Bava Kamma 019

1:
We are, of course, still concerned with the use of the public domain. Our mishnah offers the scenario of two potters, each carrying his wares, who are walking in the public domain one behind the other. Perhaps we can assume that they are crossing the market place, and each is carrying his wares to set them up each in his own shop. The potter who is in the lead, as it were, stumbles over something and falls to the ground. The potter who was following after him stumbles over the first man as he lies on the ground. There is injury and there is loss – the broken pottery.

2:
Our mishnah states quite simply that the person who was in the lead must indemnify the person who was following after him. In the Gemara [BK 31a] this is explained:

We have already noted [BK016] that Rabbi Me'ir holds that anyone who causes an accident in the public domain is liable for all damage that may ensue. However, the rest of the sages hold that if someone suffers an accident they are exempt from all liability. It follows, therefore, that since our present mishnah declares that the potter who stumbled is liable for damages that it must be following the opinion of Rabbi Me'ir (which is not otherwise accepted halakhah). Rabbi Yoḥanan says that this is not necessarily the case. He introduces a new consideration.

3:
Rabbi Yoḥanan holds that if someone stumbles and causes an obstruction in the public domain he must stand up again as quickly as possible. If he does not do so he constitutes an obstruction and is liable for damages caused, and this is what is implied in the ruling of our mishnah. In other words, our hapless potter is only liable for damages if he remained strewn across the public path when he had ample opportunity (and ability) to get out of the way.

4:
However, another sage, Rav Naḥman bar-Yitzḥak, is even more lenient. He says:

According to this second opinion it is enough that the unfortunate potter shout out a warning to other users of the public domain that he has fallen. If he gives due warning to other pedestrians he is exempt from liability; if he does not he is liable.

Rabbi Yoḥanan cannot accept this: if our potter was not able to get up from the ground he was obviously suffering some disability: how can we expect him to issue a warning in such circumstances?

5:
In his commentary on our mishnah Rambam summarizes as follows:

In BK016 I wrote:

Rabbi Me'ir holds that if Miriam's pitcher was broken as a result of Sam stumbling against her then Sam is liable even if he stumbled quite accidentally. Rabbi Yehudah disagrees. Halakhah follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah.

Sherry Fyman writes:

How do we know how the disputes in the Talmud are ultimately decided? Are current editions of the Talmud cross-referenced to, say, the Shulhan Aruch? When you say, "Halakhah follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah," what time period are you referring to? Contemporaneous with Rabbi Yehudah or a later period?

I respond:

The general rule followed in interpretation of the Gemara is that the last view stated in any discussion is the view accepted by the final editors of the Gemara [around the year 500 CE]. This is referred to as the rule hilkheta ke-vatra'ei – halakhah follows the last sages [in the discussion]. (This rule has been extended since to include all recognized sages since then: the rule follows the latest opinion.)

In any decent edition of the Talmud there is a developed system of cross-referencing, indicated in the extreme margin. The standard system was created by Rabbi Yehoshu'a Bo'az ben Shim'on Barukh. Rabbi Yehoshu'a hailed from a family that had settled in Italy after the Jews had been banished from Spain in 1492. He died in 1557. His cross-references are found on every page of the standard editions of the Gemara. They include the following mechanisms:

• Massoret ha-Shas, which is an index of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the halakic Midrashim. When material on the page also appears elsewhere in our classical sources this is referenced.
• Eyn Mishpat Ner Mitzvah, which is an index of the Talmudical Halakhot quoted in Mishneh Torah of Rambam and/or in the Araba'ah Turim of Rabbi Ya'akov ben Asher. Whenever a passage in the Gemara was codified by these two luminaries this is referenced.
• Torah Or, is an index of the biblical passages quoted in the Talmud.

These three works were first published, together with the Talmud, in Venice, 1546-1551 – and ever since.

I hope this helps.