Bava Kamma 096

1:
Our present mishnah continues with yet another situation in which a thief would find it complicated and maybe impossible to put right the wrong he has done. As usual, it will be easier for us to understand our mishnah if we invent a scenario.

2:
Walter Smith converts to Judaism and is now called Judah ben-Avraham. His neighbour is our old acquaintance David. Judah is going on a long cruise and he asks his neighbour, David, to look after some very expensive jewellery while he is away. When Judah returns David claims that the jewellery has been lost – mislaid or stolen. Since David was a gratis bailee, simply doing a favour for his neighbour, all Judah can do is demand that David swear on oath that he looked after the deposit as best he could and that it is not in his possession. David swears, but he swears falsely. Judah thinks that his jewellery is lost.

3:
Years later David becomes very ill and his conscience pricks him severely. He wants to make amends. However, in the meantime Judah has died. According to what we have learned so far David would be required to restore the money to Judah's heirs together with an admission of his guilt. However, Judah had died childless.

4:
Usually, in the absence of offspring, a person's heirs would be his next of kin: a brother or even an uncle and so forth. However, according to the basic stipulations of halakhah, when a non-Jew converts to Judaism all previous family ties are voided. (The present teaching of Conservative halakhah in this matter is different, of course, but that is irrelevant to the situation described in our mishnah, which follows the earlier ruling.) It thus transpires that since Judah died childless he has no heirs at all. So, what is repentant David to do with the jewellery that he stole? How can he salve his conscience and put matters to right again?

5:
Such a situation has been foreseen in the Torah itself. We read [Numbers 5:5-8]

It is this passage from the Torah that is quoted in our present mishnah.

6:
We can now read our mishnah once again, replacing the ubiquitous pronoun 'he' with designations that will make the sense clearer:

Someone robs a proselyte and swears falsely that he had not received a deposit. Subsequently, the convert dies dies. The thief must repay the capital he stole and the "added fifth". He must repay it to the priests officiating in the Bet Mikdash and the animal he is required to bring as an expiatory offering is to be offered on the altar in the Bet Mikdash.

Thus, the first clause of our mishnah.

7:
The last clause of our mishnah notes a further possible complication. David is on his way to Jerusalem to deposit Judah's money with the priests. He is also taking with him Samson, his favourite ram, as the intended expiatory offering. However, his illness overtakes him and he dies at a wayside inn. What is now to be done with the money – and with Samson?

8:
In previous mishnahs we have learned that what was stolen (or its monetary equivalent) must be removed from his possession. David has sons, so when they inherit their late father's estate that problem has been solved, as it were. But what is to be done with Samson, the animal that David was taking to Jerusalem? Samson was to be an expiatory offering; but David's sins have now been expiated with a different offering: his own death. So Samson is in a kind of limbo. He can't serve any secular purpose because he was dedicated as an offering to God; but he can't be offered as David's expiatory offering, as just explained. Our mishnah stipulates that good old Samson must be left to graze and live happily in a pleasant meadow until, some day, he receives some injury or other. The injury will make him an animal with a blemish. The Torah [Leviticus 22:17-20] says:

So, in such a rather unlikely situation everyone loses out. Judah lost his jewellery and David lost his life without salving his conscience. Only Samson gets a reprieve and lives a life of ovine indolence – at least until a blemish puts him back on the meat market.