Becoming Jewish/Love Letters

www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t05/kam06.htm#page_57





MISHNA I.: If one places a jug on a public ground and another person stumbles over it and breaks it, the latter is not liable; if he is injured, the owner of the barrel is liable for the damage.

These are not the words
It was something equally dry:
a different love letter copied from
crumbling parchment
transferred to tissue
thin pages.
I was searching for an answer
and found an argument.

GEMARA: "And another person," etc. Why is he not liable--must he then not look out? Said the disciples of Rabh in his name: The Mishna speaks of a case where he filled up the whole thoroughfare with barrels.

These are not the words
but this is the enchantment.  No
wizard teasing gold from minor
metals but men turning
mundanity into moral lessons.

Said R. Aba to R. Ashi: In the West it was said in the name of Ula that the reason for the statement of the Mishna is that pedestrians are not in the habit of looking around.

Why am I laughing now
since these are not the words?
A pedestrian on Canal Street,
texting,
stumbles over a barrel.  
Does Morris Bart know the Gemara?

Come and hear the statement of our Mishna: "One who places a jug," etc., "he is not liable." The reason being that he stumbled over it, but if he broke it without stumbling over he is liable. (Hence we see that even when there is loss no person is allowed to take the law into his own hand)

Why do I call these love letters?
Because I answered.
Because I said yes
by reading the next question.

MISHNA II.: A jug (filled with water) that broke on public ground and its contents cause a person to slip and fall, or one is injured by its fragments, he (the carrier of the jug) is liable. R. Jehudah, however, says, if he break it intentionally he is, otherwise he is not.



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