THE INTERPRETIVE PRINCIPLES OF RABBI YISHMA’EL This passage was chosen because it appears at the beginning of Sifra, the halakhic commentary to Leviticus, the book where most of the laws relating to sacrifices appear. Rabbi Yishma’el ben Elisha, who lived in the first half of the second century CE, was a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva. As a child he lived through the destruction of the Second Temple; he was taken as a captive to Rome but was ransomed and rescued by Rabbi Yehoshua. He and Rabbi Akiva both formulated interpretive principles to show how the Oral Torah was derived from the Written Torah. Known for his love of humanity and especially of every Jew, he taught that “All Israel are to be regarded as princes.”