Parshas Mishpatim - The True Value of Man
Parshas Mishpatim teaches us many of the laws of damages and property. One of them is that if a man steals an ox and slaughters it, he must pay five times the value. If he steals a sheep, he only pays four times the value.
The Gemara (Bava Kama 79b), famously says, “How great is the honor of Man, that because an ox walks by itself but he had to carry the sheep on his shoulder, his repayment is less.” Hashem is concerned with even the honor of a thief -- an indication to us of how concerned and careful we should be with the honor of our fellow man.
There is another part to that Gemara. Just before this it says, “How great is the value of work, that because the thief caused the owner of the ox to be unable to work, he pays more.”
What is so great about that? It’s just dollars and sense. He cost him money by not letting him work so it logically gets included in the punishment. Clearly then, R’ Meir must not speaking about that, but rather the fact that he made the owner unable to be productive.
Man is here on earth to accomplish, and for him to sit idly is more costly than for him to simply not be making money.
