Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 21:34

Are vessels subject to death - in the form of a question. According to the Rabbis, why do I even need a verse to exclude them? And how would Rabbi Yehuda be able to include them? We could not ascribe to them the verse "and the carcass shall be for him." [Exodus 21:34]

אחד שור ואחד כל בהמה לנפילת הבור – as it is written (Exodus 21:34): “[The one responsible for the pit must make restitution.] He shall pay the price to the owner, [but he shall keep the dead animal],” anything that has owners.

בעלי גוים The chief of nations.¹⁷A. V., The lords of the heathen. Comp.¹⁸The instances quoted are to prove the use of the plural of nouns denoting master or lord in reference to an individual. אדני יוסף the master of Joseph (Gen. 39:20). לבעליו to his owner (Ex. 21:34). The king¹⁹The Hebrew text has והם מלכי אשור, The kings of Assyria are meant, but the instances quoted by I. E. show that בעלי signifies chief, not chiefs. We must therefore read either והוא מלך אשור, And this is the king of Assyria, or או הם מלכי אשור, or the kings of Assyria are meant thereby. In the latter case a second explanation is given, which leaves to the plural בעלי its proper meaning chiefs. of Assyria is meant by בעלי הגוים the chief of nations.

An ox [that is in the category of] disqualified consecrated [animals] - which had been redeemed [for profane use] and then fell into a pit -- the owner of the pit is exempt, as scripture states: "the one responsible for the pit must make restitution... but keeping the dead animal." [Exodus 21:34] This excludes this case where the dead animal does not [fully] belong to him -- even though it had been redeemed, if it dies, it is forbidden to feed it to the dogs, as is stated in Bekhorot [Bekhorot 15a:20]: "you may slaughter it" [Deuteronomy 12:15] -- but not shear it; "flesh" -- but not its milk; "you may eat" -- but not the dogs. That verse was dealing with disqualified consecrated [animals]. But, [on the other hand,] if an ox gored it, [as opposed to it falling into a pit, the owner of the ox] is liable, since scripture states "a neighbor's ox" [Exodus 21:35] -- even though it was [a disqualified consecrated animal that was] redeemed, it is [still] called "a neighbor's ox", and even though it states regarding Ox that "he shall keep the dead animal," [Exodus 21:36] [which ought to make the outcome like the case of a disqualified consecrated animal falling into a pit], we later on [Bava Kamma 10b:14] will establish that that refers to the owners attending to the carcass [and not that the carcass is free to be used for all purposes like shearing, milking, etc.]