Bava Kamma 48a

בבא קמא מ״ח ע״א

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Topic

Responsibility for damage in someone else's courtyard: how permission, guarding and intruding decide who pays.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a question from the previous amud: does a בעל חצר who gives permission to bring things into his courtyard take responsibility for them? Two ברייתות that seemed to prove this are explained as talking about the owner of the damaging ox instead. For the eating case, permission decides whether it counts as שן in the victim's domain or in the public domain. For the goring case, the ברייתא follows רבי טרפון, and permission decides between full and half damage. Next, רבא makes a woman who came in to bake pay for the homeowner's goat that died from eating her dough. The גמרא shows this fits with רב: she came with permission, and because baking needs privacy, the owners leave and the guarding falls on her. The amud then brings several rulings of רבא about entering a courtyard without permission: an ox that digs pits, an ox that injures the homeowner or drops dung (which counts as a בור), and a person who intrudes. רב פפא adds that a homeowner who knows the intruder is there may throw him out but may not hurt him. The amud ends by introducing another statement of רבא or רב פפא, which is quoted on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (22)

1. ChallengeWhat difference does permission make for the ox's owner?
2. ResolutionPermission decides whose domain the courtyard counts as
3. ProofNew proof: an ox gored inside the courtyard
4. RejectionNo, it is talking about the goring ox's owner
5. ChallengeThen why would permission matter for goring?
6. ResolutionThe ברייתא follows רבי טרפון: permission decides between full and half damage
7. StatementA woman's dough kills the homeowner's goat, and רבא makes her pay
8. ChallengeDoes רבא disagree with רב's rule that the animal should not have eaten?
9. ResolutionPermission means accepting responsibility to guard
10. ChallengeThe woman who came in to grind wheat
11. ResolutionGrinding needs no privacy, but baking does
12. StatementAn ox that digs pits in another person's courtyard
13. ResolutionWhy the courtyard owner is liable for a pit his ox did not dig
14. Statementרבא's ruling on an ox brought in without permission
15. ChallengeWhy should crouching make him exempt?
16. Resolutionרב פפא: it means the ox dropped dung
17. ChallengeThis works for שמואל, but what about רב?
18. ResolutionPeople normally give up ordinary dung
19. Statementרבא's rule for a person who enters a courtyard without permission
20. Statementרב פפא limits the homeowner's exemption
21. ResponseWhy the homeowner pays if he knew
22. Statementרבא and רב פפא follow their own reasoning