1,870 related texts · 10 related myths · Page 3 of 39
(Exodus 21:2) "If you buy a Hebrew man-servant": Scripture here speaks of one sold by beth-din (to pay for what he has stolen), in which instance he serves both the father and the ...
R. Eliezer says: This (inclusion) is not needed. If a Jew serves, how much more so a proselyte!. But perhaps (I would say) If a Jew serves six years, a proselyte should serve twelv...
The Torah addresses the case of a Hebrew servant whose master gives him a wife during his term of service. In (Exodus 21:4), the verse begins with the word "If", "If his master giv...
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...
(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 ...
The Torah addresses the case of a master who strikes his slave in (Exodus 21:21), using a phrase that puzzled the rabbis: "But if one day or two days." The first reading, this seem...
Rabbi Eliezer offered an additional proof that "eye for an eye" means monetary compensation. His argument is an a fortiori, a kal va-chomer, that he considered logically airtight. ...
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 ...
(Exodus 21:33) "And if a man open a pit": Why is this stated? It can be derived by reason, viz. Since the ox is his possession and the pit is his possession, then if you have learn...
"Money shall he restore to its owner", when someone's animal falls into another person's uncovered pit and dies, the pit-digger must pay compensation. The Torah specifies "money." ...
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...
(Exodus 22:4) "If a man ravage a field or a vineyard, and he send his beast, etc.": Why is this written? (Even) if it were not written, it would follow a fortiori, viz. If a pit is...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records a teaching by Rabbi Yishmael on the laws of bailment, drawn from (Exodus 22:6): "If a man give to his neighbor money or vessels to watch." Thi...
(Exodus 22:11) "And if it were stolen from him, he shall pay its owner": This speaks of a hired watcher, and the above (Ibid. 9-10), of a non-paid watcher. But perhaps the reverse ...
The Torah declares in (Exodus 22:17): "A witch you shall not allow to live." The Mekhilta immediately clarifies the scope of this severe commandment. Despite the verse using the fe...
(Exodus 22:20) commands: "And a stranger you shall not afflict and you shall not oppress him." The Mekhilta identifies two distinct prohibitions within this verse. "You shall not a...
(Exodus 23:13) says: "And everything that I have spoken of to you, you shall observe." The Mekhilta asks what this general command adds to the specific Sabbath prohibition of (Exod...
(Exodus 23:19) prohibits: "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk." Rabbi Shimon asked why this prohibition is stated three times in the Torah, here, in (Exodus 34:26), and ...
The backbreaking labor of the Israelites in Egypt, their cries lost in the dust and the relentless crack of the taskmasters' whips. It's a scene etched in our collective memory, a ...
Midrash Tehillim turns to The Almighty Studies Torah. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, a prominent figure in the Talmud, offers a striking image. He says, give thanks to the One who collec...
I do all the time! Take this passage from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. It's short, but packed with meaning. It essentially asks...
The Seder Olam reveals a pattern hidden in the calendar of sacred history: the most important events in Israel's story all cluster around one date, the fifteenth of Nisan. It began...
A farmer was harvesting his field when he realized he had forgotten a sheaf of grain. It was sitting in the far corner of the field, left behind in the rush of the day's work. His ...
(Leviticus 19:9-10) and (Deuteronomy 24:19) lay out a peculiar agricultural law. When you harvest your field and forget a sheaf behind you, you are forbidden to go back for it. It ...
The tenth commandment looks mild next to murder and theft. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan will not let it stay mild. "Sons of Israel My people, Ye shall not be covetous companions or p...
You borrow your neighbor's tool. It breaks in your hands. Or you borrow his ox, and the animal dies while under your watch. Who swallows the loss? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus ...
A man walks up to you in the market with a story. His neighbor, he says, has wronged him. He needs someone to stand with him at the gate, to nod when he speaks, to lend weight to h...
The ox that wanders free was one thing. This case is harder. The donkey has collapsed under its load. Its owner, a man you dislike for good reason, is struggling to lift it. And ev...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:1) opens with an unexpected speaker: Michael, the Prince of Wisdom, said to Mosheh on the seventh day of the month, Come up before the L...
Before Aaron's household held the priesthood, someone else did. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:5) preserves this little-known tradition: Mosheh sent the firstborn of t...
When Nadab and Abihu lifted their eyes at Sinai and beheld the glory of the God of Israel, they saw something no prophet had described before. Beneath the divine throne, serving as...
Kohelet Rabbah turns to The Advantage of Cultivated Land Is in Every Way. Well, according to Rabbi Nehemya, "The advantage of land is in every way." Now, what does that even mean? ...
On the third day, Ezra sat under an oak tree. A voice came from a bush opposite him. "Ezra, Ezra." He rose to his feet. "Here I am, Lord." The voice from the bush was deliberate. U...
What became of Cain? The Bible tells us he wandered, marked and cursed, after the murder of his brother Abel. But the Torah is silent on the details of his death. So, naturally, th...
A person trapped on a low spiritual level might assume that deep Torah understanding is beyond their reach. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says the opposite is true: the pathway from the...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that anyone who wants to taste the Or HaGanuz (אור הגנוז), the Hidden Light that God stored away from the first day of creation, must elevate the qu...
In his commentary on Parashat Bereshit, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk (the Noam Elimelech) asks a deceptively simple question: why does the Torah begin with the word "beginning"? Ras...
Rabbi Yitzchak found a verse that establishes blessings both before and after eating. (Exodus 23:25) reads, "And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and...
"the L–rd is a man of war': What is the intent of this? Because He revealed Himself at the sea as a hero waging war, "The L–rd is a man of war". And He revealed Himself at Sinai as...
R. Yishmael says: What is written at the beginning, viz. (Leviticus 25:1-3) "And the L–rd spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying … then the land shall rest a Sabbath to the L–rd. Si...
He came and revealed Himself to the sons of Ishmael and asked them: Will you accept the Torah? They: What is written in it? He: "You shall not steal." They: But this is the blessin...
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...
This is one of three things in the Torah which R. Yishmael expounded metaphorically. Similarly, (Exodus 22:2) "If the sun shone upon him." Now is it upon him alone that the sun shi...
R. Eliezer says: Scripture speaks of a Canaanite (as opposed to a Hebrew) man-servant. You say this, but perhaps it speaks of a Hebrew? (This is not so, for) it is written here "hi...
Thus do we find with our fathers, that when they stood on Mount Sinai, they sought to steal the Higher Mind, as it is written (Exodus 24:7) "Everything that the L–rd has spoken, we...
(Exodus 22:5) "If fire go out and it find thorns … pay shall pay he that lights the fire": Why need this be written? It is derivable a fortiori, viz. If he is liable (if the fire p...
(Exodus 22:28) "Your fullness and your dema (terumah) you shall not delay": "Your fullness", bikkurim (first-fruits, which are taken from fully ripened grain). "you shall not delay...
