guardian) who was watching the animal. Mishnah says that if an animal dies of regular natural causes out of nowhere, then that's an unavoidable accident. But if he caused the animal to be afflicted—if he didn't feed it properly or put it at the right temperature, and then the animal died, even if it died later on—we say that he caused... It's not a case of an unavoidable accident. The shomer was doing something wrong there. So, depending on the circumstance, the shomer would be obligated to pay compensation. It all depends on how we plug in which type of shomer we're talking about. If the animal went up on its own to a steep mountain and the shomer tried to stop it from going up, and then it fell and died, this is a case of an unavoidable accident. But if he brought the animal to the top of the mountain and then the animal fell and died, that is not an unavoidable accident. That's actually negligence, and he would be responsible, again depending on the context.
We'll learn here: How could a shomer avoid swearing, or how could they change the circumstances of what they would be obligated for? A shomer chinam (unpaid shomer), generally, wouldn't have to pay if an item was lost or stolen, but he would have to swear that he was telling the truth. The Mishnah here is telling us that a shomer chinam can make a condition. When the owner and he are talking, and the owner is asking him to watch an item for him, he knows that if the item is lost or stolen, he's going to have to swear that it was lost or stolen and that he wasn't negligent. He could tell the owner originally, right when he's trying to hand him the thing to watch: “I'll do this favor for you. I'll be a shomer chinam for you, but in a scenario where the item is lost or stolen, I'm not going to swear in order to exempt myself from payment. I want to automatically be exempt from payment.” You're allowed to put a condition into your doing your job. It would be accepted. A borrower, we say, is responsible for all types of losses. He could make a condition with the owner of the item that he would be exempt from paying.
Noseh sachar veha-socher lihyot peturin mi-shevuah: a paid shomer or a renter, they can make a condition as well that they would be exempt from swearing in a situation of unavoidable loss, where they would normally have to swear. They could also make a condition that they wouldn't have to pay in a situation of theft or loss where they normally would have to pay. All these conditions are accepted by the Torah.