Bava Kamma 3:11 - 4:1

בסלע לקה – it rubbed itself against a rock and was damaged.

היו שנים רודפין אחר א' – two oxen [belonging to] two people are pursuing/running after the ox of another person.

שניהם פטורים – since both pushed it aside.

שניהם חייבים – In the Gemara (Tractate Bava Kamma 36a) it explains our Mishnah as for example that both of them (i.e., the oxen) are innocuous for the [owner of the] innocuous ox does not pay other than from his own funds. But when both are present, the first one pays the [owner of the] damaged ox one-half damages between the two of them. But where both are not present, one can say to him: Go bring proof that this ox caused you damage and I will pay you.

גדול הזיק – that there is in his body the equivalent of half-damages.

קטן הזיק – and you will take the worth of the small ox, and the excess one-half of your damages, you will lose.

קאן הזיק את הגדול – and even though that half of the damages of he larger ox is greater, you will not take other than my small one. And half of his damages of the small one is yours. Take from the large one, and all of this is “he who seeks reparation from his fellow must produce evidence,” as we have taught in our Mishnah. But if he did not bring proof, he has nothing and even the value of he innocuous [ox, and even if the [owner of the] small ox who admitted to him, he lacks, for the person who makes a claim on his fellow for wheat and admits to him regarding barley is exempt even from the monetary value of the barley. But if the [owner of the ox] who suffered damage grabbed a measure of what the [owner of the] ox who caused the damages admitted to him, we don’t take it from him.

שור שנגח ד' וה' - and in all of them it (i.e., the ox) was innocuous and that it pays from his own funds.

ישלם – he (i.e., the owner) pays one-half of the damages caused, and to the last one [who suffered damage is paid] first. In the Gemara (Tractate Bava Kamma 36b), it establishes that our Mishnah deals with a the one who suffered damage grabbed hold of the ox causing damage to collect from him and became for him a paid bailee. But when it left under his hand and caused damage, the first one (i.e., the owner of the ox that was damaged) is liable for his damages. Therefore, the last [owner of an ox which suffered damage] is compensated one-half of his damages from the full amount.

ואם יש בו מותר יחזיר לשלפניו – this is what he said: if there is surplus of his damages [caused] he should restore to the [owner of the ox who suffered damage] that was prior to him as, for example, that the half-damages of the first was a Maneh (100 zuz) and the half damages of the last was fifty and the ox was worth two-hundred. From the outset, when the ox gored the ox of the he first [owner] which was damaged, that half of his damages was a Maneh, the [owner of] the ox who was damaged received a Maneh, and the owners [received] a Maneh , when they captured the injured ox and it gored while under their control, the owners do not lose a Maneh that they had for it (i.e., the ox), for he was not guarding them, [properly] other than on the damaged ox which he had captured, and when it damaged a second [ox], and half of those damages was fifty, the [owner of the] first damaged ox lost from his Maneh – fifty , and he gives it to the [owner of the] second damaged [ox] and the surplus up until a Maneh he returns to him, and the owners take their own Maneh.

RABBI SHIMON SAYS: Rabbi Shimon is of the opinion that the original owners and the victim become partners in ownership of the ox that attacked, and they are both liable in subsequent damages. How so? AN OX WORTH 200 WHO GORED...

ושלפניו – that [ox] which was damaged first, he (i.e., the owner) takes fifty zuz and the owners [of the ox] who damaged take fifty zuz, for the [owner of the] one damaged first has the half [damages], therefore, he pays one-half the compensation of his damage.

חזר ונגח שור שוה מאתים – the [owner of the] last one takes a half Maneh from every one – for he is paid out of his own pocket and it is found that the one before him that was his one-half, he pays from his portion one-half a Maneh and takes the last one.

But the two first [owners] – the first owner [whose ox] was damaged and the owners, for each one of them had a quarter, each one of them pays one-quarter of his damages.

דינר זהב – which is twenty-five silver dinars.