Bava Kamma 1:1 - 1:2

ארבעה אבות נזיקין – because there are for every one of these (“chief actional damages”), derivatives, we call them "אבות"/chief, actionable [damages].

השור – this is the foot, meaning, what the animal damages with her feet while she is walking, as it is written (Exodus 22:4): “When a man lets his livestock loose [to graze in another’s land, and so allows a field or a vineyard to be grazed bare],” and teaches "ושלח" /”lets loose” – this is the foot and similarly he states (Isaiah 32:20): “Who let loose the feet of cattle and asses,” and it is a derivative of the foot when it (i.e., the animal) causes damage with her body while walking or in the gates while walking when utensils that were attached to the gates and [the animal] dragged them and broke them or with the saddle bag that is upon her. And this is a burden that is in large sacks, and the packing bags that are upon her or in the bell that is on her neck.

והבור – whomever opens a pit in the public domain and an ox or an ass fell into it and died, if the pit was ten handbreadths deep or caused damage, if it was is less than ten handbreadths [deep], as it is written (Exodus 21:22): “When a man opens a pit [or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it],” and a derivative of a pit such as the phlegm brought out by coughing or hawking (see Talmud Bava Kamma 3b) after they were placed in the public domain and caused damage.

והמבעה – this is the tooth, for the animal ate in the field of his fellow as it states (Exodus 22:4): “and so allows a field or vineyard to be grazed bare in another’s land,” and the tooth is called מבעה/damaging the crop because it sometimes is covered and sometimes uncovered/revealed, from the language (Obadiah 1:6): ”How ransacked his hoards!”/”Its hidden treasures were laid bare” (made empty, which refers to eating up – see the comment of Shmuel in Talmud Bava Kamma 3b), as we translate into Aramaic: the hidden object is revealed; and it is a derivative of the tooth, the animal scratching itself against a wall for her gratification (see Talmud Bava Kamma 3a) in the manner of animals scratching themselves, and when she broke the wall or soiled (with excrements, secretions) the fruits (by rolling in them) when she scratched herself on them for her gratification.

ההבער – this is the fire/conflagration, for it went out and caused damage, as it is written (Exodus 22:5): “When a fire is started [and spreads to thorns], so that stacked, standing or growing grain is consumed.” And the derivative of fire is his rock and his knife and his burden that he placed them on the upper portion of his roof, and they fell with an ordinary wind and it caused damage that resembles fire where the wind leads it. But surely, our Tanna/teacher [of the Mishnah] did not consider a horn [of an animal] under the category of the chief actionable damages, because we are not speaking about other than damages which are when an animal whose owner stands forewarned (on account of three successive injuries) from their outset, meaning to say, that they pay full indemnity from their outset. But when they (the animals) are innocuous (i.e., one that did injury for the first time, or before warning had been given) it doesn’t speak of this.

לא הרי השור כהרי המבעה – meaning to say, if the Merciful One had written [only] "שור"/the ox, we would not derive "מבעה"/the tooth from it. For I would have said that a foot that caused damage is an ordinary occurrence (and must be guarded against), and the Merciful One made it liable (see Talmud Bava Kamma 2b). But the tooth whose damage is not an ordinary occurrence, the Merciful One did not make it liable. But if the Merciful One [only] wrote "שן" /the tooth, I would have said that the damage done by a tooth is connected with a benefit (to the animal), is liable. But the "רגל"/foot which is not connected with a benefit (to the animal), it is not liable. But if the Merciful One had written “tooth” and “foot” and but did not write “tooth,” I would have said that “tooth” and “foot” which have in them a living spirit, meaning to say that that they come from the strength of living creatures, it is liable, but the fire which has no living spirit in it is not be made liable. But if three of them were written, but the Merciful One did not write "בור"/pit, I would have said that these (three) whose manner is to go and do damage, but the pit, whose manner is not to go and do damage, I would not be liable for it; because of this, it was necessary for [the Mishnah to state] all of them. And in the Gemara (Talmud Bava Kamma 5b) brings up, that if it wrote “pit” and one of these, all of the rest of them would come except for “horn,” through the points common to both, that their manner is to cause damage, and they didn’t need all of them other than because they are divided in their [specific] Halakhot, for this one has what the is not found in the other- that the “tooth” and the “foot” are exempt in the public domain, which is not the case with the “pit” and the “fire.” Scripture exempted the “pit” [from punishment] for humans and utensils, as it is written (Exodus 21:33): “[When a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it], and an ox or an ass falls into it,” that we expound, “an ox” but not a human being; “an ass,” but not utensils, which is not the case with the other chief actional damages. “Fire,” exempts what is hidden, for if there were hidden clothes in a stack of grain, the person who sets fire is exempt, as it is written (Exodus 22:5): “[so that stacked], standing [or growing gain is consumed],” just as standing grain is revealed, so also all that is revealed, and the rest of the chief actional damages did not exempt that which is hidden.

