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226 Assault and Battery

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asser, Care!

cost of kealiugsuch ulcers also falls on the assailant if ulcers arise from other causes for instance,

—

but

because the wounded

man

disregards the orders of healing these is not to be assessed. The wound may disappear and break out again and again the cost of cure will still rest on the assailant but if it be once fully healed (literally, "to its full need"), the liability comes to an end (B. K. viii. 1). The occasion for cost of cure may exist without any of the other elements of damage for instance, where one has forcibly thrown chemicals upon another, giving to his skin the whiteness of leprosy, it is his duty to pay the cost of having the skin restored to a healthy color (B. K. 85ft). Sharne or Humiliation : Here it is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules for, as the Mishnah his physician

—the cost of

226

of the child or children that were destroyed by the miscarriage, should be paid to the husband of the woman by the man causing the damage. The standard authorities are almost silent on the subject

K.

(B.

Gemara,

v. 4;

49a).







depends on who is put to shame and who it is that puts him to shame. " But for certain acts of violence that involve very little pain and no permanent disablement, but mainly disgrace, the sages fixed a scale of compensation, namely for a stroke with the fist, one sela or shekel (nominally 60 cents); for a slap with the open hand, two hundred zuzin (1 zuz = 15 cents); for a back-handed slap, or for pulling a man's ear or hair, or Scale of tearing off his cloak or a woman's says, "

it

all



Compensa-

headgear, or spitting at a person if the spittle reaches his flesh, four hundred zuzin (§60 nominal) (B. K. viii. 6). A kick with the knee costs three selas; with the foot five selas a stroke with an ass' saddle thirteen tion.



K. 276, Rashi I.e.). According to Maimonides (Yad ha-Hazakah, Hobel u-JIazzik, hi. 8-10), each slap, kick, or stroke counts separately. But he also says (following B. K. 366) that these sums are not meant for the full-weight or Tyrian coins, but for the "country currency," worth only one-eighth of (B.

the Tyrian. These liquidated damages cover only pain and shame; if sickness ensue, stoppage and cure have to be paid for separately. Although R. Me'ir's opinion (B. K. 86«), that all Israelites are to be treated as freemen and as freewomen, as " the descendants of AbraIsraelites ham, Isaac, and Jacob," and are therefore entitled to the same compensation to Be

Treated as

human being

that is, is always " forewarned " forewarned ox," liable for full damage, whether awake or asleep, whether willing or unwilllike

is,

But

ing.

by

a

if

a

man

not

Human

in his sleep or unwillingly (as

roof) hurt another person, he is

from a

falling



"

liable

might

for

the

" disgrace "

that

such person's Beings Are clothes should be torn from him and Foreif A hurt B by pure accident for inwarned." stance, if he be thrown upon him from a roof by a sudden gust of wind he is liable only for damage, but not for pain, healing, or stoppage (B. K. viii. 1 Gemara 864). Deaf-mutes, insane persons, and infants are " pegi'atan ra'ah" (bad to meet); he who hurts them is liable for full compensation but if they commit an assault, they are not liable at all (ib. viii. 4). However, no compensation for shame is made to the insane (ib. 866). When an injury is done to an infant girl, the compensation for " damage " and loss of time is payable to her father (ib. 87« el se(j.). A married woman or a slave is also " bad to meet, as full compensation must be paid for any injury done to either of them. According to the better opinion, the assailant of a slave must pay even for The compensation for the disgrace put upon him. injury to a married woman, for pain and shame, is paid toher; for loss of work and healing, to her husband for damage proper, according to one opinion, to her, according to another, to her husband. For an injury to a slave the whole comPersons pensation goes to the master. When Bad an injury is done to an infant boy still to Meet." at the father's board, the compensation should be invested in land, of say,

result,

if



—

'

'

—







'

'

which the father will receive the rents and profits till the boy attains full age (thirteen). When a father injures his infant daughter, he pays pain, and shame to her at once, but neither damage nor loss of time. married woman is excused from cure,

A

for disgrace, has not been accepted

payment only because she has no property under

Freemen generally, yet where the sum has been and Free- fixed by the sages, as shown above, women. no reduction is made on account of

her own control a slave, because he can not own property hence, when the woman, by the death of her husband or by divorce, comes to her own, or when the slave is manumitted, she or he may be sued for the injury done while under disability (ib.

the poverty or low degree or even of the lack of self-respect of the party insulted. There is a sixth element (which arises, however, but rarely); namely, the " price of children " (Ex.xxi.22): " If men strive together and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no mischief follow, he shall pay as the judges determine. " Something is to be paid over and above damage, pain, etc., which is hard to determine; for a woman delivered of her child is, generally speaking, not made though in the special case she the worse thereby may be much debilitated. Her loss of health and strength would fall under the head of damage proper .

A

he

.



("nezek

").

Another view is, however, expressed in the Mishnah to the effect that the "deme weladot," the price





viii. 4).

When

a

bound

to

man

does an injury to his

own

wife, he

pay her for her damage, pain, and shame at once, in such a manner as to give her the free disposition of the money. He needs not pay for loss of work and for her healing he is bound as her husband. The wife, if she injure her husband, is liable for full compensation (Maimonides, "Yad," Hobel u-Mazzik, iv. 16-18). For the manner of its collecis



tion see Kettjbah.

A

master

is

not responsible for assaults committed

by his bondman or bondwoman, nor for injuries done by them to the property of another. A master injuring a

Hebrew servant

is liable

for all the elements