Bava Kamma 083

1:
Our present mishnah is a long one, so I have divided it into two parts.

2:
Our mishnah is concerned with what sums are appropriate for recompense in cases of "shame". When the plaintiff complains that an action of the defendant has shamed him (apart from any other injuries sustained) how are the judges to assess damages if the claim is found to be warranted?

3:
Reading through the list of actions offered by our present mishnah one might be struck by the emotional reactions described by them: punching, slapping, pulling ears, pulling hair, spitting, pulling off a cloak or a hat. I suppose that all of these are better than pulling out a dagger or today's shooting with a firearm.

4:
Rabbi Yosé ha-Gelili holds that if anybody who punches another person must compensate for the shame involved the sum of one maneh. A maneh is the equivalent of 100 dinars, a huge sum. However, his opinion is not accepted halakhah. The compensation for a punch is one sela, following the opinion of Tanna Kamma. One sela is the value of half a dinar.

5:
Which brings us to the vexed question of how much money is actually involved, "how much is one sela in 'real money'? Perhaps the best way to assess the value of money when the distance in time and culture is so great is to try to determine the relation of the sum to income. The mishnah [Bava Metzi'a 6:1] reads as follows:

The Gemara [BM 76a] discusses this as follows:

The rest of the details are immaterial to our present purpose. What is clear that an artisan – a carpenter, for example – could expect 3 or 4 dinars as a day's wage. Assuming a 25-day working month that would yield a monthly income of about 75 or 100 dinars. Let's play safe and assume 75 dinars.

6:
It follows that the 'fine' for punching someone on the nose is a rather paltry sum. But if David slaps Joel's face he will have to pay up an income of nearly three months. The largest amount mentioned in our present mishnah is the equivalent of more than 5 months' income!

7:
Pulling off a woman's headgear in a public place was considered to be a most shameful and shaming act. Married women were expected to have their head completely covered whenever they stepped outside their home. To give us some idea of the mores of the time let us quote a mishnah [Ketubot 7:6]:

So, being out of the house with an uncovered head was so shameful that a woman stood to be divorced into absolute penury for doing so.

8:
However, the sums laid down in our mishnah are maximal. The actual sum would be assessed by the judges "according to a person's honour", according to his social status.

9:
Rabbi Akiva, who started off his life as an illiterate shepherd, holds that social status should not be involved in the assessment and all Jews should be viewed as honourable – and therefore should be awarded the maximal recompense when shamed. His opinion is not accepted as halakhah. Why his opinion is rejected will become apparent from the continuation of our mishnah.

To be continued.

In BK081 I wrote:

The great Amora of Eretz-Israel, Resh Lakish, put the female maxim most succinctly: It is better to live with a heap of grief than to live as a widow [Yevamot 118b].

Naoimi Graetz writes:

I prefer the following translation of Reish Lakish's maxim:

"It is better to live [an unhappy life] in a married state than to live [a happy life] in solitude."

This is how I translated it in my book, Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating, in the section called: "Better to Be Wed and Dead". And I add in this section that this is reminiscent of the text from Isaiah 4:1 where the worst thing the prophet can possibly imagine is a woman without a husband:

"Let us be called by your name – Take away our disgrace,"

the women cried as they grabbed hold of the last available male.