1,517 texts · Page 24 of 32
"and he shall go out alone": We are hereby apprised that a (Canaanite) bondswoman does not require a get (a divorce) from a Jew. Whence do we derive the same (i.e., that she does n...
The phrase "and he shall go out alone" in (Exodus 21:4) seems redundant. If the bondsman's term is up, of course he goes out. Why add "alone"? The Mekhilta finds hidden legal conte...
Rabbi Yitzchak examined a verse concerning the laws of Hebrew servants and declared that the verse, strictly speaking, was not necessary. The legal principle it teaches could alrea...
"Six years shall he serve" — from this simple statement, the Mekhilta derives a ruling about sick bondsmen. If a Hebrew bondsman fell ill and was unable to work for the entire six-...
The Torah describes a Hebrew bondsman who declares: "I love my master, my wife, and my children — I will not go free" (Exodus 21:5). This bondsman chooses to stay, and his ear is p...
The Torah describes a remarkable scenario in the laws of servitude: a Hebrew servant whose term of service has ended, yet who declares, "I love my master" and chooses to remain. Th...
"and he shall bring him near to the door or to the door-post": The door is being compared to the door-post, viz.: Just as a door-post stands in its place, so, the door must be stan...
The Torah prescribes a vivid ritual for a Hebrew servant who refuses to go free after six years of service: "Then his master shall bore his ear" with an awl against a doorpost (Exo...
When the Torah describes the ear-boring of a Hebrew bondsman who chooses to remain in service, it says "his ear" shall be pierced. But which ear — left or right? The Mekhilta deter...
Where exactly on the ear is the bondsman pierced? The Mekhilta records a dispute between two authorities. Rabbi Yehudah said the piercing goes through the lobe — the soft, fleshy p...
When a Hebrew slave chooses to remain in servitude rather than go free at the end of his six-year term, the Torah prescribes a specific ritual: his master takes an awl and bores th...
"and he shall serve him forever": until the Jubilee year (Yovel). For it would follow otherwise, viz.: If money, whose "power" is formidable, and which acquires everything, acquire...
Rebbi, the great Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, offered a precise definition of a word that usually sounds limitless. When the Torah says a Hebrew servant "shall serve him forever" (Exodus ...
"and he shall serve him": him, and not his son. For it would follow (otherwise), viz.: If one (i.e., a Hebrew bondsman) who serves for six years, limited service, serves both him a...
(Exodus 21:7) "And if a man sells his daughter": Scripture speaks of a minor (under twelve). You say that it speaks of a minor, but perhaps it speaks of an adult!—Would you say tha...
"And if a man sells his daughter" (Exodus 21:7) — the Torah permits a father to sell his daughter as a maidservant. The Mekhilta immediately asks: can a mother do the same? The ans...
The Torah states: "And if a man sells his daughter" (Exodus 21:7). The Mekhilta immediately draws attention to a legal distinction embedded in this verse that might otherwise go un...
The Torah states that a father may sell his daughter into servitude (Exodus 21:7). The Mekhilta asks the next logical question: if a father can sell his daughter, can a daughter se...
The Mekhilta continues its rigorous legal analysis of who can be sold into servitude. Having established that a daughter cannot sell herself, a new question arises. Should a daught...
Let her, then, be bored, as it would, indeed, follow that she should be, viz.: If a son, whose father is not permitted to sell him, is bored, how much more so a daughter, whose fat...
"And if a man sells": We are hereby apprised that he may sell her (as a maid-servant). And whence is it derived that he is permitted to betroth her?—If he can remove her from (the ...
The Torah states: "And if a man sells his daughter as a maid-servant" (Exodus 21:7). The Mekhilta draws a striking inference from this phrasing. A father may sell his daughter as a...
(Ibid.) "she shall not go out as the bondsmen go out": i.e., she shall not go out as the Canaanites go out. You say (that the intent is) she shall not go out by (the mutilation of)...
The Mekhilta examines how the Torah's laws governing Hebrew servants apply equally to men and women. The verse states "the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman" (Deuteronomy 15:12), and ...
The Mekhilta addresses the legal status of a Hebrew maid-servant in relation to the laws of bodily injury. The general rule in Torah law is that a servant who loses an "organ promi...
The Torah uses the phrase "who did not designate her" in reference to a Hebrew maid-servant whose master has not taken her as his wife (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta unpacks this phra...
The Torah uses the Hebrew word "bagdah" in connection with a father who has sold his daughter as a maid-servant (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta interprets this word as a description of...
(Exodus, Ibid. 9) "And if to his son he designate her (as a wife)": He designates her to his son, but not to his brother. For it would follow (that he does designate her to his bro...
The Torah states that a master who takes a Hebrew maid-servant as his wife must provide for her "according to the ordinance of the daughters" (Exodus 21:9). The Mekhilta asks what ...
R. Yonathan says: It ("according to the ordinance, etc.") speaks of a Hebrew (maid-servant, i.e., that he is to do with his maid-servant according to the ordinance of the Jewish da...
The Torah verse "If another he take for him" (Exodus 21:10) is read by the Mekhilta as the source for a surprising obligation. From this verse, the Sages ruled that a father is obl...
The Torah lists three things a husband must provide for his wife: "she'eirah, kesuthah, and onathah" (Exodus 21:10). These three Hebrew terms are cryptic, and the Mekhilta preserve...
R. Yonathan says: "she'erah" is her clothing, i.e., clothing that is adapted to her flesh ("she'er"). If she were young, he should not give her (the clothing) of an elderly woman. ...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a dramatically different reading of the three marital obligations listed in (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah identified "she'eirah" as food ...
The Torah instructs that if a master takes an additional wife, "he shall not diminish" what he owes to the first wife (Exodus 21:10). Rabbi Yoshiyah raises an important question ab...
Rabbi Yonathan disagrees with Rabbi Yoshiyah's reading of "he shall not diminish" (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah understood the verse as protecting the Hebrew maid-servant (t...
The Torah states: "And if these three he does not do to her, then she shall go out free, without money" (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta asks the obvious question: what are "these thre...
The Torah says the Hebrew maid-servant "shall go out free" if her master fails to fulfill his obligations (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta probes the meaning of the word "free" with a ...
"then she shall go out free": when she is a bogereth (i.e., after twelve and a half years); "without money": when she is a na'arah (from twelve and a day until twelve and half.) No...
The Torah describes a young woman sold into servitude by her father and establishes the conditions under which she goes free. Rabbi Eliezer interprets the verse "Then she shall go ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a legal teaching from Rabbi Nathan that resolves an apparent contradiction in the Torah's laws about monetary obligations. On the one hand, ...
The Torah states: "If one strikes a man and he dies, he is to be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necessary when a similar law already appears ...
The Torah states in (Exodus 21:12): "If one strikes a man." The language is specific — "a man." The Mekhilta immediately asks the obvious question: does this mean the law only appl...
The Torah's laws of homicide use masculine language: "If one strikes a man" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta recognizes that this phrasing could be read as limiting the death penalty t...
The Torah states: "And if a man strikes any soul of a man." The Mekhilta examines this verse with extraordinary precision, asking exactly which victims are covered by the prohibiti...
The Torah declares that a person who strikes and kills another "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta immediately qualifies this statement with a critical procedural ...
The Torah states plainly: "He shall be put to death." But where? Under whose authority? Left unqualified, these words might mean that anyone could carry out the execution — a mob, ...
The Torah declares of a certain offender: "he shall be put to death." But the text does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta records a debate about which form of capit...
