The Paid Bailee Who Pays for Theft and for Loss Alike

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 22:11

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"And if it is indeed stolen" (Exodus 22:11). I know only of theft; from where do I learn loss? You may reason: since theft is a failure of safekeeping and loss is a failure of safekeeping, if you have learned regarding theft that he must pay for it, so too for loss he must pay. "From him": anything that is with him. If one said, "Lend me your cow," and the owner sent it by the hand of his son, his servant, or his agent, and it was stolen on the way, one might think the borrower is liable; Scripture says "from him," meaning from the domain of the guardian. "He shall pay to its owner," whether man or woman, whether minor or adult. Another interpretation: "he shall pay to its owner." If not, what could enter my mind, that he pays to someone who is not the owner? If you say it is a correction of the text, it has already been said "the best of his field and the best of his vineyard he shall pay" (Exodus 22:4). Yet it is not the owner there. So what does "he shall pay to its owner" teach? To its owner and not to a creditor; to its owner and not to one harmed and not to the holder of a deposit. From here you say: if a man held a deposit or a loan in the hands of others, to whom should they be given? Rabbi Tarfon says: they should be given to the weaker of the claimants. Rabbi Akiva says: they should be given to the heirs, for the heirs are exempt from swearing.

Themes

LawDivine JusticeCommandments

Continue Reading

Mekhilta DeRabbi YishmaelThere He Made for Them Statute and Judgment StatuteThe Mekhilta interprets the verse "There He made for them statute and judgment" by asking what these two terms, statute and judgment, actually refer to. The firMekhilta DeRabbi YishmaelThe Fifth Commandment, Honor Your Father and Your Mother, Comes withThe fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother", comes with a promise attached: "so that your days be prolonged upon the earth" (Exodus 20:12). Most Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThe Awl, the Doorpost, and the Limits of a Slave ForeverThe Torah gives the Hebrew slave a way out after six years. But what about the man who refuses freedom, who loves his master and declares that he will not go frMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThe Ransom That Redeems the Owner of a Killer OxAn ox known to gore has killed a person. Its owner has been warned again and again, yet he failed to guard the animal. The Torah does not hand him over to deathMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiWhen a Goring Ox Kills Children the Law Counts Them as AdultsThe verse already said an ox that kills a man or a woman is judged for death. So why add that it also kills a son or a daughter? The sages answer that the TorahMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThirty Sacred Shekels When an Ox Kills a SlaveAn ox gores a slave to death, and the Torah names a precise sum: thirty shekels of silver paid to the master. The sages take that number apart coin by coin so t