Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The commandment of the laws of penalties: That we were commanded about the law of one who injures his fellow to penalize that person, as it is written in the Torah in the section of “And if men fight” (Exodus 21:18). And this is called the laws of penalties. And in another verse, it includes all of the laws of penalties, and it is the verse, “as he did, so shall it be done to him” (Leviticus 24:19) — it means to say that what he pained [his fellow] should be taken away from his money, in accordance with that which he injured his fellow, as the tradition comes about it (Bava Kamma 83b). And even if he did not hit him, but only embarrassed him, the court must cause him pain through his money, that he should pay the one embarrassed, according to this amount. And these laws that are called the laws of penalties — for example, the laws of a man [who hurt another] man; an ox, an ox; an animal, a man; a man, an animal — must be judged in a court that has been ordained in the Land of Israel (Bava Kamma 84a).

The root of this commandment — and more generally, everything that the Torah commanded about the matter of law — does not require me to exert myself to [find] its reason for the matter. As it is a rational thing, since if there is no justice, people would never dwell and stand together. And [civilization] is impossible without justice.

The laws of this commandment — for example, that one who hurts his fellow is liable for five well-known items and how we calculate them; the law of embarrassment, wherein everything is according to the one who embarrasses and the one who is embarrassed; and the law of one who is sleeping and embarrasses or is embarrassed; what is the law of one who dies on account of his embarrassment; what are the laws of those that embarrass a mentally incapacitated person, a deaf-mute or a minor (Bava Kamma 86b); one who embarrasses a convert or slave (Bava Kamma 87a); one who embarrasses with words (Bava Kamma 91a); what are the laws [about] the difference between a Torah scholar and other people; (Mishneh Torah, Laws of One Who Injures a Person or Property 3:5); the law of one who kicks his fellow or hits him with his palm, or slaps him in the face, slits his ear, pulls out his hair, spits at him and the spit lands on him; and the rest of its details — are [all] elucidated in the chapter [entitled] Hachovel (of Bava Kamma). And there it is clarified that there is a difference in the laws of penalties for that which is common and there is a loss of money, as we serve as an agent with the matter for that, [whereas] when it is a matter that is not common - and the same is true when it is common but there is no loss of money - we do not serve as an agent in those matters. And our Rabbi Alfasi (Rif), may his memory be a blessing, wrote [that] it is the practice of [the] two academies (Sura and Pombedita) that even though we don’t collect penalties, we excommunicate [the offender] until he appeases his claimant, and when enough time for it passes, we release him immediately, whether he has appeased the [opposing] litigant, or whether he has not. (See Tur, Choshen Mishpat 420-424.)

And this commandment that we are obligated to judge and to punish one who injures is practiced by males, as it was given to them to administer justice; not by women (Talmud Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 3:9), who do not judge. But they are nonetheless included in the law of payments, whether they embarrassed or whether they were embarrassed. And the way in which payments of damage to a married woman are divided is also clarified there (Ketuvot 65b).