The Rabbis discuss the baraita which teaches that witnesses testifying that the master knocked out his slave's eye and then his slave's tooth and two other witnesses say that this happened in the other order, we believe the first two witnesses. The slave's owner pays for damages done to the eye. The rabbis consider the consequences of each assault. After a slave's tooth is knocked out, the slave is emancipated. If the eye is knocked out as well, the slave is paid damages for his lost eye.
Witnesses are believed regarding a stolen animal when that animal has been sold or slaughtered. The Gemara considered the importance of witness testimony regarding other crimes, including murder. How should the rabbis balance the claims of conspiring witnesses? And what should be done if the thief admits to his wrongdoing after witnesses have testified to his guilt? How does the timing add to these questions - if this occurs on Shabbat, for example? There are further suggestions about a son who steals from his father before his father dies but then sells or slaughters the animal after the father dies.
The masechet Bava Kamma is both simple and very complex. It concerns itself with very limited circumstances. The nuances and arguments regarding those circumstances, however, are detailed and almost limitless. As an oft-quoted masechet, Bava Kamma's influence goes far beyond 'what to do when one steals an ox'.
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