When Fire Breaks Out and Finds the Thorns

"If fire breaks out" (Exodus 22:5) treating the unintended as the intended: one who kindles within his own property and fire goes out and consumes within his neighbor's property is liable. One might think that even if it crossed a stream, or a channel, or a private road, or a public road sixteen cubits wide, or a wall four cubits high, he would still be liable; Scripture teaches "and it finds" only where it is readily available to it. "Thorns" just as thorns grow of themselves, one might think I include only what grows of itself; Scripture teaches "a stack." Just as a stack is detached from the ground, one might think only what is detached; Scripture teaches "standing grain." These are things fit to burn; from where to include that it scorched plowed fields, or licked up monuments of marble or of flax, or stones prepared for a kiln? Scripture teaches "field." From where if it consumed lime-kilns or potters' kilns? Scripture teaches "the one who kindled the blaze." One who kindles within his own property and fire goes out and consumes his neighbor's stack is liable. If there were vessels in it and they burned: Rabbi Yehudah says he is liable for the stack and liable for the vessels. The Sages say we view the place of the vessels as though it were full of grain, and he pays only the value of the stack. Rabbi Yehudah agrees with the Sages in the case of one who lends a place to his fellow to stack and the fellow hid vessels in it and it burned that he pays only the value of the stack. If an ox was tied to the stack and burned with it, or a donkey tied to the stack and burned with it, he is liable; but if they were loose, he is exempt, for it says "stack and standing grain" just as these cannot flee, this excludes those that can flee. One who kindles within his own property and fire goes out and consumes within his neighbor's courtyard is liable, for it is the way of a courtyard to bring everything into it. From where also: one who strikes with a hammer and a spark flies out and causes damage, whether in private or public domain; or who placed a glowing coal on iron these things, done within his own and causing damage in what is not his, make him liable. So too anyone who acts within his own and damages in what is not his is liable. From where: if one brought the wood and another brought the fire, or one brought the fire and another the wood, that the last is liable? Scripture teaches "if fire breaks out, the one who kindles is liable to pay." And if one brought wood and another fire and another came and fanned it, the one who fanned it, if his fanning was enough to spread it, is liable. Behold, there are four primary categories of damage: the ox, the pit, the grazing beast, and the fire. The ox is not like the grazing beast, nor the grazing beast like the ox; and neither of these, which have the breath of life, is like the fire, which has no breath of life; and neither of these, whose way is to go and cause damage, is like the pit, whose way is not to go and cause damage. Therefore all four are stated.