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The Torah commands: "The entire congregation of Israel shall offer it" (Exodus 12:47). The Mekhilta asks why this verse is necessary at all, given that the Torah already instructed...
The Torah states: "And if there live with you a stranger, and he would offer a Pesach (Passover) to the Lord" (Exodus 12:48). The Mekhilta immediately identifies a potential misund...
Conversion raises a tricky legal puzzle when it happens at the wrong time of year. Rabbi Shimon, quoted in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (a halakhic midrash (rabbinic interpretive ...
"let all of his males be circumcised": We are hereby apprised that (non) circumcision of his males prevents him from offering the Pesach (Passover). Whence do we derive the same fo...
Rabbi Yonathan addressed a legal puzzle hidden inside the Passover laws. The Torah says "let all of his males be circumcised, and then he shall draw near to offer it." A straightfo...
Rabbi Nathan found a specific legal scenario embedded in the verse "let all of his males be circumcised." The phrase excludes a particular case from preventing a master's participa...
The Mekhilta preserves a remarkable legal case involving a woman named Beluria, a proselytess — a non-Jewish woman who converted to Judaism. Beluria owned several maid-servants, an...
The Torah declares: "And every uncircumcised one shall not eat of it." The Mekhilta asks a pointed question: why is this verse necessary at all? The Torah already stated "No strang...
"One Torah shall there be for the citizen and for the stranger" (Exodus 12:49). This verse — one of the most sweeping declarations of equality in the Torah — might seem redundant. ...
God spoke to Moses with a command that sounds absolute: "Sanctify unto Me every first-born" (Exodus 13:1-2). Every first-born — of humans, of animals, of everything that opens the ...
"Sanctify unto Me every first-born"—generic (implying both males and females). (Devarim 15:19) "the male"—specific, (excluding females). If I have the generic, why do I need the sp...
The Torah states: "in man and beast, he is Mine" (Exodus 13:2), declaring God's ownership of every first-born. The Mekhilta draws from this verse a principle of elegant symmetry: w...
Variantly: The bechor of a man is likened to the bechor of a beast, and the bechor of a beast to the bechor of a man. Just as with a beast, a miscarriage (of the first pregnancy) e...
The Torah declares of every first-born: "he is Mine." But elsewhere, God commands: "the male shall you sanctify to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 15:19). The Mekhilta spots a tens...
The Torah commands: "And the priest shall burn wood upon it every morning" (Leviticus 6:5), referring to the daily kindling of fire on the altar. The Mekhilta immediately asks: why...
The Torah commands: "the one lamb shall you offer in the morning, and the other lamb shall you offer in the afternoon" (Numbers 28:4). This is the tamid, the daily perpetual offeri...
The Torah records God's instruction: "And they shall make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8). The Mekhilta once again poses its characteristic question:...
Once, the disciples spent a Sabbath in Yavneh, R. Yehoshua not among them. When they returned to him he asked them: "What novelty did you hear in Yavneh?" They answered: "After you...
The students of a great teacher reported that he expounded a striking principle using the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when it...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai offered his own parable to explain the same prophecy from Jeremiah — that a future redemption would overshadow the memory of the Exodus. His version is shar...
The name of Yitzchak was not changed, for he was thus (originally) called by the Holy One Blessed be He. There are three who were named by the Holy One Blessed be He—Yitzchak, Shlo...
The Mekhilta presents a teaching that reaches back before the creation of the world itself. The names of the righteous — and their deeds — are known to God before they are ever bor...
Moses commanded the people: "Remember this day when you went out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:3). The Mekhilta notices that this verse, taken alone, refers to the daytime — "this day." The...
The sages say: "the days of your life"—in this world; "all the days of your life"—to include the days of the Messiah. Ben Zoma said to them: Israel is destined not to mention the e...
Rabbi Nathan noticed something striking in the Torah's language about the Exodus. The text uses two verbs — "who brought up" and "who brought" — when describing God's act of taking...
Where does the obligation to say grace after meals — Birkat HaMazon — come from? The Mekhilta traces it to a single verse: (Deuteronomy 8:10), "And you shall eat and you shall be s...
Rabbi Chiyya ben Nachmani delivered a teaching in the name of Rabbi Yishmael that cuts against every natural human instinct. The verse in (Deuteronomy 8:10) already commands, "You ...
The Torah explicitly commands a blessing after eating — (Deuteronomy 8:10) states, "You shall eat and you shall be satisfied and you shall bless the Lord your God." But what about ...
Rabbi Nathan cited a verse from the story of the prophet Samuel to teach a lesson about the proper order of blessings and meals. The verse reads: "As soon as you enter the town, yo...
Rabbi Yitzchak found a verse that establishes blessings both before and after eating. (Exodus 23:25) reads, "And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira noticed something peculiar in (Deuteronomy 8:10): "You shall eat and you shall be satisfied and you shall bless... for the good land." The verse already ...
Rabbi Chanina, the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshua, laid out the liturgical structure for communal blessing based on a verse from (Deuteronomy 32:3): "When I call upon the name of the Lor...
Rebbi, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, taught a lesson about how Jews should respond whenever the name of a righteous person is mentioned. He cited (Proverbs 10:7): "The remembrance of the r...
The verse (Exodus 13:3) states, "and chametz shall not be eaten." The passive phrasing — "shall not be eaten" rather than "you shall not eat" — caught the attention of Rabbi Yoshiy...
Rabbi Yitzchak disagreed with Rabbi Yoshiyah's reading of (Exodus 13:3), "and chametz shall not be eaten." He argued that the passive phrasing was not needed to equate the feeder w...
(Exodus 13:3) records Moses telling the people, "This day you go out, in the month of Aviv." The Hebrew word Aviv means spring. But the verse seems redundant — everyone present alr...
Rabbi Nathan offered a striking interpretation of the word bakosharoth from (Psalms 68:7), "He takes out the bound bakosharoth." Rather than reading it as a single word, he split i...
Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, one of the most prominent Tannaitic sages, made a bold claim about why God chose to liberate Israel from Egypt. It was not because of anything the enslave...
Variantly (Psalms 68:7) "G–d settles the solitary in their homes. He takes out the bound bakosharoth. But rebels dwelling in dryness, etc.": They were rebels, in spite of which He ...
"This day you go out in the month of Aviv" (Exodus 13:3) — a verse that seems to state the obvious. Of course Israel left in the month of Aviv (spring). The Torah already told us t...
(Exodus 13:5) states, "And it shall be, when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite." That is five nations. But J...
Rabbi Yoshiyah tackled a question about the scope of the commandment of first fruits, bikkurim. (Deuteronomy 26:2) commands, "Then you shall take of all the fruits of the earth." R...
(Exodus 13:5) speaks of the land "which He swore to your forefathers." The Mekhilta asks a direct question: where exactly in the Torah did God swear this oath to each of the patria...
(Exodus 13:6) declares, "And on the seventh day, a festival to the Lord." The Hebrew word for festival, chag, is related to chagigah, the special festival offering brought at the T...
The verse (Exodus 13:7) commands, "Matzoth shall be eaten the seven days, and chametz shall not be seen unto you." A straightforward reading suggests these two rules — eat matzah, ...
"and chametz shall not be seen unto you, and se'or shall not be seen unto you": chametz is likened to se'or, and se'or to chametz. Just as the one may not be seen, so, the other. J...
The Torah's prohibition against possessing chametz during Passover seems absolute. But the rabbis of the Mekhilta identified important exceptions based on two principles: domain an...
The Torah prohibits chametz in two locations during Passover: in your houses and in your boundaries. But a careful reader might wonder whether these two prohibitions share the same...
