9,687 related texts · Page 178 of 202
Before God ever asked Israel to accept His kingship, He proved Himself through action. The Mekhilta lays out the sequence with deliberate precision, and the order matters. First, G...
(Ibid.) "And they stood from afar": outside of twelve mil (the distance of the Israelite encampment). We are hereby apprised that Israel receded twelve mil and returned twelve mil ...
The Israelites stood at the edge of the sea, the Egyptian army bearing down behind them, and terror gripped the camp. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, freshly lib...
The Torah states that a Hebrew bondsman "shall go out free" on "the seventh" year. But the seventh year of what? The Mekhilta identified two possible readings and used a careful te...
For it is written (Ibid. 7) "And if a man sells his daughter as a maidservant, she shall not go out as the (Canaanite) bondsmen go out"—by (loss of) organ prominences, as the Canaa...
Can it not be deduced a fortiori? viz.: If a Hebrew maidservant, who goes out with (the appearance of pubertal) signs, does not go out with (loss of) organ prominences, then a Hebr...
The Torah states regarding a Hebrew servant: "then his wife shall go out with him." Rabbi Yitzchak read this verse and asked a brilliantly simple question that exposed a deeper leg...
(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 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 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 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...
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...
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...
"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. ...
(Exodus 21:22) introduces the case of men who fight and accidentally injure a pregnant bystander. The Mekhilta asks why this passage is necessary. From (Exodus 21:14) — "And if a m...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — taught that "nefesh (the vital soul) for nefesh" — "a life for a life" — means monetary compensation, not literal execution. The Torah is requiring t...
Beloved is Israel — so beloved that God gave entire nations as kofer, as ransom, for the souls of His people. The proof is (Isaiah 43:3): "I gave Egypt as kofer for you, Ethiopia a...
"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...
An ox worth two hundred which gored an ox worth two hundred, and the carcass is worth nothing—R. Meir said: Of this it is written "then they shall sell the living ox, etc." R. Yehu...
"Pay shall he pay an ox for an ox" — the Torah prescribes the remedy when a mued (habitual goring ox) kills another person's ox. The payment is a beast for a beast. But the Mekhilt...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished anim...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "If he (the thief) has blood, pay shall he pay": R. Eliezer b. Yaakov says: If there were before him (the thief) pitchers of wine and pitchers of oil and he broke t...
"living, two shall he pay": and not (the value of) dead (animals). There are seven "thefts": "stealing men's minds" (i.e., deceiving them), importuning one's neighbor to be his gue...
(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 i...
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 22:27) "Elokim you shall not curse": What is the intent of this? From (Leviticus 24:16) "One who utters blasphemously the name of the L–rd shall be put to death" we hear th...
The Mekhilta addresses a practical problem. First-born animals that are consecrated cannot be nursed by their consecrated mothers, because the mother's milk has sacred status. But ...
The Mekhilta explains how a capital case is decided by a court of twenty-three judges. If twelve judges vote to acquit and eleven to convict, the defendant is acquitted — the major...
(Exodus 23:3) commands: "Do not honor a poor man in his quarrel." The Mekhilta asks why this verse is needed when (Leviticus 19:15) already says: "You shall not favor a poor man an...
The Mekhilta cites (Psalms 50:7-8) to illustrate God's unique relationship with Israel: "Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will exhort you. I am God, your God. I wil...
"You shall not cook a kid" — but the Torah speaks of cooking a kid specifically in its mother's milk. What about cooking it in the milk of an animal that is not its mother — say, a...
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 ...
Maybe it was just your imagination... or maybe, just maybe, it was Lilith. The Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, tells us of a terrifying figure born not of dust like Adam...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty vivid, shall we say, uncomfortable images of what awaits those who stray from the path. Today, let's talk about Gehenna. Gehenna (sometimes call...
A place of purification, and for some, punishment. Now, even in this fiery realm, the Sabbath casts its protective light. It's a concept that speaks volumes about the power and san...
It’s a question the rabbis grappled with for centuries, resulting in some truly mind-bending imagery about Gehenna, often translated as Hell. The wicked themselves apparently wonde...
In Jewish tradition, Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, is one of those days. It's a day of fasting and mourning, remembering immense loss and tragedy throughout our history. But where d...
The Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is one of those places, a site revered for millennia. But the story of how it became so sacred is even more fascinating than you might imagine. It a...
There's a story, a rather incredible one, about a rabbi who supposedly did just that. It all revolves around Rabbi Judah Loew, also known as the Maharal of Prague. This was a truly...
The story of Moses begins with an act of unimaginable cruelty. Pharaoh, fearing the growing number of Israelites, issued a horrifying decree: "Every boy that is born you shall thro...
Imagine, for a moment, 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 ou...
For forty long years, as they wandered, they had a constant companion: a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. The Torah tells us, in (Exodus 13:21), "And Yahweh w...
Now, we all know Joshua as a great leader, a warrior, a successor to Moses. But what if his origins were shrouded in a myth mirroring some of the most famous stories in history? Ac...
Jewish tradition certainly thinks so. And one such place, according to our stories, revolves around an altar... a very special altar. The Torah tells us that Abraham arrived at the...
We're talking about Cain and Abel. The story begins simply enough. As we read in Genesis (4:1-16), "Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain…" Eve, in a momen...
