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The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, a tannaitic commentary on Exodus compiled around the 3rd century CE, offers a remarkable teaching about the relationship between a student and a teac...
(Exodus 16:16) "This is the thing that the L–rd has commanded. Gather of it, each man, etc.": They said: Now Nachshon ben Aminadav and his household will go out and will gather a l...
The Mekhilta poses a question about the hierarchy of respect: how much honor should a person show to a friend? The answer comes from one of the most revealing moments between Moses...
How seriously should a student revere a teacher? The Mekhilta answers with a statement that sounds almost blasphemous: the fear of one's teacher is to be equated with the fear of H...
The Mekhilta teaches that there are people in the Torah whose very names were diminished — literally shrunk — because of their actions. The prime example is Efron the Hittite, the ...
The Mekhilta comments on God's designation of Israel as "a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6), connecting it to the verse in (1 Chronicles 17:21): "And who is like Your nation, Israel, one...
The Mekhilta extends its principle about biblical language by examining another verse: (Amos 3:8) says, "The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who will n...
Why was the Temple — the dwelling place of the Divine Presence on earth — built specifically on the tribal territory of Benjamin? The Mekhilta provides two remarkable reasons, both...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers multiple interpretations of the Hebrew phrase "elohim acherim," commonly translated as "other gods." The rabbis noticed that the word "acherim"...
Rabbi Eliezer offered a mordantly funny interpretation of the phrase "elohim acherim" (other gods) in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael. He connected "acherim" not to "otherness" but t...
Rabbi Achai ben Yoshiyah addressed a question about the Sabbath commandment's reference to "you and your son and your daughter." Who exactly are the son and daughter mentioned here...
The Torah commands: "You shall not steal." But the Mekhilta asks a question that might surprise anyone who thinks the meaning is obvious — does this commandment prohibit stealing m...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael uses a vivid parable to explain why murder is equated with diminishing the divine image. The teaching compares God to a king of flesh and blood who en...
And all who are haughty of heart cause the land to be defiled and the Shechinah to depart, as it is written (Ibid. 101:5) "The haughty of eyes and the broad of heart, him will I no...
Rabbi Akiva found a powerful protection for servants hidden in a verse that most readers would pass over quickly. The Torah says in (Exodus 21:3): "If alone he came, alone shall he...
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...
The Torah specifies that a Hebrew maidservant does not go free through the loss of "organ prominences" — external body parts like teeth or eyes that, if knocked out by the master, ...
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...
(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 Mekhilta examines how the Torah's laws governing Hebrew servants apply equally to men and women. The verse states "the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman" (Deuteronomy 15:12), and ...
The Torah states that a master who takes a Hebrew maid-servant as his wife must provide for her "according to the ordinance of the daughters" (Exodus 21:9). The Mekhilta asks what ...
The Torah instructs that if a master takes an additional wife, "he shall not diminish" what he owes to the first wife (Exodus 21:10). Rabbi Yoshiyah raises an important question ab...
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's laws of homicide use masculine language: "If one strikes a man" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta recognizes that this phrasing could be read as limiting the death penalty t...
The Mekhilta debates the physical dimensions of the refuge space that a person who killed accidentally was confined to. The previous passage established that even in the wilderness...
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...
The Mekhilta asks yet another question about the verse "And if one curses his father and his mother." From (Leviticus 20:9), which says "every man who curses," we would know only t...
R. Eliezer says: Scripture speaks of a Canaanite (as opposed to a Hebrew) man-servant. You say this, but perhaps it speaks of a Hebrew? (This is not so, for) it is written here "hi...
R. Yitzchak says: "an eye for an eye": I understand this to mean that whether or not he intends (to blind him), he pays only money. And, indeed, Scripture limits one who intends to...
Rabbi Eliezer employs one of the most powerful tools in the rabbinic interpretive arsenal: the gezeirah shavah, a comparison of two passages that share a common word. The word in q...
I might think (that he goes free) even if he knocked out a milk tooth, (which grows back); it is, therefore, written "eye." Just as an eye does not grow back, so the tooth (in ques...
Another question about the tam — the first-time goring ox. We have established that all forms of killing are equated with goring. But are minors — children killed by a tam — treate...
The Mekhilta records the same logical challenge yet again, applying it to a slightly different aspect of the tam-mued comparison. The mued's owner pays kofer — ransom money. This i...
R. Shimon b. Yochai said: Why was this (gezeirah shavah ) stated? Even without it, it follows a fortiori, viz.: If in a "place"—killing others—where minors are not equated with adu...
(Exodus 21:35) says: "And if the ox of a man strike" — the Mekhilta immediately draws a legal boundary. The phrase "of a man" excludes the ox of a minor. A child who owns an ox tha...
The Mekhilta expands the concept of theft beyond physical property. They said about certain people: if they could "steal" the Higher Mind — God's mind itself — they would do so. Th...
When a dispute over property arises and the facts remain unclear, the Torah provides a striking instruction: "Then the master of the house shall draw near" (Exodus 22:7). But draw ...
Variantly: "for an ox, for an ass": Why is this stated? Because it is written (earlier [6]) "If a man give to his neighbor money or vessels, etc." and (later 9]) "If a man give to ...
The Mekhilta examines a precise legal scenario in the laws of property disputes. When one person claims "this is mine" and another says "it is not exactly this," the sages derived ...
Rabbi Yonathan tackled a fundamental question in Jewish jurisprudence: how do we know that a beth din — a rabbinic court — must consist of three judges? The answer, he demonstrated...
The Mekhilta raises one of the most characteristic questions in all of rabbinic literature: if a law can be logically deduced from another law, why does the Torah bother stating it...
"Mahor yimharenah — to himself as a wife" — the Mekhilta asks whether the seducer can take the woman as his wife even if her father objects. Perhaps the Torah's language implies an...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines the phrase "according to the mohar of the virgins" and applies a distinctive rabbinic technique to determine the monetary amount it refers to...
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 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...
The Mekhilta addresses one of the most dramatic scenarios in ancient Jewish jurisprudence: a capital case in which the court is perfectly deadlocked. Eleven judges vote to acquit. ...
