Bava Kamma 50B

״ארך אפים״⁠ – ולא כתיב ״ארך אף״? ארך אפים לצדיקים ולרשעים.

in the verse that recounts the 13 attributes of mercy: “Long-suffering [erekh appayim]” (Exodus 34:6), using the plural form, and it is not written as erekh af, in the singular? In order to teach that He is long-suffering for both the righteous and for the wicked and does not punish them immediately for their transgressions.

תנו רבנן: לא יסקל אדם מרשותו לרשות הרבים. מעשה באדם אחד שהיה מסקל מרשותו לרשות הרבים, ומצאו חסיד אחד. אמר לו: ריקה, מפני מה אתה מסקל מרשות שאינה שלך לרשות שלך? לגלג עליו.

§ A baraita states: A person should not throw stones from his property into the public domain. An incident occurred involving a certain individual who was throwing stones from his property into the public domain, and a certain pious man found him. The latter said to him: Lowlife [reika], for what reason are you throwing stones from property that is not yours into your property? The man mocked him, as he did not understand what he meant, as the property from which he was throwing stones was his.

לימים נצרך למכור שדהו, והיה מהלך באותו רשות הרבים, ונכשל באותן אבנים; אמר: יפה אמר לי אותו חסיד ⁠– מפני מה אתה מסקל מרשות שאינה שלך לרשות שלך.

Some days later, he was forced to sell his field from which he had thrown the stones. And he was walking in the same public domain into which he had thrown them, and he stumbled on those same stones. He said: That pious man said it well to me when he said: For what reason are you throwing stones from property that is not yours into your own property, since that property no longer belongs to me, and only the public domain remains mine to use.

מתני׳ החופר בור ברשות הרבים, ונפל לתוכו שור או חמור ⁠– חייב. אחד החופר בור, שיח ומערה, חריצין ונעיצין ⁠– חייב. אם כן למה נאמר ״בור״? מה בור שיש בו כדי להמית ⁠– עשרה טפחים; אף כל שיש בו כדי להמית ⁠– עשרה טפחים. היו פחותין מעשרה טפחים, ונפל לתוכו שור או חמור, ומת ⁠– פטור. ואם הוזק בו ⁠– חייב.

Mishnah: In the case of one who digs a pit in the public domain and an ox or a donkey fell into it, he is liable. The halakha is the same for one who digs either a pit; a ditch, which is narrow and long; or a cave, which is rectangular and roofed; trenches and water channels. In all these cases he is liable. If so, why is the verse stated as referring to a pit, as it states: “And if a man should open a pit” (Exodus 21:33)? To teach that just as a pit that has sufficient depth to cause death when falling into it is at least 10 handbreadths deep, so too, any other excavations that have sufficient depth to cause death may be no less than 10 handbreadths. If any of the types of excavations were less than 10 handbreadths deep, and an ox or a donkey fell into one of them and died, the digger of the excavation is exempt. But if it was injured in it, not killed, he is liable to pay damages.