'Expression': A secret in the essence of man

By: Nathan Kotler

background
In the first mishna of Baba Kama it is stated, "Four fathers of harm: the ox, the hog, the hog, and the hog." Rav and Shmuel disagreed on the question of what the meaning of the term "hog" that appears in the mishna is?
Rav said that the meaning of the term "miba'ah" is a person, but Shmuel said that "miba'ah" is a tooth. Rav cites evidence for his statement from a verse in Isaiah: "Rav said that miba'ah is a person, as it is written: 'He said, "You shall come morning and night, if you are to inquire about his illness' (Isaiah 21:12)" (BK 3:2).
In this article, we will examine the rabbi's method and attempt to understand the depth of his words.
What is the essence of man?
Our sages disagreed on the question of what characterizes a person?
The Speaking Man - In the Book of the Kuzari, Rihal lists the stages in creation. The fourth stage is man. Rihal calls him "the speaker": "The companion said: And in the matter of intellect, the speaker was distinguished from all living things" (1:35). Speech characterizes man. It seems that the source of this is in the words in the verse "And man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Onkelos translated the words "to a living soul" - "to a spirit of speech," the power of speech.
The Thinking Man - Maimonides, in his introduction to the Mishnah (chapter 8), asks, "Why was man created? And what was the purpose of his creation?" Maimonides' answer is: "Because his purpose is one act only, and for this purpose he was created...to depict in his soul the secrets of the intelligent and to know the truths as they are in him." Therefore, intellect characterizes man, especially if it brings him to the divine intelligent (see: Mo"n 1:2).
So what makes a person unique? Apart from the "speaking person" of Rihal and the "thinking person" of Maimonides, according to Rav, what makes a person unique is his desire to repent.
The person who repented
As stated above, Rav teaches us that “the one who is expressed” is the person and cites evidence for this from a verse in Isaiah: “He said, ‘Watch out, I come morning and night. If you question his faults, return to me.’” And how do we learn from this verse?
Rashi explains: "If you repent and ask for forgiveness for your sins, then [we learn from this] it is written in a person's sins." The verse speaks of repentance (see: Yerushalmi Ta'anit 1). A person is called to deepen his desire to return to his source and correct his actions. Rav's great innovation is that the essence of a person is not only his power of speech or intellect, but primarily his desire to repent.
We must delve deeper. According to Rav, one of the fathers of torts is man. After all, "man is subject to the world, whether by mistake or on purpose, whether awake or asleep" (Mishnah 2:6). Man is liable to cause harm and damage, but man also has the ability to repent, turn to God, and correct his actions.
Therefore, the very designation of the "harmful" person as one of the four fathers of harm is the weak point of the person, but also his strong point. The weak point is that he may be the "harmful person," but the strong point is that he is capable of being the "repentant person." And this teaches us about the essence of man.
Repair
When a person harms another, he is called upon not only to pay for the damage he caused and to repair it financially. In addition, the person is called upon to repair the damage caused in human relations, and therefore he must ask for forgiveness for the harm, to please him, and to accept his forgiveness. In the second mishna of the first verse it is said: "Whatever I have done to protect him, I have made good his damage