Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
5 - Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
Summary
The sugya examined here (Bava Kama 20a–21a) is appended to the mishnah (Bava Kama 2:2), wherein the ruling is given that the owner of an animal which eats food lying in the public domain is not obliged to compensate the owner of the food for his loss. This is because the type of damage done by the animal through eating is known as shen (‘tooth’), and the owner of the animal is only liable to pay for this type of damage when done in a private field, not when done in the public domain (based on Exodus 22:4, ‘and it feed in another man's field’). Nevertheless, the mishnah rules, even though the owner of the animal is not obliged to pay the full value of the food consumed by the animal, he is obliged to pay for the benefit he has received in that he has been spared the cost of feeding the animal. Say, for instance, the food eaten is costly and worth five zuzim whereas the cost of the animal's meal is only half a zuz, the owner of the animal certainly is not liable to pay five zuzim, since there is no payment for shen in a public domain, but he is obliged to pay half a zuz since he has benefited to this amount.
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- Structure and Form in the Babylonian Talmud , pp. 56 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991