Our Parashah teaches that one who steals an ox must pay five times its value, yet for a sheep four times (21:37). Chazal teach that the one who carries the sheep pays less since he suffered from embarrassment by carrying the sheep in public. (Bava Kamma 79b) fn Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz explains that since he suffered from more embarrassment, we would assume that he had some element of regret, consequently this would atone for some of his sin. Therefore, he only has to pay four times its value. We see from here that repentance isn’t ‘all or nothing’ and even thoughts of regret achieve some amount of atonement, even if we didn’t fully change our ways.
The gift of sunlight
A lender who takes a pair of clothes as a collateral from a pauper, who has nothing else to wear that night, is commanded to return it. The Torah specifies that it should be returned ‘until the sun sets’ (22:25). The Kli Yakar explains that the Torah specifies ‘until the sun sets’ teaches us that we are supposed to contemplate Hashem’s great kindness in giving us the gift of the sun, providing so much warmth and light. This should inspire us to try and emulate Him, and therefore ‘to light up the paupers darkness’ and return the collateral! A lender might tend to think if, the borrower hasn’t paid me, he for sure doesn’t deserve that I give back my collateral. Yet this isn’t how Hashem thinks. He gives us so many kindnesses such as always providing us with sunlight, even though we are not necessarily deserving. Therefore, we mustn’t be so exacting with others.
