Dear Rabbi Kornfeld Shelita,
I have the following question to ask the Kollel Rabonim, please can you send a reply asap. The Mishna says 43B if a person lifts up a barrel and takes out a Reveeis and it breaks he must pay all of it. Why here especially a Reveeis in all other cases of damage it is a Perutah??
May I take this opportunity to thank you for all the wonderful insights that I have been receiving all the time, I have been gaining very much from all the Torah.
Kol Tuv.
Simcha Cohen (Gateshead - England)
The Mishnah is using the example of a Revi'is because that is a normal "serving" someone would want to take from a barrel (a person wouldn't usually steal just a drop of wine). The question here is what kind of action makes one liable for Shlichus Yad. The main point of the Mishnah is if one merely tipped the barrel in order to take a Revi'is, he has not done Shlichus Yad with the entire barrel, but rather only with that Revi'is. If he picked up the barrel, he has done Shlichus Yad even though he only did so to take the Revi'is.
All the best,
Yaakov Montrose