Study Bava Kamma folio 24B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אלא אי אמרת לייעודי גברא, לימרו הנך קמאי: אנן מי הוה ידעינן דבתר תלתא יומי – אתו הני ומייעדי ליה?
But if you say that the witnesses came to forewarn the man, to caution him to safeguard his animal from causing harm, then they must have come on 3 separate days. And if so, let these first witnesses say: Did we know that after 3 days these other witnesses were going to come to testify about the animal? Therefore, it must be that the case in the baraita is one where the 3 groups of witnesses all came on the same day, and if that is so, the purpose of the testimony must be to render the ox forewarned.
Rav Ashi said: I recited this halakha before Rav Kahana and he replied to me in response to this proof: And does it work out well to say that they are coming to render the ox forewarned? Even in a case where all of the witnesses arrive in court on the same day, let these last witnesses say: From where were we to know that all those standing in court came to testify about the ox? We came to make this person liable to pay for half the cost of the damage his animal allegedly caused, but we are not responsible for the attempt to make him pay the full cost of the damage for the third incident.
דקמרמזי רמוזי. רב אשי אמר: כשבאו רצופים.
The Talmud answers: It must be that the case concerns a situation where the different groups of witnesses were observed signaling to each other, and therefore it is clear that they were aware of each other’s testimony and that they came to the court for this purpose. Rav Ashi said: The case is one where they all came in succession, one following the other, and therefore it is clear that the latter witnesses are aware of the former.