Riddles of the Week

Riddles of the Week

1. If two men are fighting and one of them strikes a pregnant woman and causes her to miscarry, he must pay the monetary damage caused by the loss of the fetuses to the woman’s husband (21:22). Why does the Torah refer to the standard case as one in which the woman is pregnant with multiple children?
2. A yeshiva bochur asked another boy to wake him up at a specific time. On his way into the room, his friend accidentally walked on top of the glasses of the boy who was sleeping and broke them. Is he obligated to pay for them?
3. The Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpot 378) rules, “Just like it is forbidden to steal and rob from another person, so too, it is forbidden to damage another person’s property”. The Gemara in Bava Kamma (51) says, that if Reuven tells his friend to damage Shimon’s property, Reuven is obligated to pay, as we say ein shliach lidvar aveirah, when it comes to aveiros there is no concept of shlichus. We see from the Shulchan Aruch and the Gemara that it’s forbidden to damage someone else’s property. The question is, what exactly is the source? Don’t answer from the pasuk: מכה בהמה ישלמנה – “If one damages an animal he must pay”, as it’s true if one causes a loss he has to pay, but where do we see that it’s forbidden to do so in the first place, perhaps one is allowed to cause damage, as long as he pays?
4. In this week’s parsha we have the mitzvah of aliyah l’regel. Rabbeinu Bechaye (23:15) warns that one must go up by foot. He cites the pasuk:מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים בת נדיבת , which describes how beautiful the footsteps of Klal Yisroel are. The Meiri at the beginning of Chagigah, and the Piskei Teshuvah (205) cites the Maharatz Chiyos (7) who also learns based on the Gemara in Chagigah (3a) that one must be oleh regel by foot. The question therefore is, the Gemara in Pesochim (94a) says, based on a drosha, that if one is outside of Modiin and he could make it in time to bring the Korban Pesach by using horses he is not obligated to do so. From this Gemara it seems like one may be olah regel on horses, and one doesn’t need to come by foot, it’s just that he doesn’t need to, how can this be reconciled with Rabbeinu Bechaye?
5. In this week’s parsha we have the pasuk:ששת ימים תעשה מעשיך וביום השביעי תשבת למען ינוח שורך וחמורך - “Six days you shall work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, in order that your oxen and donkeys rest” (23:12). It seems that the purpose of Shabbos is in order that oxen and donkeys get a rest, how does this make any sense?