We now begin learning Masechet Bava Kama, the first Tractate of Seder Nezikin (“The Order, i.e., category, of Damages), which is the third of the six orders of the Mishna and the Oral Law (Shas). I’d like to share an oft-discussed question regarding the subject of damages.
In the Torah, we are taught that a person who causes damages (a “mazik”) is obligated to pay for the damages he causes. However, there does not appear to be a specific verse in the Torah that states that there is a prohibition against causing damage. The question, therefore, is whether it is in fact prohibited. One may perhaps aver that it must be based on logical thinking. But is causing damage actually prohibited, and, if so, is it a Torah transgression or a Rabbinical one?
First of all, we find a source teaching that it is certainly prohibited to damage another’s property. We learn in Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 378), “Just as it is forbidden to steal from someone else, likewise it is forbidden to damage his property.” But what is the original source and the nature of this prohibition?
One answer to this question is that the prohibition against damaging has a Torah source, and can be learned from the commandment to return another person’s lost object. The obligation to return a lost object includes a positive command to return the property to the owner, and also a negative command not to ignore a potential loss to the owner, but rather to make an effort to save the property. For example, our Sages teach, based on a verse, that if one sees water about to flood another’s field, he is obligated — by the mitzvah of returning lost property — to help save the field from flooding, and prevent a financial loss to the owner. (Bava Metzia 31)
Based on this teaching, we can say that if one has a mitzvah to prevent damage to another’s property, despite him not being the reason for the damage, all the more so he has a mitzvah that he must not cause any damage. (See Kehillas Yaakov, Bava Kama 1 and the opinions cited there as to whether the prohibition is of Torah or rabbinical nature.)
