The sugya is Bava Kama 55b–56a. There are instances of loss and damage to another where, for various technical reasons, the law cannot enforce payment but where, nevertheless, there is a moral obligation to pay. This is called: patur mi-diney adam ve-ḥayyav be-diney shamayim, literally, ‘exempt from the laws of man but liable by the laws of Heaven’. Actually the term denotes something more than a moral obligation to pay. It is rather that there is a legal obligation to pay, only it is one that cannot be enforced by the Courts.

The sugya begins with a Baraita which reads as follows: ‘R. Joshua said: There are four things which, if a man does them, he is exempt from the laws of man but is liable by the laws of Heaven and these are they: He who breaks down a fence before his neighbour's animal (and the animal escapes and is lost); he who bends his neighbour's corn into the path of a fire; he who hires false witnesses to testify; and he who can testify on behalf of his neighbour but fails so to do.’ In each of these cases the Courts cannot enforce payment, since the loss is caused indirectly and the law only demands compensation where there is a direct act of injury or damage to property. Thus where a man breaks down a fence and the animal escapes and is lost his act is indirect, but since otherwise the neighbour's animal could not have escaped he is liable by the laws of Heaven.