לזכות משה יהודה בן פעשא דינה
To answer the question we posed here:
A שור becoming a מועד is not just a מציאות - he gored three times so he is a habitual gorer. No, it is ALSO a חלות דין - a new Halachic construct. This can be illustrated by the Halacha that if an ox gored a שור של הפקר, an ownerless animal, he does not become a שור מועד. Why not?? He gored three times? Is that not gorey enough?? The answer is that in order to attain the UNIQUE Halachic status of a שור המועד, it is necessary to gore a non-hefker animal. So there is the מציאות of goring three times which relates to the Halacha of כל התורה כולה that three times equals a חזקה and there is the חלות דין of being a שור המועד. [We must know that שור המועד's may LOOK like unintelligent oxen but are in fact Brisker Lamdanim].
Now, the difference between an animal who gores people or other animals is in the realm of מציאות, the nature of an ox. Rav Pappa agrees that on that plane there is no difference and an animal that gores people will also gore other animals. His point of contention is whether this can also be applied to the חלות דין of העדאה [being a מועד]. He says that it cannot. Just because there is a חלות דין of מועד vis-à-vis אדם, that doesn't mean anything about it's חלות דין regarding animals. [Rav Zvid apparently holds that the חלות regarding אדם will also be applied to animals].
If so, when an ox was already a מועד for both אדם and בהמה and wants to "do teshuva" and stops goring, the only issue now is one of מציאות because this "teshuva" is accomplished by changing habits and behaviors. However, the דין העדאה will not change. The only question is if when the animal stops goring animals but continues to gore people, can we say that she changed her habits will also stop goring animals. Says Rav Pappa - NO. The מציאות hasn't changed. She remains a goring animal.
So from the get-go, the חלות דין of מועד doesn't apply to animals when she only gores אדם [as Rav Pappa said on דף ל"ז - that מועד לאדם לא הוי מועד לבהמה], but nevertheless after the חלות דין מועד has already been applied to both אדם ובהמה, when she stops goring אדם, we assume that she will continue to gore animals [because she retains her goring nature במציאות]. But as far as goring אדם is concerned, we assume that she stopped because we see the מציאות that she no longer has the strength to gore אדם.
So our question is brilliantly resolved:
We asked that originally, when we didn't know whether the animal gores other animals or not, Rav Pappa assumed that it DOESN'T [and we don't learn a ק"ו from אדם]. But when it comes to חזרה [the animal did "teshuva" and stopped goring], even though we saw clearly that the animal stopped goring animals, we say that since she hasn't stopped goring אדם, she remains a מועד לבהמה. How can that BE?? When we DON'T KNOW about the goring status of an animal towards other animals, we say that she doesn't gore animals, but when we DO KNOW that she stopped goring animals we say that she will CONTINUE to gore animals??
The answer is that originally we don't learn בהמה from אדם because one חלות doesn't effect the other. But when talking about חזרה, the question is if the animal's NATURE has changed. Says Rav Pappa, ceasing to gore animals is not a strong enough indication that she is no longer a goring animal if she keeps up her antics by continuing to gore people. [And people have מזל so if she gores them then CERTAINLY she will keep goring animals.]
This answer was given by HaGaon Rebbe Abba Berman ztz"l [שיעורי עיון התלמוד שיעור ט], HaGaon Rav Reuven Grozovsky ztz"l [שיעורי רבי ראובן על ב"ק סי' א] and HaGaon Rav Dovid Malinovsky ztz"l [he was a mechutan of HaGaon Rav Chaim Knievsky Shlita].
There is of course a LOT more to say:-)!!!
