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Beloved are the strangers — the converts to Judaism. The Mekhilta emphasizes how many times the Torah exhorts Israel to treat them well. "And a stranger you shall not afflict" (Exo...
Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon were being led out to their execution. Rabbi Shimon turned to Rabbi Yishmael and said: "Rebbi, my heart is faint, for I do not know why I am going t...
The Torah's prohibition against charging interest is one of the most distinctive features of biblical economic law. The Mekhilta examines the verse "Do not impose interest upon him...
The Mekhilta catalogs the multiple transgressions committed by someone who lends money at interest. From the Torah's various prohibitions against usury, the rabbis identified five ...
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 garm...
(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...
"Elohim you shall not curse" — the Torah prohibits cursing judges. But the Mekhilta asks: why is this verse necessary? From (Exodus 22:27), "and a prince in your people you shall n...
From here they derived: One may speak one thing and be liable for four. (How so?) If the son of a prince curses his father, he is liable for "prince," "father," "judge," and "in yo...
(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"...
(Deuteronomy 12:6) says: "And you shall bring there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices and the first-born of your herds and flocks." This seems to require bringing the first-...
(Exodus 22:30) "And men of holiness shall you be to me": R. Yishmael says: When you are holy, you are Mine. Issi b. Yehudah says: When the Holy One Blessed be He originates a mitzv...
"And it shall be with you" — the Mekhilta interprets this as meaning "in your domain." When you find a lost animal, it must be kept in your care, under your control, until its owne...
The Mekhilta presents a striking conflict between two obligations. A Kohen — a priest — encounters a lost or struggling animal in a cemetery. Jewish law prohibits a Kohen from ente...
"Help shall you help with him" — the Torah commands assisting someone whose animal is struggling. But the Mekhilta distinguishes between two different types of assistance: unloadin...
The Mekhilta offers a powerful interpretation of the verse "and a clean one and a righteous one you shall not kill," revealing it as a cornerstone of Jewish criminal justice — a pr...
"and you shall gather in its produce (11) and the seventh year, etc.": to include (as forbidden) the fruits of the sixth year which enter the seventh year. This tells me only of th...
"And the seventh year you shall leave it" — the Torah commands that the land be left fallow during the shemitah year. But the Mekhilta anticipates a well-intentioned objection. Som...
"And there be refreshed the son of your maid-servant" — this verse about Sabbath rest mentions a "maid-servant's son." The Mekhilta identifies this as an uncircumcised Canaanite se...
Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest sages of the Talmudic era, offered a distinctive legal ruling about when non-Jewish residents in the Land of Israel render wine forbidden to Jews. ...
The Torah commands in (Exodus 23:13): "And the name of other gods you shall not mention." The Mekhilta expands this prohibition far beyond what a casual reading might suggest. It i...
The Torah commands that three times a year, "all your males shall be seen" before God. The Mekhilta systematically identifies who is excluded from this obligation through a series ...
"The first-fruits of your land" — the Mekhilta uses this phrase to identify who is excluded from the obligation to bring first-fruits. The key word is "your" — your land. Only thos...
(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...
Variantly: whether non-consecrated or consecrated (animals). Rebbi says: Because it is written (in the same context as meat and milk) "the first of the fruits of your land," I migh...
Rabbi Yossi Haglili derived an important rule about the meat-and-milk prohibition from the juxtaposition of two verses. The Torah places "You shall not eat all carrion" next to "Yo...
"You shall not cook" — the Torah explicitly prohibits cooking meat in milk. But what about eating the cooked mixture? The verse says "cook," not "eat." Does the absence of an expli...
Rabbi Akiva offered his own proof that eating meat cooked in milk is forbidden, using a different a fortiori argument. His starting point was not the Passover offering but the thig...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a step in a larger legal argument about why meat cooked in milk is forbidden to eat. The passage uses a technique called refutation — counter...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of how the prohibition against eating meat cooked in milk is established in Torah law. The argument proceeds by comparing meat and milk to other...
The Mekhilta has established that eating meat cooked in milk is forbidden. But what about deriving other forms of benefit — selling the mixture, using it as animal feed, or extract...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — examines one of the most famous dietary laws in the Torah: "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19). This prohibition appears t...
"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...
"You shall not cook a goat in its mother's milk" — the Mekhilta derives from this verse that the cooking prohibition applies specifically to meat and milk, and not to other combina...
(Exodus 31:13) commands: "But My Sabbaths shall you keep." The Mekhilta asks what this verse adds to (Exodus 20:10): "You shall not perform any labor." If labor is already prohibit...
(Exodus 35:3) commands: "You shall not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. The Mekhilta connects this verse to a completely different discussion about the shemit...
Rabbi Yonathan asked: what is the purpose of specifying "You shall not light a fire" when the Torah already prohibits all labor on the Sabbath? If all thirty-nine categories of lab...
The rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), those brilliant interpreters of scripture, have a lot to say about this verse. Specifically, Midrash Tehillim, the col...
The story starts, as so many do, with a commandment. God tells Saul, the first king of Israel, to utterly destroy Amalek. Wipe them out. Erase their memory from under heaven. A pre...
It's amazing how much depth can be packed into just a few words. to a fascinating example from Sifrei Bamidbar, specifically dealing with the laws of the Nazir, or Nazirite. The ve...
Take the mitzvah of challah, the portion of dough we separate as an offering. We find it in Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers, chapter 15. But a close look at verses 20 and 21 reveals ...
R. Nathan, a sage of old, makes a powerful statement: "There is no mitzvah (commandment) in the Torah whose reward is not 'at its side.'" In other words, the benefit of doing good ...
We read in Bamidbar (Numbers) 28:3, "And you shall say to them, 'This is the fire-offering which you shall offer up to the L-rd… two for the day.'" Simple enough. But what does "tw...
You’re not alone. Our tradition grapples with this too. How do we actually cultivate love for the Divine? The book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, offers a powerful clue. In Devarim 6:5, ...
That’s something Jewish tradition has grappled with for centuries, especially when it comes to understanding the Torah.It's all about the idea of repetition, or shinun, and what ex...
We're about to dive into one of those head-scratchers, straight from the ancient Jewish legal text, Sifrei Devarim. The question? Whether the Ten Commandments are included in the c...
It seems like a simple question, but sometimes the deepest meanings lie hidden within the most familiar phrases. Take, for instance, the commandment to bind words "between your eye...
Jewish tradition wrestles with that very question when it comes to mitzvot (commandments), commandments. Specifically, the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early Jewish legal interp...
That feeling isn't new. Our ancestors wrestled with it too, especially when it came to learning and observing mitzvot (commandments), commandments. to a passage from Sifrei Devarim...
