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Is the law of shen v'ayin (tooth and eye) that frees a slave actually a mode of freedom, or is it a form of payment? The shiur develops the position that shen v'ayin represents a unique payment obligation—one that the Torah (תורה) defines as granting freedom—which explains why you must pay for a second injury. This understanding avoids the Rashba's requirement that freedom works retroactively (l'mafreia).
This shiur analyzes the Gemara (גמרא) on Bava Kamma 64a, focusing on the fundamental nature of the law of shen v'ayin (tooth and eye) that frees a Jewish slave. The central question is whether knocking out a slave's tooth or eye is simply a mechanism of freedom (yetzi'a) or whether it constitutes a payment obligation whose fulfillment is granting freedom. The Gemara presents a case where a master knocks out both the tooth and eye of his slave. The initial assumption (havmina) is that the slave goes free for the first injury but the master doesn't pay for the second, since at the time of the second injury the slave was still an eved (slave) and hadn't yet been brought to beis din. The Gemara rejects this, citing the verse "tachas eino" which teaches that you pay for each injury separately, not both together (tachas eino v'shino).
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Bava Kamma 64a
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