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The Torah says a person who strikes his father or mother "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:15), but it does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta identifies this silen...
The Torah states: "And one who steals a man and sells him, and he is found in his hand, he shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:16). The Mekhilta asks what this verse adds, since kidn...
The Torah says about a kidnapper: "and sells him" (Exodus 21:16). The Mekhilta derives from this phrasing that the kidnapper is liable only if he sells the entire person, not half....
The Torah states that a kidnapper "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:16), but does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta identifies the method as strangulation. But how...
The phrase "if one curses his father and his mother" raises yet another question: with what name must the curse be spoken? Rabbi Achai taught that the offender is liable for the de...
The Torah says that if men quarrel and one strikes the other "with stone or fist" (Exodus 21:18), the striker is liable. Does this mean liability exists only for these two specific...
(Exodus 21:20) specifies that the master strikes his bondservant "with a rod." The Mekhilta asks: does this mean the master is liable regardless of what kind of rod he used? Even a...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — asked why the Torah specifically mentions "a rod" in the law about striking a bondservant. He argued that the word "rod" is extra — it is not needed ...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — taught that "nefesh (the vital soul) for nefesh" — "a life for a life" — means monetary compensation, not literal execution. The Torah is requiring t...
The Mekhilta addresses a precise scenario: what happens when a master knocks out two of his bondservant's teeth — or blinds both eyes — simultaneously, in a single blow? The ruling...
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...
The Torah specifies that a goring ox is put to death by stoning. But what about an ox that kills by biting, kicking, or trampling rather than goring? Are all forms of animal-inflic...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to equating the tam (first-time gorer) with the mued (habitual gorer). The two categories are not truly parallel. A mued's owner pays kofer — a ran...
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...
Rebbi says: If it is forbidden to derive benefit from the burnt bullocks and the burnt he-goats, which do not come to atone for the world (viz. (Leviticus 26:2)7), how much more so...
Rabbi Meir tackled one of the trickiest problems in the Torah's laws of damages: how do you classify a dangerous ox? The Torah distinguishes between a tam — an ox with no history o...
"And it killed a man or a woman" — this phrase appears in the mued section, but the Mekhilta says it is "extra." Its legal content is already known from other verses. So why is it ...
The Torah discusses two ways a dangerous pit might come into existence: someone might open an existing pit that was previously covered, or someone might dig a brand-new one. In (Ex...
"Then they shall sell the living ox" — when one person's ox kills another person's ox, the Torah prescribes a specific remedy. But the Mekhilta specifies: this verse assumes the tw...
"Pay shall he pay an ox for an ox" — the Torah prescribes the remedy when a mued (habitual goring ox) kills another person's ox. The payment is a beast for a beast. But the Mekhilt...
Variantly: Slaughtering is being likened to selling, and selling, to slaughtering. Just as selling is outside his (the owner's) domain, so, slaughtering (to make him liable for "fo...
The Mekhilta addresses whether the four-and-five payment applies to consecrated animals — those dedicated to the Temple. If someone steals a consecrated animal and slaughters it ou...
Rabbi Meir draws a remarkable theological lesson from one of the most unlikely sources: the Torah's laws of livestock theft. His observation reveals how deeply God values honest la...
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked a beautiful question: why does the Torah require a five-fold payment for stealing an ox but only a four-fold payment for stealing a lamb? His answer...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished anim...
"living, two shall he pay": and not (the value of) dead (animals). There are seven "thefts": "stealing men's minds" (i.e., deceiving them), importuning one's neighbor to be his gue...
Beyond these is a kidnapper, who pays his life. R. Shimon b. Yochai says: It is written (Mishlei 29:24) "One who divides with a thief hates his soul. (He hears the adjuration to sw...
"And it eat in another's field" — Rabbi Nathan addressed a scenario where someone stacked grain in another person's field without permission. If the field owner's beast then came o...
(Exodus 22:5) "If fire go out and it find thorns … pay shall pay he that lights the fire": Why need this be written? It is derivable a fortiori, viz. If he is liable (if the fire p...
"If fire go out and it find thorns" (Exodus 22:5). A person lights a fire on his own property, and it escapes. It reaches a neighboring field and destroys crops, haystacks, or stan...
Rabbi Nathan expanded the scope of the deposit laws beyond their most obvious application. The Torah says that when someone deposits "money" with a neighbor for safekeeping, certai...
"then the master of the house (i.e., the watcher) shall draw near to the judges": For an oath. You say, for an oath. But, perhaps for an oath or not for an oath? It follows (that i...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — analyzed the phrase "until elohim shall come the matter of both" (Exodus 22:8), which describes disputes brought before judges. The verse speaks of "...
"An ass or an ox or a lamb" — the Torah lists three specific animals in the context of deposit law. But the Mekhilta asks: what about all other domesticated animals? Are only these...
(Exodus 22:9) says "no one seeing" in the context of a guardian who claims an animal was stolen from his care. The Mekhilta explains: "no one seeing" means no witnesses were presen...
"And it be broken or die" — the Torah lists two outcomes for a borrowed animal: it breaks (is injured by another animal) or it dies (of natural causes). But the Mekhilta asks: what...
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...
The Mekhilta examines a specific scenario in the laws governing borrowed property. If an animal passes from the domain of a lender to that of a borrower, even for a single moment, ...
The Torah explicitly states the father's rights regarding the seduced daughter. But what about a daughter who was raped rather than seduced? Does the father have the same power to ...
The Mekhilta strengthens the father's authority over a rapist's marriage through an a fortiori argument. With a seduced woman — where the seducer did not violate the father's will,...
Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Yossi Haglili debated the method of executing a witch, as prescribed by (Exodus 22:17): "A witch you shall not allow to live." Rabbi Yishmael objected to a...
R. Yehudah says: It is written (Leviticus 20:27) "And a man or a woman, if there be in them an ov or a yidoni" (shall be stoned). Now "ov" and "yidoni" are types of witchcraft. Why...
"For if cry out, shall he cry out to Me, hear will I hear his outcry" (Exodus 22:22). The Torah is speaking about the treatment of widows and orphans — the most vulnerable people i...
The Mekhilta constructs a powerful a fortiori argument about God's mercy. Within the framework of God's lesser measure — the measure of punishment — even a single individual who cr...
(Exodus 22:29) commands: "Thus shall you do with your ox" — referring to the first-born of animals. The Mekhilta draws a comparison between the first-born of animals and the first-...
The Torah requires that the firstborn of both humans and animals be consecrated to God. A firstborn son must be redeemed through a payment to a Kohen (priest). A firstborn kosher a...
