Being Extra Sensitive

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, yet Chazal teach that it means paying money. Why does the Torah write it in a way that sounds literal if it never was? And why do some Rishonim say the true din really would be to take the eye? Add to that the Ten Commandments split across two luchos, and a rule that has the person who dug the pit keep the dead animal and still pay.One idea runs through all of it, and it is about how we treat someone else. A rav taking a cup of water at a bris turns that sensitivity into something you can picture.