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The Talmudic sage known simply as Rebbi — Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) — raised a striking question about the greatness of M...
At Mount Sinai, God issued a specific invitation: "Go up, you and Aaron with you." The Mekhilta notices something crucial about this command. It names Moses and Aaron by implicatio...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael tackles a puzzling question about the Ten Commandments. If all ten were spoken individually, why does the Torah present them as a unified declaration ...
"saying": They responded to an affirmative (i.e., "You shall, etc.") in the affirmative ("Yes") and to a negative, in the negative. R. Akiva says: to an affirmative in the affirmat...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asks a deceptively simple question: why were the Ten Commandments not placed at the very beginning of the Torah? If they are the foundation of the cov...
Before God ever asked Israel to accept His kingship, He proved Himself through action. The Mekhilta lays out the sequence with deliberate precision, and the order matters. First, G...
Rebbi says: (The thrust of "your [singular] G–d") is to apprise us of the eminence of Israel, that when they all stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, they were all of one hea...
"I am the L–rd your G–d who took you out of the land of Egypt." What is the intent of this? Because He appeared at the Red Sea as a hero waging war, viz. (Exodus 15:3) "The L–rd is...
Rabbi Nathan presents this teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael as a direct rebuttal to heretics who claim there are two divine powers. The argument is elegant in its simpli...
Variantly: "I am the L–rd your G–d": When the Holy One Blessed be He stood and said "I am the L–rd your G–d," the mountains shook and the hills quivered, and Tavor came from Be'er ...
Before offering the Torah to Israel, God first approached every other nation on earth. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael explains that this was not because God expected them to accept....
Before giving the Torah to Israel, God first offered it to every other nation on earth. The Mekhilta records one of the most dramatic of these encounters — the moment God approache...
After being rejected by the sons of Esau, God turned to the sons of Ammon and Moab and made the same offer: "Will you accept the Torah?" The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records their...
He came and revealed Himself to the sons of Ishmael and asked them: Will you accept the Torah? They: What is written in it? He: "You shall not steal." They: But this is the blessin...
R. Shimon b. Elazar said: If the sons of Noach could not abide by the seven mitzvot (commandments)h commanded them, how much more so (could they not abide) by all the mitzvoth of t...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael pauses on a single phrase from the Ten Commandments to ask a question about dignity. When God declared "who took you out from the land of Egypt," what...
The Mekhilta offers a parable that illuminates the logic behind the order of events at Sinai. A king of flesh and blood enters a new province. His servants immediately urge him: "M...
Before God gave a single commandment at Sinai, He made a remarkable statement that the Mekhilta preserves as a kind of divine negotiation. "I am the Lord your God," He declared. Th...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai reads the second commandment, "There shall not be unto you any other gods before My presence," as the conclusion of a divine dialogue that began long before...
The Mekhilta unpacks a subtle but powerful argument that God makes to Israel. The verse reads: "As the deeds of the land of Egypt in which you dwelt you shall not do" (Leviticus 18...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael identifies a crucial legal distinction hidden in the commandment "There shall not be unto you other gods." The question is deceptively simple: what ex...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers multiple interpretations of the Hebrew phrase "elohim acherim," commonly translated as "other gods." The rabbis noticed that the word "acherim"...
R. Yossi says: Why "other gods"? Not to give a pretext to the nations of the world to say: If they were called by His name, they would be effectual. Behold, they were called by His...
Rabbi Eliezer offered a mordantly funny interpretation of the phrase "elohim acherim" (other gods) in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael. He connected "acherim" not to "otherness" but t...
Rabbi Chanina ben Antignos offered one of the sharpest anti-idolatry arguments in the entire Mekhilta, and he did it with a single devastating observation about language. The Torah...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines the phrase "before My presence" in the prohibition against idolatry, asking what this seemingly redundant qualifier adds. The answer reveals ...
(Ibid. 4) "You shall not make for yourself an idol (lit., "a carving")": I might think that he may not make one that projects but he may make one that is flat. It is, therefore, wr...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records a teaching from Rabbi Akiva about just how far the prohibition against making images extends. The verse in (Exodus 20:18) states "which is in ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael addresses a precise legal question about the commandment in (Exodus 20:5): "You shall not bow down to them and you shall not serve them." The question...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asks a deceptively simple question: what is the purpose of the commandment "You shall not bow down"? If the Torah already states in (Exodus 22:19) tha...
A certain philosopher asked R. Gamliel: It is written in your Torah "for the L–rd your G–d is a wrathful G–d." Now is there power in idolatry to arouse wrath (in G–d)? One here is ...
(Ibid.) "He visits the sins of the fathers upon the children (for the third and the fourth generations"): when they (the generations) are consecutive. How so? An evildoer, the son ...
R. Nathan says: "for My lovers and the keepers of My mitzvot (commandments)h": the Jews who dwell in Eretz Yisrael, and give their lives for the mitzvoth. Why are you going out to ...
(Ibid. 7) "You shall not take the name of the L–rd your G–d in vain": A vain oath, too, was included in (Leviticus 19:12) "You shall not swear falsely in My name," and Scripture re...
You shall not take": What is the intent of this? (Leviticus 19:12) "You shall not swear falsely in My name" speaks only of swearing. Whence is it derived that it is also forbidden ...
Because of (the following) four things R. Mattia b. Charash went to R. Elazar b. Hakappar in Ludia. He said to him: My master, did you hear of the four divisions of atonement expou...
Rebbi says: For everything from "You shall not take the name" and down, penitence does atone. From "You shall not take the name" and up, including "You shall not take the name," pe...
(Ibid. 20:8) "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it": "Remember" and "Keep" (the Sabbath day to sanctify it [Devarim 5:12]) were both stated in one pronouncement. (Exodus 31:14) ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael derives the practice of Kiddush, the sanctification of Shabbat (the Sabbath) over wine, from the commandment to "sanctify it." The phrase "to sanctify...
(Exodus, Ibid. 10) "And the seventh day is Sabbath to the L–rd your G–d. You shall not perform any labor." What is the intent of this? (Exodus 31:15) "Everyone who does labor on th...
Rabbi Achai ben Yoshiyah addressed a question about the Sabbath commandment's reference to "you and your son and your daughter." Who exactly are the son and daughter mentioned here...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines the Shabbat (the Sabbath) commandment's reference to "your man-servant and your maid-servant," asking a pointed question: which servants does...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael turns to the phrase "and your sojourner in your gates" from the Shabbat (the Sabbath) commandment and asks: which type of sojourner is meant? Jewish l...
"and He rested on the seventh day"? Now is He subject to "weariness"? Is it not written (Isaiah 40:28) "He does not tire and He does not weary," and (Ibid. 29) "He gives strength t...
"For this the L–rd blessed the Sabbath day and He sanctified it": He blessed it with the manna (by providing a double portion on the sixth day), and he sanctified it with the manna...
"Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12). The fifth of the Ten Commandments seems straightforward enough, but the Mekhilta immediately asks: what does "honor" actually re...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael raises a question about who is obligated to honor parents. The commandment says "Honor your father and your mother," but a related verse in (Leviticus...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira offered an alternative proof that the commandment to honor parents applies equally to all people regardless of sex. His argument in the Mekhilta DeRabbi ...
