Bava Kama 75 – Working Remotely

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 75, begins by telling the story of two rabbis who meet and one admits to hurting their slave. The other indicates that for there to be a fine (the freeing of a slave) there would need to be witnesses for that action. The rabbis of the Talmud then get into a discussion of whether or not that would still be the case since the rabbi to whom the confession was made was the head of the court, and thus when one admits to their wrongdoing, a penalty should still be assessed. This brings up an important question as to when a person is on or off duty. As a result of the COVID pandemic, we all work from home, and the lines between the working day and the rest of our day have blurred. Can a judge hear a confession and say that they are not “on-duty”? Can we do the same in our lives? Listen and find out.

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