5,112 texts · Page 36 of 107
When a Hebrew bondsman is released after six years, the Torah says "he shall go out to freedom." The Mekhilta asks: what does this phrase add? If the bondsman's term is over, he is...
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, ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael addresses a legal question about the identity of a wife given to a Hebrew servant by his master. The Torah states that if a master gives his servant "...
The Torah states that if a master gives his Hebrew bondsman a Canaanite bondswoman "and she bears him sons or daughters," the woman and her children belong to the master (Exodus 21...
The Torah describes a remarkable scenario in the laws of servitude: a Hebrew servant whose term of service has ended, yet who declares, "I love my master" and chooses to remain. Th...
The Torah prescribes a vivid ritual for a Hebrew servant who refuses to go free after six years of service: "Then his master shall bore his ear" with an awl against a doorpost (Exo...
When a Hebrew slave chooses to remain in servitude rather than go free at the end of his six-year term, the Torah prescribes a specific ritual: his master takes an awl and bores th...
"And if a man sells his daughter" (Exodus 21:7) — the Torah permits a father to sell his daughter as a maidservant. The Mekhilta immediately asks: can a mother do the same? The ans...
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 verse "If another he take for him" (Exodus 21:10) is read by the Mekhilta as the source for a surprising obligation. From this verse, the Sages ruled that a father is obl...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a legal teaching from Rabbi Nathan that resolves an apparent contradiction in the Torah's laws about monetary obligations. On the one hand, ...
The Mekhilta examines one of the most consequential legal distinctions in the Torah: the difference between intentional killing and accidental death. The text lays out three vivid ...
Issi ben Akiva raises a profound moral question about the scope of the prohibition against murder. Before the Torah was given at Sinai, he argues, humanity was already warned again...
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 plainly: "If a man be found to have stolen a soul" (Deuteronomy 24:7). This is the law against kidnapping, one of the gravest crimes in Jewish jurisprudence, punis...
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...
Perhaps the first is an exhortation against stealing money, and the second an exhortation against stealing souls? Would you say that? Three mitzvoth (commandments) are mentioned in...
R. Chanina b. Iddi says: Since Scripture states "Swear" and "Do not swear," "Curse" and "Do not curse," since swearing is by the Name, so, not swearing is by the Name (i.e., "Do no...
"And if men quarrel" — this verse mentions men. But does the law of personal injury apply only to men? What about women who injure others or are injured? Rabbi Yishmael argued that...
Rabbi Yoshiyah pushed the question of women in injury law even further. If men and women are truly equated, he argued, why does the Torah mention either gender at all? Let neither ...
Rabbi Yonathan argued that the explicit mention of "a man or a woman" in (Exodus 21:29) was not even necessary to include women in injury law. Two other verses already accomplished...
This is one of three things in the Torah which R. Yishmael expounded metaphorically. Similarly, (Exodus 22:2) "If the sun shone upon him." Now is it upon him alone that the sun shi...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a connection between two seemingly unrelated legal passages in the Torah, both involving the concept of metaphorical language in legal contexts....
The Torah addresses a grim scenario: one person strikes another, and the victim's survival is uncertain. The verse states that if the injured party recovers, "the striker shall be ...
"And heal shall he heal" — the Torah doubles the word "heal," and the Mekhilta mines this repetition for legal content. If the victim was healed once but then relapsed, and was hea...
The Torah says: "And if a man strike" — using the masculine form. The Mekhilta immediately asks the obvious question: does this law apply only to men? What about a woman who kills?...
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...
The Torah requires that for a killing to be classified as murder — and thus subject to the death penalty — the blow must be struck in a place on the body where it could actually ca...
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 ...
The Torah legislates the case of a master who strikes his servant, specifying that the servant must "die under his hand." The Mekhilta dissects this phrase to extract a precise leg...
"And they hit a pregnant woman, and her fetuses miscarry" — Abba Chanin asked in the name of Rabbi Eliezer: why does the verse bother saying "a pregnant woman"? If her fetuses misc...
The Torah uses the word "punished" in (Exodus 21:22) when describing the penalty for a man who injures a pregnant woman during a fight. "Then he shall be punished" — but punished h...
"An eye for an eye" — the Mekhilta states flatly that this means money. Monetary compensation, not literal blinding. But the text anticipates resistance to this reading: perhaps an...
Rabbi Eliezer tackles a textual ambiguity in the Torah's laws of servitude that has real legal consequences. The verse under discussion deals with the acquisition of servants, and ...
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 grants freedom to a bondservant whose master knocks out a tooth or blinds an eye. But does this apply only to adult bondservants? What about a minor — a child bondservant...
"And if an ox gore" — the Torah mentions only an ox. But what about other animals? If a donkey kicks someone, or a camel bites, do the same laws apply? The Mekhilta says yes, and d...
Shimon ben Azzai interpreted the phrase "and the owner of the ox is absolved" (Exodus 21:28) as absolution from paying half-kofer — half of the ransom payment owed when an ox kills...
Rabban Gamliel offered a different interpretation of "the owner of the ox is absolved." He argued the tam's owner is absolved from paying the monetary value of a bondservant who is...
Rabbi Akiva offered his own reading of "the owner of the ox is absolved." He argued that the tam's owner is absolved from paying for the value of fetuses. His reasoning: both a man...
Rabbi Akiva found a striking legal principle hidden inside a single verse about a goring ox. The Torah states that when an ox kills a person after its owner was warned, "the ox sha...
(Exodus 21:31) "Or if it gore a son, or it gore a daughter": Why is this stated? (Ibid. 29) "and it kill a man or a woman" tells me only of adults. Whence do I derive (the same for...
The Torah says the ox gored "a man-servant or a maid-servant." The Mekhilta asks: which kind of servant? This must refer to a Canaanite bondservant, not an Israelite one. The proof...
"And if a man open a pit" — the Torah addresses the liability of someone who uncovers or creates an open pit in a public area. But the Mekhilta notices that the verse mentions only...
"And he not cover it" — the Torah addresses liability for an uncovered pit. The Mekhilta adds a crucial qualifier: "and he not cover it properly." This distinction between proper a...
Rebbi — the title given to Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) — examines a case in the Torah's laws of damages involving two oxen...
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...
