Si deux marchaient dans le domaine public, un marchant et un courant. Ou si deux couraient et qu'ils se sont blessés, les deux ne sont pas responsables. [Notre Mishnah est défectueuse. Voici ce qui a été enseigné: si l'un courait et l'autre marchait la veille des sabbats ou des fêtes, ou si les deux couraient les autres jours de l'année, les deux ne sont pas responsables. Car à la veille des sabbats et des fêtes, celui qui court est autorisé à le faire, courant comme il le fait pour une mitsva, pour préparer son sabbat et ses besoins de fête, c'est pourquoi il n'est pas responsable. Et les autres jours de l'année, lorsqu'ils courent tous les deux, puisque les deux s'écartent de la norme, ils ne sont pas tous deux responsables.]
Rambam on Mishnah Bava Kamma
Two that were going in the public domain, one was running etc... ...
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Kamma
חד רץ ואחד מהלך וכו' – Our Mishnah is deficient and should be read as follows: one is running and the other is walking on the Eve of the Sabbath or the Eve of Jewish holy days or that both of them were running in the rest of the days of he year, both of them are exempt, for on the eves of the Sabbath and Jewish holy days, the one who ran is running with permission for he is going to perform a Mitzvah in order to prepare for the needs of the Sabbath or the Jewish holy day, and because of this, he is exempt. But on the rest of the days of the year, when both of them are running and both of them are strange, both of them are exempt [from liabilities caused to one another].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Kamma
Introduction
The first mishnah we will learn today continues to deal with damages caused by people bumping into each other in the public domain.
The second mishnah, the seventh of the chapter, deals with a person who is chopping wood and a chip flies off and injures someone else. The new topic here is damages caused by a person’s livelihood to other people. The mishnah teaches us that although a person has a right to work in a profession that he/she may choose, that profession cannot cause damage to other people.
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Rambam on Mishnah Bava Kamma
The idea by us is that he who is running is different and if he damages any man at the time of his running, he is obligatged
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Kamma
[If] two were walking along in the public domain, the one running and the other walking, or both running and they injured one another, neither is liable. Mishnah six teaches again that people have the right to walk in the public domain and if someone bumps into them, they will not be liable for damages, unless they should have seen the person, as we learned yesterday. The new element in this mishnah is running. One might have thought that running in the public domain is by its nature dangerous, and therefore anyone who does so will be liable for any damages he/she causes. The mishnah says no, a person has the right to run in the public domain. Running in and of itself is not a criminally negligent activity and therefore does not carry with it an added degree of liability.
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Rambam on Mishnah Bava Kamma
Unless that time is the eve of shabbasim or the eve of holidays because people are rushing to do matters of mitzvot.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Kamma
Questions for Further Thought: • Yesterday I suggested to analogize the mishnah’s descriptions of accidents in the public domain to traffic accidents in our society. What might be a modern equivalent to running? Try to think of something that is inherently more dangerous but still legal and does not carry with it any extra liability. Is there such a thing?
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Rambam on Mishnah Bava Kamma
And because of this, this (mishnah) is lacking, and it's appropriate to say thus, if 1 was running and 1 was walking on the eve of shabbosim or the holidays or that it was 2 were running on the other days of the year and they damage each other, they are exempt.
