For the source text click/tap here: Bava Kamma 106
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We have already learned that someone who steals an animal will have to pay back twice its value; if he sold it or killed it, he will have to pay back four or five times its value. Our Gemara investigates whether this same law will be true also in cases where someone did not steal the animal but received it to watch and then claims that it was stolen from him, intending to keep it for himself.
Another situation raised by the Gemara is of an animal that can actually be eaten without shehita – the case of a ben peku’ah. A ben pekua’ah is an animal that was still in its mother’s womb when its mother was slaughtered (as opposed to a yotze dofen, which is an animal that is delivered by way of a Caesarian section when the mother is still alive). Just as all an animal’s internal organs become kosher at the moment of shehita, similarly a viable animal that is removed from its mother after slaughter is considered by Jewish law to be a living, breathing kosher animal that can be eaten without shehita.
We explore the halachot of Ben Pakua as well as the ignorance of this Halacha when Joseph falsely accused his brothers of eating Ever min Hacahi.
Thomas mann’s adaptation of the Joseph cycle and his possible indebtedness to midrash.