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(Ibid.) "If you buy (lit.,) a servant Hebrew": Is Scripture speaking of a servant who is a Hebrew, or the servant of a Hebrew? And how am I to understand (Leviticus 25:46) "And you...
"Six years shall he serve": I might think (that he performs) both demeaning and non-demeaning service. It is, therefore, written (Leviticus 25:39) "Do not have him work the service...
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...
Whence do we derive (the same for) the food of his children? From (Leviticus 25:41) "And he shall go out from you (in the Jubilee year), he and his children with him." From "going ...
"and he shall go out alone": We are hereby apprised that a (Canaanite) bondswoman does not require a get (a divorce) from a Jew. Whence do we derive the same (i.e., that she does n...
"and he shall bring him near to the door or to the door-post": The door is being compared to the door-post, viz.: Just as a door-post stands in its place, so, the door must be stan...
When the Torah describes the ear-boring of a Hebrew bondsman who chooses to remain in service, it says "his ear" shall be pierced. But which ear — left or right? The Mekhilta deter...
"and he shall serve him forever": until the Jubilee year (Yovel). For it would follow otherwise, viz.: If money, whose "power" is formidable, and which acquires everything, acquire...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a dramatically different reading of the three marital obligations listed in (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah identified "she'eirah" as food ...
The Torah states: "If one strikes a man and he dies, he is to be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necessary when a similar law already appears ...
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 promises that God will provide "a place where he shall flee" for a person who kills accidentally (Exodus 21:13). This is the institution of the city of refuge, where an u...
"You shall not steal" — this is the eighth of the Ten Commandments. But what kind of stealing does it prohibit? The Mekhilta argues it refers to kidnapping, not theft of property. ...
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...
But perhaps the common element between them is that they are dignitaries, and it is their eminence that accounts for this, wherefore you are exhorted against cursing them—as oppose...
"Vengeance shall be taken" — the Torah declares this regarding a master who kills his bondservant. But what does "vengeance" mean in legal terms? The Mekhilta identifies it as deat...
R. Yitzchak says: Even a man who intends to smite one and smites another is not liable—until he makes it clear that it is this man that he wishes to smite, as it is written (Devari...
"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...
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 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 Yishmael taught a sobering principle about Canaanite bondservants: a Canaanite bondservant can never be redeemed by an outside party. The only path to freedom is the master's...
"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...
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...
From the law of the burglar, the Mekhilta derives one of the most important principles in Jewish law: a doubt about whether a life is in danger overrides the Sabbath. The reasoning...
"He shall pay double to his neighbor" — the Torah requires a thief who is caught to pay twice the value of what he stole. But Rabbi Shimon noticed a conflict with another verse. (L...
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...
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...
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 ...
"Seven days shall it be with its mother" — the Torah requires a first-born animal to remain with its mother for seven days before it can be given to a Kohen (a priest). But the Mek...
"On the eighth day shall you give it to Me" — the Torah specifies that a first-born animal becomes eligible for the altar on the eighth day after birth. But the Mekhilta asks: is i...
"And flesh in the field, treifah" — the Torah declares that an animal torn by a predator in the field is forbidden to eat. But the Mekhilta asks: does this apply only in the field,...
"And the poor of your people shall eat it" — during the shemitah year, the produce that grows on its own is available to the poor. But (Leviticus 25:6) says something different: "f...
"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...
R. Yishmael and R. Elazar b. Azaryah and R. Akiva were once walking on the road, with Levi Hasadar and R. Yishmael the son of R. Elazar b. Azaryah walking behind them, when this qu...
And trust me, the list is pretty surprising. The passage we're looking at today focuses on Psalm 80, specifically the verse "Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh." Now, these are...
The book of Psalms, Tehillim in Hebrew, is full of that raw, vulnerable feeling. And the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Psalms, digs even deeper....
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations of the Book of Psalms, grabs us right there. It starts with that very feeling, that fleeting sense of time slipping thro...
We all know the story: Moses, the Israelites, the desperate flight from Egypt... But the details? Oh, the Rabbis have some thoughts. The book of Psalms (Tehillim) is a constant sou...
It asks: Why, when God formed humanity, did He gather dust from all four corners of the earth? Why not just use the local dirt? The answer, according to the text, is surprisingly p...
It turns out, this isn't just a modern custom. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval Jewish text, touches upon this very tradition. It points to the verse in Proverb...
Take (Psalm 60:8), for instance: "Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe;...
It’s a concept that resonates deeply within Jewish tradition, and the story of King David’s actions after the death of Saul offers a powerful example. The text we’re exploring toda...
The patriarch Abraham experienced just such a moment, according to the ancient text, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. Imagine the scene: Abraham, fresh from his encounter with the divine, i...
It turns out, that feeling might be more ancient and profound than you think. Jewish tradition actually has something pretty amazing to say about it. to a fascinating little teachi...
Our ancestor Jacob had that experience, big time, at the ford of the Jabbok (יַבֹּק), a river mentioned in Genesis. The story, as told in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (chapter 37), a fas...
The story of Simeon and Levi, found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38, explores just that kind of fiery zeal. It all starts with the violation of their sister, Dinah, by Shechem. The te...
