Had Israel Sung The Lord Reigns No Nation Would Rule

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:18

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"The LORD will reign forever and ever" (Exodus 15:18). Rabbi Yose says: Had Israel said "The LORD reigns forever and ever" [in the present], no nation or kingdom would ever have ruled over them. But [they said] "The LORD will reign forever and ever" [in the future], referring to the time to come. For what reason...

Themes

RedemptionIsraelKingship

Continue Reading

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiOn the Strength of That Very Day Israel Left Egypt in Battle ArrayThe verse marks the moment of the going-out with a strange word. On the etzem of that day, it says, a term that elsewhere means a bone. The sages read it as theMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiEvery Israelite Worthy of Miracles for His Own SakeThe duty to tell the story returns, and again the rabbis insist there is no escaping it. Whether a man has a son or sits alone, whether he is in company or by hMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiWho Plunged First Into the Sea and Won the RewardWho dared to enter the sea before it had fully parted? The sages preserve two answers and refuse to flatten them. In Rabbi Meir's telling, the whole tribe of BeMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThe LORD Is My Banner and God's Share in Israel's FortunesAfter the battle with Amalek, Moses built an altar and gave it a name that reads like a war cry: the LORD is my banner. But whose banner, and whose victory? TwoMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiBorne on Eagles' Wings From Egypt to SinaiGod begins His proposal at Sinai not with hearsay but with eyewitness proof. "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt." No witnesses, no written record, noPesikta de-Rav KahanaThe Red Heifer as Israel and the Promise of Future PurificationHaving read the heifer as Israel's foreign oppressors, the sages turn the same verse inward and read it as Israel itself. "A heifer" recalls a people once stubb