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 garment as collateral for a loan. But Rabbi Yishmael, as recorded in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, reads a deeper meaning hidden in the doubled language.
The word "chavol" means to take a pledge or to bundle. Rabbi Yishmael teaches that Scripture uses this unusual repetition to convey a spiritual principle beyond the literal law. The verse is telling you: if you do mitzvot (commandments)h — if you "bundle" together commandments, accumulating good deeds one on top of another — then you will receive your reward. "If you bundle mitzvoth, you will have bundles" of blessing in return.
This midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic reading transforms a dry legal provision about collateral into a promise about the nature of divine compensation. The Torah is not merely legislating the mechanics of loans. It is teaching that spiritual effort compounds. Each commandment performed adds to a growing collection, and God responds in kind — measure for measure, bundle for bundle.
The principle of midah k'neged midah — God responding to human behavior in proportional fashion — runs throughout rabbinic literature. Rabbi Yishmael's reading here anchors it in the Torah's own wordplay. The doubled verb is the clue. When the Torah says the same root twice, it is hinting at a reciprocal relationship: what you give is what you get. Accumulate merit, and merit accumulates for you.