1,227 texts · Page 11 of 26
Let her, then, be bored, as it would, indeed, follow that she should be, viz.: If a son, whose father is not permitted to sell him, is bored, how much more so a daughter, whose fat...
"And if a man sells": We are hereby apprised that he may sell her (as a maid-servant). And whence is it derived that he is permitted to betroth her?—If he can remove her from (the ...
The Torah states: "And if a man sells his daughter as a maid-servant" (Exodus 21:7). The Mekhilta draws a striking inference from this phrasing. A father may sell his daughter as a...
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 uses the phrase "who did not designate her" in reference to a Hebrew maid-servant whose master has not taken her as his wife (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta unpacks this phra...
The Torah uses the Hebrew word "bagdah" in connection with a father who has sold his daughter as a maid-servant (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta interprets this word as a description of...
(Exodus, Ibid. 9) "And if to his son he designate her (as a wife)": He designates her to his son, but not to his brother. For it would follow (that he does designate her to his bro...
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 ...
R. Yonathan says: It ("according to the ordinance, etc.") speaks of a Hebrew (maid-servant, i.e., that he is to do with his maid-servant according to the ordinance of the Jewish da...
R. Yonathan says: "she'erah" is her clothing, i.e., clothing that is adapted to her flesh ("she'er"). If she were young, he should not give her (the clothing) of an elderly woman. ...
Rabbi Yonathan disagrees with Rabbi Yoshiyah's reading of "he shall not diminish" (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah understood the verse as protecting the Hebrew maid-servant (t...
The Torah says the Hebrew maid-servant "shall go out free" if her master fails to fulfill his obligations (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta probes the meaning of the word "free" with a ...
"then she shall go out free": when she is a bogereth (i.e., after twelve and a half years); "without money": when she is a na'arah (from twelve and a day until twelve and half.) No...
The Torah describes a young woman sold into servitude by her father and establishes the conditions under which she goes free. Rabbi Eliezer interprets the verse "Then she shall go ...
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 Torah declares: "And if one strikes his father and his mother, he shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:15). The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necessary when the Torah alread...
"And if one strikes his father and his mother": This tells me only of (one who strikes both) his father and his mother. Whence do I derive (liability for one who strikes) his fathe...
Rabbi Yitzchak addresses a grammatical question in the verse about striking one's parents that has enormous legal consequences. The Torah states: "And if one strikes his father and...
"And if one strikes his father or his mother": a blow which causes a wound. You say a blow which causes a wound, but perhaps even a blow which does not cause a wound? Would you say...
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...
(Exodus 21:17) states: "And if one curses his father and his mother, he shall be put to death." The Mekhilta asks why this verse is needed at all, since (Leviticus 20:9) already sa...
"And if one curses his father and his mother" — the Mekhilta notices that this verse uses "and," connecting father and mother together. Taken literally, this might mean the death p...
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...
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...
"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...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — offered an alternative reading of the fighting-men passage. If a man intends to strike one enemy and accidentally strikes a different enemy, the logi...
"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 addresses a disturbing scenario: "And they hit a pregnant woman" (Exodus 21:22). Two men are fighting, and a pregnant bystander is struck, causing her to miscarry. The To...
"and there be no death": in the woman. "then he shall be punished": for the fetuses (i.e., payment for the fetuses shall be exacted of him.) You say this, but perhaps (the meaning ...
The Torah addresses a troubling scenario in (Exodus 21:22): two men are fighting, and in the chaos, a pregnant woman gets struck. The blow causes her to miscarry. Who pays? And to ...
The Torah says that when a pregnant woman is struck and miscarries, the compensation is determined "as the husband of the woman imposes upon him" (Exodus 21:22). One might think th...
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...
"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 ...
(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 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 reads this phrase as a limitation: the seducer may take the woman "as a wife that is permitted to him." This means the marr...
"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 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,...
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...
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...
