Why the Talmud Cares Whose Ox Gets Gored

On Thursday, those following the seven-year cycle of Talmud study known as daf yomi (literally, “daily page”) completed tractate Bava Kama. One of the most commonly studied tractates, its name means “first gate” and it deals almost exclusively with torts, giving much attention to the biblical case of one man’s ox goring his neighbor’s. Dovid Bashevkin explores the relevance these topics, seemingly devoid of religious content, have to the believer: