Mishpatim: Aliyah 2

This Aliya has a bunch of interesting and difficult numbers:

The fist number is "3"  If an ox gores somebody 3 three times, we say he has a habbit of goring. the word here is "Shlosham" and it's from this place that we learn that 3 times means it will be done forever.

Next is the number 30.  Of all the passages in Mishpatim about damages and the like, this is the only time that a specific amount of money is specified. It says that if an ox kills a slave, then the owner of the ox must pay 30 Shekels.    The Baal Haturim here, makes a note the refers back to Geneses 9:25, which tells us that Canan will be the slaves of Shem.  It's mentioned elsewhere that 30 shekels is the value given to redeem a captured woman.    I am at a loss here as to what the number 30 represents.   Is the Torah trying to point us to the letter "Lamed" which means "to" and could be a form of possessiveness? Here you have two pieces of property destroying another. But if a slave killed an ox, a set amount is not given. Rather a second ox is just paid for.  Perhaps here the Torah is telling us that a slave, even though they are property is still a person. This person is priceless, but for damages, some price must be given.  What price?  The price of a woman, a person who might bring more people to the world.  Slaves are priceless indeed, and 30 shekels, will not be an adequate replacement, however society must function and go on , when such accidents happen.  It is hard for us to understand what exactly the Torah is pointing to, since we rarely speak or think about slaves.  I'm open to other understandings.

Next we are told that a person who steals cattle must pay 4 times the price, but a person who steals a sheep must pay 5 times.  Cattle can only be stolen by leading it away, a Sheep can be stolen by picking it up.  5 is sometimes referred to an incomplete number, because it is half of 10.  It's a number used to represent change and incomplete things.  The Sheep is often the animal used as a sacrifice to atone for sins.  So when a person sins, and knows that they sin, and are humble about it, they are incomplete. They need to change and there is room for that change.  Cattle however are for the community, a person who steels a cow can not hide it, and must be brazen.  In that case, the theft is like a part of the ways of the earth and the thief is buttressed by the community around them that allows them to so brazenly steal.  It's almost the way of the world, that if a community has no respect for their neighbors property, that people will be stolen from.