Bava Kamma 090

נושא: BK

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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If someone robs his fellow to the value of one prutah and swears about it, he must take it to him even to Media. He shall not give it to his son nor to his emissary. But he may give it to an emissary of the court. Should he have died he must return it to his heirs.

1:
The Torah makes it quite clear that anything stolen must be returned to its rightful owner. We have seen on several occasions during our study of this tractate that theft and robbery are torts and not crimes. That is to say that the person from whom the money or goods were stolen must sue the assumed thief in court for the return of his property. Our mishnah is concerned with a case where the thief swears an oath that he did not steal the money. In such a case, nothing can be done. (In earlier times people were much more wary of swearing an oath because it involved making God a witness, as it were, to the oath and a guilty person would have many qualms at swearing an untrue oath.)

2:
But what happens if a thief has sworn that he did not steal the money but later on has such pangs of conscience that he wants to make amends. The Torah [Leviticus 5:20-24] legislates thus:

God spoke to Moses, saying: When a person sins and commits a trespass against God … through robbery … if he swears falsely regarding any one of the various things that one may do and sin thereby — when one has thus sinned and, realizing his guilt, would restore that which he got through robbery … he shall repay the principal amount and add a fifth part to it. He shall pay it to its owner when he realizes his guilt.

Sara steals 100 dinars from David and perjures herself by claiming that she did not steal the money. Later on she regrets what she did and wishes to make amends. The Torah says that she must restore to David his 100 dinars and must add to that sum a fine of 25 dinars. (The Torah stipulates an additional 20%, but the sages increased it to 25%.) The 125 dinars Sara must pay to David personally (with appropriate expressions of regret and remorse).

3:
Our present mishnah emphasizes that the thief must repay the money directly to the person he stole from: he must look him in the eye, as it were, when expressing his remorse. Even if, in the meantime, the person he stole from has moved far away (even as far as "Media", Persia, Iran) he must go there in order to repay what he stole. The amount stolen is of no consequence: even just one prutah, the lowest of all the coins available, must be treated in the same way as one would treat a large sum. In such matters the sages would say [Sanhedrin 8a] "a case which involves one prutah is no different from a case involving one hundred talents."

4:
So, if David has moved away from Sara's neighbourhood, even overseas, Sara must seek him out in order to salve her conscience. She cannot give the money to anyone else, not even to David's son nor to any agent that David has appointed. No leeway is granted to the shame involved.

5:
There are two exceptions to this rule. The first exception is that Sara may deposit the money with an emissary of the court so that he may deliver it to David. The reason for this deviation from the strict letter of Torah law ("he shall pay it to its owner") is in order to make repentant thieves more likely to make restoration. If David has moved from Eretz-Israel to Babylon the cost of the journey to Sara will be much greater than the 125 dinars that she must pay him. If she can deliver the money to an emissary of the court, for him to deliver the money to David, she will probably do so to ease her conscience.

6:
The second exception to the rule that the money must be paid back personally to its rightful owner is in a case where that rightful owner has meantime died. In such a case Sara may make repayment to David's legitimate heirs (because anything that belonged to David now belongs to them).

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