Mishnah Bava Kamma, chapter 6

Closing it in

• If he shut the flock in properly and it went out and caused damage: exempt. If not properly: liable.

Broken through

• If the pen was broken through at night, or bandits broke it, and the flock came out and caused damage: he is not liable. If the bandits brought out the flock, the bandits are liable.
• This begins the laws of the crop-destroying beast, the third archetypal cause of damage.

Kehati's notes

• "Properly" means a door able to stand up to ordinary wind; that is enough for tooth and foot, which are attested dangers from the start.
• The exemption for a break at night is for a break he could not have prevented; if the break was by day and enough time passed for him to find out and guard, he is liable.
• If the bandits stood in front of the flock until it went out, it is as if they took it out by hand. If they only broke the pen, the damage is indirect (grama), and they are exempt.

Left in the sun, or handed over

• If he left the flock in the sun, or delivered it to a deaf-mute, an idiot or a minor, and it came out and caused damage, he is liable. If he delivered it to a shepherd, the shepherd takes the place of the owner.
• In the heat the animals go wild and break out, which he should have expected.

In a garden

• If the flock fell into a garden and benefited, he pays for the benefit. If it went down in its usual way and caused damage, he pays for the damage.
• Falling in is an unavoidable accident.

How the damage is assessed

• They assess what a seah's space of ground in that field was worth before and after.
• Rabbi Shimon: if they ate fully grown produce, he repays in fully grown produce; one seah, one seah; two, two.

Kehati's notes

• The mishnah's shepherd who "takes the place of the owner" is a shepherd who handed the flock to a second shepherd under him; the second takes his place. An owner handing a flock to a guard is in 4:9.
• A seah's space is a field in which one sows a seah, 2,500 square cubits.

Halakha

• The halakha follows Rabbi Shimon.

The cases

• If a man stacked his sheaves in his fellow's field without permission and the field owner's beast ate them: exempt. If the beast was injured by them: the owner of the stack is liable. If he made the stack with permission: the owner of the field is liable.
• These laws were learned in 5:3.

Kehati's notes

• "The owner of the field is liable" means a guard of the threshing floors there, or a field owner who accepted to guard them. Rabbi (5:3) holds that letting someone in does not make him liable unless he accepted.

Sending fire

• If a person sends fire in the hands of a deaf-mute, an idiot or a minor, he is not liable by the laws of man but is by the laws of Heaven. If he sent it in the hands of a person of sound senses, that person is liable.
• Kehati: a deaf-mute, idiot or minor cannot be agents. An adult agent is liable, and the sender is exempt even from heavenly law, since there is no agent for a wrong act.

Several people

• One brought the fire and another the wood: the one who brought the wood is liable. One brought the wood and another the fire: the one who brought the fire. Another fanned the flames: he is liable.
• The last to contribute is liable for all the damage.
• If the wind fanned the flame, they are all exempt.
• This is only for an unusual wind. If it was an ordinary wind, the last is liable, since fire spreads in an ordinary wind and he should have guarded.

What it burns

• If it consumed wood, stones or dust: he is liable, for it says "stacked corn, standing corn, or the field" (Exodus 22:5).

How far

• If it passed over a fence four cubits high, or over a public way, or over a river: exempt.
• A fire kindled in his own domain: Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah: as if in the middle of a kor's space; Rabbi Eliezer: sixteen cubits, like a public road; Rabbi Akiva: fifty cubits; Rabbi Shimon: all by the nature of the fire.

Halakha

• The halakha follows Rabbi Shimon: if the fire is large, he is liable even beyond those distances.

Utensils in the stack

• If a man set fire to a stack and utensils in it caught fire: Rabbi Judah says he pays for what was in it; the Sages say only for a stack of wheat or barley.
• The Sages agree with Rabbi Judah that if he burned a large building, he pays for everything in it, since it is the custom to leave goods in houses.
• The Sages think it is not customary to leave things in stacks.

A kid and a slave

• If a kid was fastened to the stack and a slave stood near by and they were burnt: he is liable. If a slave was fastened to it and a kid stood near by and they were burnt: he is not liable.

The spark

• If a spark flew out from under the hammer and caused damage, he is liable.
• Kehati: it is like one who throws a stone or an arrow.

The camel and the shop

• A camel laden with flax passed in the public domain and its flax entered a shop and caught fire from the shopkeeper's light: the owner of the camel is liable.
• But if the shopkeeper left his light outside, the shopkeeper is liable.

Rabbi Judah

• If it was a Hanukkah light, the shopkeeper is not liable.
• The Hanukkah light is supposed to be placed outside, at the door.
• The halakha does not follow Rabbi Judah.