Bava Kamma 5 - November 7, 23 Cheshvan

Study Guide Bava Kamma 5

Rabbi Oshaya listed thirteen categories of damages and Rabbi Chiya had twenty-four. Why did Rabbi Oshaya not include all of the categories that Rabbi Chiya included? The Mishna, Rabbi Oshaya and Rabbi Chiya each specified how many main categories there are (4, 13, 24). The assumption is that when one specifies a number it is there to preclude other items. The Mishna was saying four and not thirteen, Rabbi Oshaya was saying thirteen and not twenty-four. But what was Rabbi Chiya trying to preclude by stating twenty-four and no more? Why did Rabbi Oshaya and Rabbi Chiya refer to them as avot if the cases that they added don't have sub-categories? Did the Mishna delineate all the differences between the avot to show why we needed to list each one, as we could not have derived each from the other? Or could it have been possible to derive them from each other? If one could have derived them from each other, then the reason for delineating each one was to show that each av has unique halakhot.