4,193 related texts · Page 70 of 88
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 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 requires that for a killing to be classified as murder — and thus subject to the death penalty — the blow must be struck in a place on the body where it could actually ca...
"An eye for an eye" — the Mekhilta states flatly that this means money. Monetary compensation, not literal blinding. But the text anticipates resistance to this reading: perhaps an...
Rabbi Eliezer employs one of the most powerful tools in the rabbinic interpretive arsenal: the gezeirah shavah, a comparison of two passages that share a common word. The word in q...
The Torah grants freedom to a bondservant whose master knocks out a tooth or blinds an eye. But does this apply only to adult bondservants? What about a minor — a child bondservant...
Shimon ben Azzai interpreted the phrase "and the owner of the ox is absolved" (Exodus 21:28) as absolution from paying half-kofer — half of the ransom payment owed when an ox kills...
Rabban Gamliel offered a different interpretation of "the owner of the ox is absolved." He argued the tam's owner is absolved from paying the monetary value of a bondservant who is...
Rabbi Akiva offered his own reading of "the owner of the ox is absolved." He argued that the tam's owner is absolved from paying for the value of fetuses. His reasoning: both a man...
"And if a man open a pit" — the Torah addresses the liability of someone who uncovers or creates an open pit in a public area. But the Mekhilta notices that the verse mentions only...
"And he not cover it" — the Torah addresses liability for an uncovered pit. The Mekhilta adds a crucial qualifier: "and he not cover it properly." This distinction between proper a...
Rabbi Meir draws a remarkable theological lesson from one of the most unlikely sources: the Torah's laws of livestock theft. His observation reveals how deeply God values honest la...
But if one steals away from his friend, (who asks to be paid for teaching him), and goes (and hides behind a fence) to learn Torah (i.e., to overhear the lesson that he is teaching...
The Mekhilta establishes a foundational principle of tort law in the Torah: a person is not liable for damage unless the harmful agent leaves their property and causes damage elsew...
"An ass or an ox or a lamb" — the Torah lists three specific animals in the context of deposit law. But the Mekhilta asks: what about all other domesticated animals? Are only these...
"And if stolen, it shall be stolen from him" — the Torah establishes that a paid guardian is liable when the entrusted animal is stolen. But the Mekhilta asks: what about loss? If ...
The Torah addresses the liability of a paid watchman with an apparently redundant phrase: "if stolen, it shall be stolen." The doubling of the word "stolen" in (Exodus 22:11) caugh...
What kind of attack by a wild beast exempts the guardian from payment? The Mekhilta defines the standard: the attack must be by an animal that the guardian could not reasonably be ...
"And it be broken or die" — the Torah lists two outcomes for a borrowed animal: it breaks (is injured by another animal) or it dies (of natural causes). But the Mekhilta asks: what...
The Torah establishes different levels of responsibility for different types of guardians. A hired watcher — someone paid to safeguard another person's property — bears liability i...
The Mekhilta raises one of the most characteristic questions in all of rabbinic literature: if a law can be logically deduced from another law, why does the Torah bother stating it...
The Mekhilta draws a careful legal distinction between two cases that the Torah addresses separately: the ravished girl and the enticed girl. The difference between these two situa...
"Mahor yimharenah — he shall pay her bride-price to himself as a wife" — the Mekhilta investigates the timing of the seducer's payment. In the rapist case (Deuteronomy 22:29), paym...
Rabbi Yossi Haglili confronted a problem in the Torah's legislation about seduction. The verse states that when a man seduces an unmarried woman, "money shall he pay" (Exodus 22:16...
The Torah was given with its signs — its built-in warnings against idolatry. The Mekhilta explains why this matters. Israel might have reasoned as follows: we are commanded against...
The Torah says, "When you lend money to My people" (Exodus 22:24), using the Hebrew word "im," which normally means "if." This would seem to make lending optional, a generous act y...
The Torah uses a peculiar phrase in (Exodus 22:25): "Im chavol tachbol" — literally, "if you bundle, you shall bundle." The verse appears in the context of laws about taking a garm...
"The ox of your foe" — who is the "foe" the Torah refers to? The Mekhilta records multiple interpretations. In one reading, the idolators of the nations are called "foes" of Israel...
Shimon ben Shetach once had a single scheming witness — a zomem, one proven to have conspired to give false testimony — executed. Yehudah ben Tabbai was horrified. He said to Shimo...
Yehudah ben Tabbai once entered a ruin and found a man in his death throes. A knife dripping with blood was in the hand of another man — clearly the murderer. Yehudah turned to the...
"And what they leave shall be eaten by the animals of the field" — the Torah establishes that shemitah produce left uneaten by humans may be consumed by wild animals. But the Mekhi...
The Torah commands that three times a year, "all your males shall be seen" before God. The Mekhilta systematically identifies who is excluded from this obligation through a series ...
The Mekhilta raises a fascinating question about the relationship between laws that existed before the giving of the Torah at Sinai and those that were introduced at Sinai itself. ...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of how the prohibition against eating meat cooked in milk is established in Torah law. The argument proceeds by comparing meat and milk to other...
Can goat's milk be used to cook sheep's flesh? The species are different — goats and sheep — but both are domesticated livestock. The Mekhilta extends the prohibition through yet a...
"You shall not cook a goat in its mother's milk" — the Mekhilta derives from this verse that the cooking prohibition applies specifically to meat and milk, and not to other combina...
In Judaism, there's a pretty firm foundation: God created the world precisely when He chose to. But that leads to a whole host of other questions, doesn't it? What was before that ...
Jewish tradition understands that feeling, and even gives it a name: fiery waves. These aren't just any ordinary ocean waves, mind you. These are the ones, we're told in the Talmud...
Jewish tradition offers a beautiful and powerful image: they're gathered by an angel named Sandalphon and transformed into crowns for God. Every word, every intention, every heartf...
The mystics imagine it as an incredibly intimate moment, a divine gift presented with love. They say that when God was ready to give the Torah to Israel, God fashioned the very let...
His nephew, Lot, has just departed, choosing a different path, and perhaps a more materially prosperous one. Abram might be feeling a little…lost. But then, something incredible ha...
Our tale begins with Abram, a skilled astrologer. Now, picture this: Abram gazes up at the night sky, charting the constellations, mapping the movements of the planets. But what he...
We're talking about the cave of Shimon bar Yohai. The story begins in the days of Roman rule. Shimon bar Yohai, a prominent sage, found himself on the wrong side of the Roman autho...
The story goes that after the Temple was torn down and Jerusalem was ablaze, God, in His infinite compassion, sought to soothe the city’s pain. As Pesikta Rabbati 30:3 tells us, Go...
The stones are still hot, the air thick with ash and despair. Who would you expect to find there? According to a powerful story preserved in the Talmud (B. Menahot 53b), it was non...
The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah definitely fits that bill. It's a story of hospitality gone wrong, moral decay, and divine retribution that leaves you breathless. It all starts with...
But what exactly are these “pangs,” and what do they mean for us? Imagine a world where nations are constantly at each other’s throats. Where wisdom seems to have lost its way, and...
Today, we're diving into Midrash Mishlei, a fascinating collection of interpretations on the Book of Proverbs, to explore this very idea. (Proverbs 1:10) warns us: "My son, if sinn...
