Study Bava Kamma folio 15A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
free men and members of the covenant. The Mishnah states: Free men, to exclude Canaanite slaves from being valid witnesses, and it states: Members of the covenant, to exclude non-Jews.
The Talmud notes: And it is necessary to teach both exceptions, as had the Torah taught us only about a slave, I might have presumed that he is disqualified from serving as a witness because he has no lineage, i.e., the child of a Canaanite slave is not legally considered to be his child in any se
§ The Mishnah continues: And women are included in the halakhot of damages in the same way as men. The Talmud asks: From where is this matter derived?
The Talmud presents 3 sources for this halakha. Rav Yehuda says that Rav says, and similarly, the school of R' Yishmael taught: The verse states with regard to the liability of one who takes a false oath that he had not stolen: “When a man or woman shall commit any of the sins of a person” (Numbers
The school of R' Elazar taught: The verse states with regard to the civil laws given following the revelation at Sinai: “And these are the civil laws that you shall set before them” (Exodus 21:1). The reference to “them” in the verse is referring to all those who stood at the revelation, both men a