Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Bava Kamma 72 - Who Pays Fourfold? (Torts)

If one steals an animal and slaughters it in the Temple but without consecrating it as a sacrifice, he is liable to fourfold or fivefold payment. We see from here that slaughtering becomes legally valid only at the end of the cut. Had slaughtering been valid from the beginning of the cut, the animal would have become forbidden for benefit after the start of slaughter and stopped belonging to the owner, resulting in no fourfold payment.

If the fact that one stole and sold an ox or sheep was established by the testimony of two witnesses, who were later found to be false witnesses, the witnesses pay the fourfold or fivefold payment.

Art: A District Court by Mikhail Ivanovich Zoshchenko


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