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 immediately notices a problem with the verse's wording: it says "a man." Does this mean the law only applies to kidnapping an adult male?
The rabbis raise the question explicitly. This verse "tells me only of one who steals a man." What about one who steals a woman? What about one who kidnaps a minor — a child? Are these cases excluded from the death penalty simply because the Torah used the word "man"?
The Mekhilta resolves this by turning to a parallel verse in (Deuteronomy 24:7): "If a man be found to have stolen a soul of his brothers." The key word here is "soul" — nefesh (the vital soul) — which is a broader term than "man." A nefesh is any living person, regardless of age or gender. By using "soul" rather than "man," the Torah in Deuteronomy expands the scope of the kidnapping prohibition to include everyone.
The Mekhilta concludes that the verse in Deuteronomy comes to include the kidnapping of a woman or a minor within the same capital prohibition. The death penalty applies regardless of who the victim is. An adult man, a woman, a child — kidnapping any of them carries the same ultimate punishment.
This passage demonstrates how the rabbis read the Torah as a unified legal system. When one verse seems to limit a law, another verse broadens it. The two passages work together, with Deuteronomy filling the gap that Exodus appears to leave open.