When One Ox Kills Another the Owners Split the Living and the Dead

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 21:35

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"If a man's ox strikes" (Exodus 21:35). I know only of striking; from where to treat goring, biting, lying upon, and kicking like striking? It can be argued: an ox is liable [for harm] to a person, and an ox is liable [for harm] to an ox. Just as we find for an ox harming a person that goring, biting, lying upon, and kicking are treated like striking, so here too. And further a fortiori. But you might object, so Scripture teaches "and it dies," to treat goring, biting, lying upon, and kicking like striking. "If it strikes": Scripture speaks of [striking] with the horn. "A man": to exclude a minor; "a man": to exclude the Sanctuary. "His fellow's": to exclude others. "His fellow's": to exclude the resident alien. Might one think he does not pay for [harm caused by] a gentile's [ox] and a gentile does not pay through his? Scripture says "he shall surely pay," to include [the oxen] of gentiles and of the resident alien. Of these it says, "He shone forth from Mount Paran" (Deuteronomy 33:2): He showed His face toward all who come into the world. "And they shall sell the live ox and divide its price, and also the dead one they shall divide." This teaches that he pays only half the damage, and only from its body; therefore if it is worth nothing, he says, "Here, the one that injured you is before you." Rabbi Yehuda says: an ox worth two hundred that gored an ox worth two hundred, and the carcass is worth fifty zuz, this one takes half the living and half the dead, and that one takes half the living and half the dead, as it says, "they shall sell the live ox and divide its price, and also the dead they shall divide." Rabbi Meir said to him: the Torah did not speak of that case, but of where the carcass is worth nothing. Then what does "and also the dead they shall divide" teach? That they divide also the depreciation; he pays him half the depreciation.

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LawDivine JusticeCommandments

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