הצד השוה שבהן וכו' – even I will bring all that is normal to cause damage and its protection is upon you, that if he caused damage, the one who caused damage is liable make the payment for the damages that he committed.

במיטב הארץ – from the best of his possessions, from the most praiseworthy of them, if he comes to take for himself land as payment for his damage, as it is written (Exodus 22:4): “he must make restitution for the impairment (lit. “excellence”) of that field or vineyard.” But, if he comes to give him “movables,” we hold that every word "מיטב"/the best for if he doesn’t sell here, he will sell in another town, and he will give him all what he requires, even bran, and these words are for damages. But for someone who is a creditor, if he (i.e., the borrower) has money, we make him liable to give money, and if he lacks money, he will give movables, what ever he needs. And if he collects land, he will give him mid-range [land]. And a renter, even if the landlord lacks money, he is not able to give him his rent/wages, but rather [only] zuzim. And we obligate him to sell from his possessions until money is found and he gives it to him.

כל שחבתי בשמירתו וכו' – everything that I became obligated to guard.

הכשרתי את נזקו – if I didn’t guard it appropriately and it caused damage, I am the one who became legally rendered possible and arranged that damage, and I am liable for it such as sending his bull to a deaf-mute, imbecile or a minor, is liable, for upon him was placed the guarding of the bull and indeed, he did not guard in the appropriate manner for it.

הכשרתי במקצת נזקו וכו' – even though I did not arranged it and I repaired everything, I have made myself liable for it, as if I had arranged it such as the case of digging a pit nine [handbreadths] in the public domain and another came and completed it to be ten [handbreadths] and the bull or the ass fell in there and died, the last person is liable even though he had not established other than part of the damages, it is as if he had done all the damage since that the nine [handbreadths] there is no death [penalty].

נכסים שאין בהם מעילה – and upon which property I am liable to pay if I caused damage. On those possessions that lack religious sacrilege, such as property which is not sanctified to the Temple, for if I damaged properties of the Holy things dedicated to the Temple, I am not liable to pay, as it is written, (Exodus 21:35): “[When a man’s ox injures] his neighbor’s ox [and it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide its price; they shall also divide the dead animal],” and not the ox that belongs to the Temple. And the same law applies to all the rest of damages.

נכסים של בני ברית – that if he damages the property of the heathen, he is exempt.

נכסים המיוחדים – they have special honors that if he damaged ownerless property, he is exempt.

חוץ מרשות המיוחדת למזיק – in every place where his possessions damaged the property of his fellow, the one who damaged them is liable, except for the special domain of the one who damages. For if the ox of the damaged party enters the domain of the one who damages and the bull of the one who damages caused damage, he is exempt, for he (i.e., the one who theoretically caused damage) says to him (i.e., the one who suffered damage): Your bull was in my domain, what does he need, and specifically if it damaged his possessions. But the one who causes damage itself who injured his fellow, even though he (i..e, the latter) is standing in his domain is liable, for the one who was injured says to him:” assuming that that you have permission to go out and cause damage, you don’t have permission.”

ורשות הניזק והמזיק – and it is a special domain to the one who suffered damage and the one who causes damage such as the courtyard of both of them. For the bull of one of them does damage in the same courtyard with a tooth and foot and is exempt, and this will be in the same courtyard that is set aside for bulls also, but if it was specially for fruit/produce but not for bulls and it damaged with is tooth and/or foot, he liable, and if it damaged with its horn in any matter, he is liable.