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"Then he shall be sold for his theft" — the Torah prescribes that a thief who cannot pay the required restitution is sold into servitude to raise the funds. But the Mekhilta adds a...
Thus do we find with our fathers, that when they stood on Mount Sinai, they sought to steal the Higher Mind, as it is written (Exodus 24:7) "Everything that the L–rd has spoken, we...
The Mekhilta lays out a precise hierarchy of liability for theft, distinguishing between different categories of stolen property and the corresponding penalties a thief must pay. T...
The laws of theft in the Torah are not one-size-fits-all. Different stolen objects carry different penalties, and the Mekhilta works through a particularly tricky case: what happen...
If one steals away from his friend, (who asks to be paid for teaching him), and goes (and hides behind a fence) to learn Torah (i.e., to overhear the lesson that he is teaching), t...
The Mekhilta establishes a foundational principle of tort law in the Torah: a person is not liable for damage unless the harmful agent leaves their property and causes damage elsew...
"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...
"Pay shall he pay, the lighter of the fire": Why is this written? From (22:4) "a man," I would know only of a man. Whence do I derive (the same for) a woman, a tumtum (one of indet...
The Mekhilta draws a legal principle from a seemingly mundane phrase about safekeeping. When the Torah discusses items entrusted to a guardian, it mentions "money or vessels." A si...
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...
How many judges does it take to decide a monetary dispute in Jewish law? The Mekhilta traces the answer to a single passage in (Exodus 22:7-8), where the word "elohim" — meaning ju...
"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...
"The oath of the Lord shall be between the two of them" — the Mekhilta focuses on the divine Name used in this verse. The oath is described as "the oath of the Lord" — using the Te...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines a legal passage about a person entrusted with guarding a deposit. When a dispute arises about whether the guardian mishandled the property, t...
"And if stolen, it shall be stolen from him" — the Torah establishes that a paid guardian is liable when the entrusted animal is stolen. But the Mekhilta asks: what about loss? If ...
The Torah addresses the liability of a paid watchman with an apparently redundant phrase: "if stolen, it shall be stolen." The doubling of the word "stolen" in (Exodus 22:11) caugh...
What kind of attack by a wild beast exempts the guardian from payment? The Mekhilta defines the standard: the attack must be by an animal that the guardian could not reasonably be ...
"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 Torah establishes different levels of responsibility for different types of guardians. A hired watcher — someone paid to safeguard another person's property — bears liability i...
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 draws a careful legal distinction between two cases that the Torah addresses separately: the ravished girl and the enticed girl. The difference between these two situa...
"Who is not betrothed" — the Torah specifies that the seduction law applies to a virgin who has not been betrothed. The Mekhilta records a disagreement about the scope of this excl...
"Mahor yimharenah — he shall pay her bride-price to himself as a wife" — the Mekhilta investigates the timing of the seducer's payment. In the rapist case (Deuteronomy 22:29), paym...
"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 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 Torah addresses the case of a father who refuses to allow his daughter's betrothal. The verse uses the phrase "if her father refuse, refuse," repeating the word in a way that i...
Rabbi Yossi Haglili confronted a problem in the Torah's legislation about seduction. The verse states that when a man seduces an unmarried woman, "money shall he pay" (Exodus 22:16...
The Torah was given with its signs — its built-in warnings against idolatry. The Mekhilta explains why this matters. Israel might have reasoned as follows: we are commanded against...
(Exodus 22:24) begins: "Im you lend money to My people." The word "im" typically means "if" — suggesting optionality. But Rabbi Yishmael taught that this is one of the rare cases w...
The Torah says, "When you lend money to My people" (Exodus 22:24), using the Hebrew word "im," which normally means "if." This would seem to make lending optional, a generous act y...
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...
The Torah commands that when you take a garment as a pledge for a loan, you must return it to the borrower so they can sleep in it at night. But the Mekhilta noticed a problem: the...
(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"...
"The ox of your foe" — who is the "foe" the Torah refers to? The Mekhilta records multiple interpretations. In one reading, the idolators of the nations are called "foes" of Israel...
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...
The Mekhilta confronts one of the hardest questions in any legal system: what happens when you know the defendant is guilty — not of this particular charge, but in general? The ver...
If they saw him pursuing another to kill him, the knife in his hand, and they said to him: Be it known to you that he is a son of the covenant, and the Torah writes "and a clean on...
Shimon ben Shetach once had a single scheming witness — a zomem, one proven to have conspired to give false testimony — executed. Yehudah ben Tabbai was horrified. He said to Shimo...
Yehudah ben Tabbai once entered a ruin and found a man in his death throes. A knife dripping with blood was in the hand of another man — clearly the murderer. Yehudah turned to the...
—in Torah. You say, the wise in Torah, but perhaps (the meaning is) "the wise," literally; it is, therefore, written "blinds pikchim"—the bright of mind, who rule clean or unclean ...
Rabbi Nathan interpreted the verse "and perverts the words of the righteous" (Exodus 23:8) as referring to something far more severe than ordinary judicial corruption. The one who ...
"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 what they leave shall be eaten by the animals of the field" — the Torah establishes that shemitah produce left uneaten by humans may be consumed by wild animals. But the Mekhi...
The Torah commands that animals must rest on the Sabbath, just as humans do. But the Mekhilta raises a sharp question about what "rest" actually means for an animal. The answer rev...
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 Torah commands regarding the Passover sacrifice that "there shall not remain the fat of My festival offering until morning." The Mekhilta takes this verse and extracts from it ...
The Mekhilta raises a fascinating question about the relationship between laws that existed before the giving of the Torah at Sinai and those that were introduced at Sinai itself. ...
