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The Mekhilta records a sharp legal debate about how to determine the correct form of execution for a kidnapper. The Torah says a kidnapper must be put to death, using the phrase "m...
But still, let his blood be spilled from other limbs (and not through "the sword" [i.e., decapitation])! It is, therefore, written (in respect to eglah arufah [the "heifer of the b...
The Mekhilta examines one of the most consequential legal distinctions in the Torah: the difference between intentional killing and accidental death. The text lays out three vivid ...
The Mekhilta presents a series of vivid scenarios involving accidental death, each illustrating the same legal principle. A man pulls a heavy roller up to a rooftop, and it slips f...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael cites a verse from (I Samuel 24:19) that contains one of the most intriguing phrases in all of Scripture: "As stated in the apothegm of the Primal One...
The Torah promises that God will provide "a place where he shall flee" for a person who kills accidentally (Exodus 21:13). This is the institution of the city of refuge, where an u...
Issi ben Akiva noticed something peculiar about the cities of refuge described in the Torah. The verse says "then I shall make for you a place" — a place where an accidental killer...
The Mekhilta debates the physical dimensions of the refuge space that a person who killed accidentally was confined to. The previous passage established that even in the wilderness...
(Exodus 21:14) "And if a man be deliberate against his neighbor to kill him, etc.": What is the intent of this section? From (Leviticus 24:17) "And a man if he strike any soul of m...
Issi ben Akiva raises a profound moral question about the scope of the prohibition against murder. Before the Torah was given at Sinai, he argues, humanity was already warned again...
The Torah describes the premeditated murderer as one who kills "with subtlety" in (Exodus 21:14). The Mekhilta seizes on this word — "subtlety" — and uses it to carve out a series ...
The Torah's command in (Exodus 21:14), "From My very altar shall you take him to die," addresses a chilling scenario: a priest, a Kohen (a priest), who has committed murder. The Me...
Scripture hereby teaching us that murder (i.e., one's having murdered) overrides the sacrificial service. For it would follow (otherwise), viz.: If the Sabbath, which is overridden...
The Mekhilta presents a sophisticated chain of legal reasoning about which commandments can override which other commandments. The question at stake is whether the obligation to bu...
One of the disciples of R. Yishmael said: It is written (Exodus 35:3) "You shall not light a fire in all of your dwellings on the Sabbath day." Burning was in the category (of all ...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of the legal hierarchy between the Sabbath, the sacrificial service, murder, and burial of the dead. The argument now approaches from the opposi...
The Mekhilta now draws the ultimate conclusion from the legal hierarchy it has been constructing. Murder overrides the sacrificial service. This is established. But saving a life o...
The Torah contains a dramatic command about a murderer who has taken refuge at the altar: "From My very altar shall you take him to die" (Exodus 21:14). Even the holiest place in t...
The Torah declares: "And if one strikes his father and his mother, he shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:15). The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necessary when the Torah alread...
"And if one strikes his father and his mother": This tells me only of (one who strikes both) his father and his mother. Whence do I derive (liability for one who strikes) his fathe...
Rabbi Yitzchak addresses a grammatical question in the verse about striking one's parents that has enormous legal consequences. The Torah states: "And if one strikes his father and...
"And if one strikes his father or his mother": a blow which causes a wound. You say a blow which causes a wound, but perhaps even a blow which does not cause a wound? Would you say...
The Torah says a person who strikes his father or mother "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:15), but it does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta identifies this silen...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) drew a profound parallel between divine punishment and human punishment. "There is 'death' at the hands of Heaven and 'death' at the hands of man," he ...
The Mekhilta records the precise procedure for carrying out the judicial penalty of strangulation — one of the four methods of capital punishment prescribed by Torah law. Far from ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a classic a fortiori argument, known in rabbinic logic as kal va-chomer, "from the light to the heavy." This particular kal va-chomer address...
The Torah states: "And one who steals a man and sells him, and he is found in his hand, he shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:16). The Mekhilta asks what this verse adds, since kidn...
The Torah states: "And one who steals a man... shall surely be put to death" (Exodus 21:16). The crime of kidnapping carries the death penalty. But the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael im...
The Torah uses masculine language when describing the crime of kidnapping. (Deuteronomy 24:7) says "if a man be found to have stolen," and (Exodus 21:16) says "one who steals a man...
"And one who steals a man": This would exclude (from liability) his stealing a minor. Whence is it derived that he is liable for stealing a minor? From "If a man be found to have s...
The Torah states plainly: "If a man be found to have stolen a soul" (Deuteronomy 24:7). This is the law against kidnapping, one of the gravest crimes in Jewish jurisprudence, punis...
The Torah says about a kidnapper: "and sells him" (Exodus 21:16). The Mekhilta derives from this phrasing that the kidnapper is liable only if he sells the entire person, not half....
The Torah states that a kidnapper "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:16), but does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta identifies the method as strangulation. But how...
This passage, appearing in Mekhilta Tractate Nezikin 5:18, restates the teaching of Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) that appears earlier in the same tractate: "There is 'death' at the...
"You shall not steal" — this is the eighth of the Ten Commandments. But what kind of stealing does it prohibit? The Mekhilta argues it refers to kidnapping, not theft of property. ...
But perhaps the first is an exhortation against stealing money, and the second an exhortation against stealing souls? Would you say that? Three mitzvot (commandments)h are mentione...
(Exodus 21:17) states: "And if one curses his father and his mother, he shall be put to death." The Mekhilta asks why this verse is needed at all, since (Leviticus 20:9) already sa...
"And if one curses his father and his mother" — the Mekhilta notices that this verse uses "and," connecting father and mother together. Taken literally, this might mean the death p...
The Mekhilta asks yet another question about the verse "And if one curses his father and his mother." From (Leviticus 20:9), which says "every man who curses," we would know only t...
The Torah commands, "And if one curses his father and his mother" he is liable for a grave sin (Exodus 21:17). The Mekhilta noticed that the verse as written only clearly applies w...
The phrase "if one curses his father and his mother" raises yet another question: with what name must the curse be spoken? Rabbi Achai taught that the offender is liable for the de...
R. Chanina b. Iddi says: Since Scripture states "Swear" and "Do not swear," "Curse" and "Do not curse," since swearing is by the Name, so, not swearing is by the Name (i.e., "Do no...
What happens if your father is a judge? The Torah prohibits cursing judges: "Elohim you shall not curse" (Exodus 22:27). It also prohibits cursing leaders: "And a prince in your pe...
But perhaps the common element between them is that they are dignitaries, and it is their eminence that accounts for this, wherefore you are exhorted against cursing them—as oppose...
(Exodus 21:18) introduces the laws of personal injury: "And if men quarrel." The Mekhilta asks why this section exists at all. The Torah already states in (Exodus 21:24) the princi...
"And if men quarrel" — this verse mentions men. But does the law of personal injury apply only to men? What about women who injure others or are injured? Rabbi Yishmael argued that...
Rabbi Yoshiyah pushed the question of women in injury law even further. If men and women are truly equated, he argued, why does the Torah mention either gender at all? Let neither ...
Rabbi Yonathan argued that the explicit mention of "a man or a woman" in (Exodus 21:29) was not even necessary to include women in injury law. Two other verses already accomplished...
