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The opening of Mekhilta Tractate Shabbata draws attention to the singular way God communicated with Moses. The verse states (Exodus 30:11): "And the Lord spoke to Moses." The Mekhi...
(Exodus 31:13) commands: "But My Sabbaths shall you keep." The Mekhilta asks what this verse adds to (Exodus 20:10): "You shall not perform any labor." If labor is already prohibit...
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...
(Exodus 31:13) says: "For it is a sign between Me and you." The Mekhilta reads "between Me and you" — between God and Israel — to the exclusion of the other nations. The Sabbath is...
"That I, the Lord, sanctify you" — the Mekhilta interprets this as referring to the world to come. The sanctity that God bestows upon Israel through Sabbath observance is a foretas...
The Torah declares about the Sabbath: "for it is holy to you" (Exodus 31:14). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws from this phrase a remarkable teaching about how Sabbath observanc...
The Shabbat (the Sabbath) carries a responsibility that extends beyond rest. According to the Mekhilta, every person who observes the Sabbath becomes a witness. And the testimony t...
"Those who profane it shall be put to death" — the Torah states the punishment for violating the Sabbath. But the Mekhilta asks: from this verse, we know only the punishment. Where...
The Mekhilta has established the punishment and warning for daytime Sabbath labor. But what about labor performed at night — during the evening hours of the Sabbath? The day-based ...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira addressed a question that must have been painfully real for Jews living under foreign occupation: what happens when enemy armies force you to violate the...
"For whoever does work upon it, that soul shall be cut off" — the Mekhilta specifies that this refers to "a complete work." The full prohibition applies only when a person complete...
"That soul shall be cut off from the midst of its people" — the Mekhilta asks what this verse adds to "those who profane it shall be put to death," which has already been stated. B...
(Exodus 31:15) says: "Six days will work be done." But another verse (Exodus 20:9) says: "Six days shall you work, and you shall do all of your work." One verse is passive — "work ...
What is the intent of (Exodus, Ibid. 150 "And the seventh day, a Sabbath of resting, holy to the L–rd"? From (Leviticus 23:4) "These are the festivals of the L–rd, callings of holi...
The Torah commands: "And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath for their generations" (Exodus 31:16). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael connects this ve...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) — makes a staggering claim about the Sabbath. If a person keeps even one Shabbat (the ...
"It is a sign forever" — the Mekhilta derives from this phrase that the Sabbath will never be lost from Israel. No matter what happens — exile, persecution, assimilation pressures ...
"He rested and was restored" — the Torah says God rested on the seventh day. But from what did He rest? From labor, or from judgment? The Mekhilta uses the word "restored" to deter...
(Exodus 35:1) "And Moses assembled, etc." What is the intent of this section? From (Ibid. 25:8) "and they shall make for Me a sanctuary," I might think both on a weekday and on the...
And it would follow (that labors for the sanctuary would override the Sabbath, viz.:) If the sacrificial service, which comes only from the enablers, (i.e., the vessels, etc.) over...
Two verses in the Torah appear to contradict each other on the subject of work during the six days before Shabbat (the Sabbath). One verse says "Six days may work be done," using a...
(Exodus 35:2) says: "And on the seventh day it shall be holy for you." The Mekhilta explains why this clarification was needed. Israel might have reasoned as follows: the daily off...
(Exodus 35:3) commands: "You shall not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. The Mekhilta connects this verse to a completely different discussion about the shemit...
And, furthermore, it follows a fortiori, viz.: If on shemitah, transgression of which is liable to neither kareth (cutting-off) nor judicial death penalty, he rests from shemitah e...
Variantly: "You may not light a fire in all of your dwellings": From (Leviticus 6:6) "A perpetual fire shall burn on the altar," I might think, both on the weekdays and on the Sabb...
One of the disciples of R. Yishmael asked: What is the intent of "You shall not light a fire"?—From (Devarim 21:21) "And if there be in a man a sin whose judgment is death, then he...
The Torah says "You may not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. But what about executions ordered by a court? The judicial death penalty of burning requires fire...
Rabbi Yonathan asked: what is the purpose of specifying "You shall not light a fire" when the Torah already prohibits all labor on the Sabbath? If all thirty-nine categories of lab...
The Mekhilta concludes its treatment of the Sabbath fire prohibition with a clean summary of the legal principle. Lighting a fire was one of the thirty-nine proto-labors forbidden ...
