Friday, February 20, 2009

Bava Kamma 54 - All Animals are Equal in Front of the Law (Torts)

The same law that applies to an ox also applies to any domestic animal regarding the following:
  1. Payment of damages for its falling into a pit
  2. forceful separation from Mount Sinai at the Giving of the Torah
  3. the twofold payment a thief must make for stealing an animal
  4. returning a lost object,
  5. unloading an animal,
  6. prohibition of muzzling an animal when it is threshing,
  7. prohibition of mating or plowing with diverse species together,
  8. prohibition of having one's animal work on Sabbath.
Moreover, any wild beast or bird is legally the same.
Why is an ox or donkey explicitly mentioned? Because Scripture speaks of the usual case.

Art: Donkeys, horse and pigs by a barn in a farmyard by James Ward

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