יום ו Date: 15 Adar, 5775 (3/6/15) – Kesuvos#32 {Tani}

SUPERFICIAL SURFACES

[32b top] Ulla: In cases of dual penalties (involving both money and lashes), a person pays and does not receive lashes. [The same word “tachas” is used in two verses: “[tachas] – he violated her,” and, “an eye [tachas] an eye,”  to teach that just as in a case where one wounds his fellow he pays money and does not receive lashes, so too wherever there is double liability [to both money and lashes (such as if a person violates a sister)], the law is that he pays money and does not receive lashes.]

Prac-T-cal Tidbits: Many times at face value, things may seem harsher than they really are, but ‘things are not always as they seem’. A cursory reading of the Torah would (G-d forbid) indicate a very barbaric system of punishment for crimes [such as a literal understanding of, “an eye for an eye”]. But an astute reading of the text with proper interpretation by the Rabbis (and seen in GM’ Makkos) proves that it is just phraseology for how one pays back damages with monetary payment. Just as Hashem is very fair and filled with mercy, so too we must never judge a book (or a person) by its cover, always give the benefit of the doubt, and see past the superficial surfaces.