Study Bava Kamma folio 2B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
וטמא מת. תולדותיהן לאו כיוצא בהן; דאילו אב – מטמא אדם וכלים, ואילו תולדות – אוכלין ומשקין מטמא, אדם וכלים לא מטמא.
and one who is impure with impurity imparted by a human corpse. A person, a vessel, or food that is rendered impure through contact with an item classified as a primary category of ritual impurity is characterized as a subcategory. In that domain, their subcategories are dissimilar to them, as any person or item classified as a primary category of ritual impurity impurifies a person and impurifies any vessels with which it comes into contact, while a person or item classified as a subcategory of ritual impurity impurifies food or drink, but does not impurify a person or vessels.
הכא מאי? אמר רב פפא: יש מהן כיוצא בהן, ויש מהן לאו כיוצא בהן.
After determining that there are instances where the legal status of subcategories is like that of primary categories, e.g., Shabbat, and there are instances where the legal status of subcategories is dissimilar to that of primary categories, e.g., ritual impurity, the Talmud asks: Here, with regard to the laws of damages, what is the relationship between the primary categories and their subcategories? Rav Pappa said: There are, among the primary categories of damage, some whose subcategories are similar to them, and there are, among them, some whose subcategories are dissimilar to them.
§ Seeking to clarify Rav Pappa’s statement, the Talmud cites a baraita that delineates the primary categories of damage. A baraita states: 3 primary categories of damage were stated in the Torah with regard to an ox. An ox causes damage in 3 ways, and each is classified as a distinct primary category of damage represented by a part of the body of the ox: There is the category of Goring [keren], literally, horn. This is referring to an ox goring a person or an animal and causing damage. And there is the category of Eating [shen], literally, tooth. This is referring to one’s ox causing damage by consuming another person’s produce. And there is the category of Trampling [regel], literally, foot. This is referring to an ox trampling another person’s belongings and causing damage. These are classified as primary categories because they are mentioned explicitly in the Torah.