The Torah says: "And if a man strike" — using the masculine form. The Mekhilta immediately asks the obvious question: does this law apply only to men? What about a woman who kills?
Rabbi Yishmael provides the answer with a principle that echoes across all of Torah jurisprudence. Every injury law in the Torah, he explains, is stated in general, unqualified terms. The masculine language is a convention of legal writing, not a limitation on the law's scope. When the Torah says "a man who strikes," it means any person who strikes — male or female.
This interpretive move is characteristic of the Mekhilta's approach to legal texts. The Torah often uses gendered language, and the rabbis systematically worked through each instance to determine whether the gendering was substantive (applying only to men) or merely formal (applying to everyone). In cases of injury and homicide, Rabbi Yishmael's rule is clear: the laws are unqualified, meaning they apply universally.
The principle has sweeping implications. A woman who commits murder faces the same penalty as a man. A woman who injures another person bears the same liability. The Torah does not create a separate, lighter standard of criminal responsibility for women. Before the law of bodily harm, all persons stand equal.
Rabbi Yishmael's teaching here is not progressive in the modern sense — it is a technical legal principle about how to read statutory language. But its effect is to establish a baseline of legal equality in the most serious area of law: the taking of human life. The Torah's "man" means "person," and the Mekhilta ensures no one misreads it otherwise.