וְאִישׁ כִּי־יִתֵּן מוּם בַּעֲמִיתוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה כֵּן יֵעָשֶׂה לּוֹ׃ שֶׁבֶר תַּחַת שֶׁבֶר עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן שֵׁן תַּחַת שֵׁן כַּאֲשֶׁר יִתֵּן מוּם בָּאָדָם כֵּן יִנָּתֶן בּוֹ׃

If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him:fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him. (24:20-21)

Rashi cites the Talmud that this is not literal. Rather we estimate the injured man’s value (as a slave) and the offender has to pay the difference between his value as an unmaimed man and as an injured one. This is why the Torah states, כַּאֲשֶׁר יִתֵּן מוּם בָּאָדָם כֵּן יִנָּתֶן בּוֹ which literally translates as, ”the injury he gave to his friend so shall it be given to him.” By using the word given the Torah is alluding that what happens to the offender involves something that passes from hand to hand, i.e. money.

The obvious question is why didn’t the Torah state monetary compensation explicitly? Why use wording that can be so easily misunderstood?

Rashi writes that the perpetrator pays for the decreased value of the person damaged. This is one opinion cited in Talmud Bava Kamma. The other opinion is that the perpetrator pays for his own decreased value if the injury would have been inflicted upon him. Why should he pay for his own value- he wasn’t injured?

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, answered that the Torah is teaching us that the perpetrator deserves a lot more than just paying for what he did.

Were the Torah to state payment for bodily harm, people might consider someone’s body as just another article of value that he owns. One might think, "If I smash up his car, I pay for it. If I maim him, I’ll just pay for it (No big deal if you can afford it!)."

Therefore the Torah states, "an eye for an eye" to teach that דין, justice, demands measure for measure. If you rob a person of Hashem’s gift of sight, you deserve the same fate. However Hashem mercifully decreed that doesn’t happen and instead the offender compensates with money.

Based on this explanation, when the offender comes to compensate for what he did he must feel extremely humbled before Hashem for the mercy He bestows upon a sinner like himself who deserves a lot worse for what he did.

Now, said Rabbi Soloveitchik, we can understand the opinion that the perpetrator pays according to his own value. He’s compensating for the eye he should have lost!

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak