daf bit: Bava Kama 86

[cellio]

A mishna a few pages back taught: one who injures another becomes liable for five items: for depreciation (reduced valuation because of the damage), for pain, for healing, for loss of time, and for degradation. A mishna on today's daf continues on this last theme, saying: one who insults a naked person, or insults a blind person, or insults one who is asleep, is liable for degradation. In the g'mara the Master asks: is somebody who walks around naked capable of being insulted? R' Papa answered: this is talking about a case where a wind suddenly came up and lifted up his clothes, and then someone raised them still higher, putting him to shame. The g'mara then goes on to ask the question: is degradation paid because of the insult to the person, and so maybe we should not owe it if the person cannot be insulted, or is degradation paid because of the act itself regardless of whether the person perceived it? We learn elsewhere that degradation applies to a minor and a deaf-mute but not to an idiot, and from this the g'mara concludes that the payment is due if he is insulted or would be if he learned about it later -- the minor when he is older can understand, or the deaf-mute will feel the insult when somebody tells him about it. (86b)

Comments

[cellio]

See also: the back-story for the talmud's discussion of the oven of Achnai.

I don't know the source right now, but it's said that embarrassing somebody is akin to murder. Not in the "let's round up a sanhedrin for a capital case" sense, but more philosophically. There is also a positive commandment to judge others favorably, which ties into this I think.

Gotta run for now.