Bava Kama 84 – An Eye For An Eye

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 84 focuses on one of the most famous phrases in Biblical justice, “An Eye For An Eye”. While this concept may seem barbaric and encourage severe responses to actions that you befall, the Rabbis saw it in a different light. They indicate that because we all feel things differently, pain included, it is impossible to ensure that an even punishment is given in this format, and thus it is necessary to look at the concept differently. Is this adage a call for revenge, or for empathy? Listen and find out.

Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.

We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice

from a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books.

Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted

by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay, Quinn Waller

and Elie Bleier. Our team also includes Satephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Robert

Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. 

Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership

between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio

accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.

Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.