Our Gemara on Amud Aleph uses the following argument to explain the logical equivalence between the borrower’s liability for injury and liability for death. If the Torah teaches that the borrower is liable for the death of the animal, we do not need an additional verse to teach us that he is also liable for injury:

What difference does it make to me if it is entirely killed, and what difference does it make to me if it is partially killed, i.e., injured? Either way, the animal is not in the state in which it was borrowed, so the borrower is liable to compensate the owner.

The concept that partial deaths are a form of death also has metaphysical applications. Pesach Einayim (Rosh Hashanah 16b) uses this to answer an obvious question. The Gemara (ibid) speaks of certain evil individuals who are sealed immediately for death in the heavenly scroll of judgment. Clearly, we see many evil people prospering for years and years. That certainly does not look like being immediately sealed for death. Pesach Einayim says, when a person disconnects vital parts of his soul from God by sinning, he loses life itself. He might be walking and talking and breathing, but he is just an animal. It may be life, but it is not human life.

Similarly, Rav Chaim Volozhin (Nefesh HaChayyim 1:6) tells us that when a person performs a Mitzvah, or sadly, commits a sin, it is immediately felt in his soul. Because the person is distracted and occupied in earthly matters he doesn’t notice the pain and suffering, or bliss, that his soul experiences on an ongoing basis. In other words, Heaven and Hell are not for the afterlife but rather, it is going on right now.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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