Study Bava Kamma folio 90B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
זה הכלל – הכל לפי כבודו. אמר רבי עקיבא: אפילו עניים שבישראל, רואין אותם כאילו הם בני חורין שירדו מנכסיהם; שהם בני אברהם יצחק ויעקב.
This is the principle of assessing payment for humiliation caused to another: It is all evaluated in accordance with the honor of the one who was humiliated, as the Talmud will explain. R' Akiva said: Even with regard to the poor among the Jewish people, they are viewed as though they were freemen who lost their property and were impoverished. And their humiliation is calculated according to this status, as they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and are all of prominent lineage.
ומעשה באחד שפרע ראש האשה בשוק, באת לפני רבי עקיבא, וחייבו ליתן לה ארבע מאות זוז. אמר לו: רבי, תן לי זמן. ונתן לו זמן.
The Mishnah relates: And an incident occurred involving one who uncovered the head of a woman in the marketplace, and the woman came before R' Akiva to request that he render the assailant liable to pay for the humiliation that she suffered, and R' Akiva rendered the assailant liable to give her 400 dinars. The man said to R' Akiva: my teacher! give me time to pay the penalty, and R' Akiva gave him time.
שמרה עומדת על פתח חצרה, ושבר את הכד בפניה, ובו כאיסר שמן. גילתה את ראשה, והיתה מטפחת ומנחת ידה על ראשה.
The man then waited for her until she was standing by the opening of her courtyard, and he broke a jug in front of her, and there was the value of about an issar of oil inside the jug. The woman then exposed her own head and she was wetting [metapaḥat] her hand in the oil, and placing her hand on her head to make use of the oil.
העמיד עליה עדים, ובא לפני רבי עקיבא; אמר לו: לזו אני נותן ארבע מאות זוז?!
The man set up witnesses to observe her actions, and he came before R' Akiva, and he said to him: Will I give 400 dinars to this woman for having uncovered her head? By uncovering her head for a minimal benefit, she has demonstrated that this does not cause her humiliation.