Hi,
I was wondering if you had any mareh mekomos or know why the torah made it specifically that shor and seh get daled v'hey and not other animals?
Thanks!
Elan Sloan, Baltimore, USA
Bearing in mind that "Seh" includes a goat, the law of "four or five" is simply not applicable to any other animal. Why not?
It is specifically Shechitah that obligates the Ganav to pay four or five times. Should he kill it in any other way, he will pay only double. Since the slaughtering of a non-Kosher animal is not called Shechitah, an ox and a lamb are the only Kosher animals to which Shechitah applies, and thus the only two animals for which one pays four or five times.
B'Virkas Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler
"v'Shachto O Mecharo."
Shalom R' Yaakov,
The question was why the Torah presents these two examples. It makes sense to say that the Torah will pick examples of those animals to which both Shechitah and Mechirah apply. Another answer occurred to me: that ox and lamb are the ideal examples of the two types of animals -- one which works, and one which needs to be carried, as Chazal explain.
B'Virkas Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler
What about Chayos?
Meir Eliezer Bergman
Shalom Rav,
Most people owned sheep and cattle. But who owned a deer? And you would hardly expect the Torah to speak about animals that hardly anyone owned.
B'Virkas Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler