1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 10 of 32.
The Mekhilta cites Jacob's blessing to Joseph, "I have given you an additional portion over your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Emori with my sword and with my bow" (G...
The Mekhilta takes a single Hebrew word from the Song of the Sea, "ve'anvehu". And shows how three different rabbis derive three entirely different meanings from it, each revealing...
What was Yithro's role in Midian before he joined Moses and the people of Israel? The verse calls him "the Cohein of Midian" (Exodus 18:1), and two rabbis disagreed about what "Coh...
As Israel gathers at Sinai, the verse (Exodus 19:12) commands Moses, "And you shall bound the people," setting a fixed limit around the mountain that no one may cross. The Mekhilta...
Yehudah ben Tabbai once entered a ruin and found a man in his death throes. A knife dripping with blood was in the hand of another man, clearly the murderer. Yehudah turned to the ...
The Torah introduces a practical problem in the laws of the Passover sacrifice. What happens when a household is too small to consume an entire lamb? (Exodus 12:4) addresses this d...
The Mekhilta draws yet another proof of prayer's supreme power from Jacob's blessing over the tribe of Judah. The Torah declares: "A lion's whelp is Judah" (Genesis 49:9). The firs...
The Mekhilta continues its exploration of the word "ve'anvehu" from (Exodus 15:2) by presenting two more rabbinic interpretations, each connecting the Song of the Sea to broader Je...
Moses and Aaron delivered a pointed warning to the Israelites who kept complaining about their food in the wilderness. The manna had been given with a "radiant countenance" because...
The Mekhilta notices something peculiar about how the Torah identifies Yithro. In the beginning of the story, Moses is the one who boasts about the relationship. When Moses returns...
The passage from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the halakhic midrash of the school of Rabbi Yishmael on Exodus, parses the warning given at Sinai that anyone or any beast touching ...
The Mekhilta addresses the legal status of a Hebrew maid-servant in relation to the laws of bodily injury. The general rule in Torah law is that a servant who loses an "organ promi...
The Mekhilta offers a powerful interpretation of the verse "and a clean one and a righteous one you shall not kill," revealing it as a cornerstone of Jewish criminal justice, a pri...
The Mekhilta brings the prophet Jeremiah into its sustained argument about the power of prayer, citing one of the sharpest contrasts in all of Scripture: "Cursed is the man who tru...
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael belongs to Tractate Shirah, the section expounding the Song at the Sea. R. Akiva, the great sage of the second century and master o...
In (Exodus 16:9), Moses instructed Aaron to tell the entire congregation of Israel to "draw near before the Lord." Two rabbis in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael disagreed about what ...
Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael turns to What If a Household Was Too Small to Eat an Entire Passover Lamb. Rabbi Akiva asked: Where do we learn that a person may make the Passover offeri...
The Mekhilta brings the confrontation between David and Goliath as the ultimate demonstration of prayer's superiority over physical weapons. David declared to the Philistine giant:...
The phrase "they turned to the desert" in (Exodus 16:10) seems like a simple geographic note. The Israelites looked toward the wilderness, and there they saw the glory of God. But ...
When Jethro heard "that the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt," the Mekhilta draws a remarkable conclusion: the Exodus is not just one miracle among many. It is the miracle agains...
The Torah states that "when the ram's horn sounds" the people may ascend Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:13). The Mekhilta reads this literally: when the shofar "draws out" its sound, when ...
The Torah uses the phrase "who did not designate her" in reference to a Hebrew maid-servant whose master has not taken her as his wife (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta unpacks this phra...
The Mekhilta addresses a critical question in Jewish criminal law: what happens when new incriminating evidence emerges after a defendant has already been acquitted? The Torah stat...
The Torah instructs that when preparing for the Paschal lamb, if a household is too small to consume the entire animal, they should share it with "the neighbor near his house" (Exo...
The Mekhilta cites King Asa of Judah as yet another example of prayer triumphing over impossible military odds. The story appears in (II Chronicles 14:10), where Asa faces a massiv...
The Mekhilta preserves a striking exchange drawn from the Song of Songs, imagined as a conversation between the nations of the world and Israel about Israel's unique relationship w...
"and, behold, the glory of the L-rd appeared in the cloud." R. Yossi Haglili, a Tanna of the Mekhilta's circle, reads this verse against the pattern of Israel's complaints in the w...
The Torah states that Yithro "took Tzipporah, Moses' wife, after she had been sent" (Exodus 18:2). The phrase "after she had been sent" is vague, sent where? By whom? Under what ci...
(Exodus 19:14) "And Moses went down from the mountain": We are hereby apprised that Moses did not turn to his affairs or go down to his house, but (directly) from the mountain to t...
A man stands trial in a human court. The evidence is examined. The witnesses are questioned. And by the strict standards of Torah law, the defendant walks free, acquitted, vindicat...
What is written of Moses? (Numbers 20:14-16) "And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom … And our fathers went down to Egypt … and He hearkened to our voice." He (t...
R. Elazar says: after she parted from him with a ma'amar (i.e., by word of mouth). For when the L–rd said to Moses: Go and take My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, viz...
The Torah uses the Hebrew word "bagdah" in connection with a father who has sold his daughter as a maid-servant (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta interprets this word as a description of...
The Mekhilta presents one of the most hopeful arguments in all of rabbinic literature, built on a simple logical structure called kal va-chomer, an argument from lesser to greater....
The Torah uses an unusual word, "michsah", when describing how the Passover lamb should be allocated. (Exodus 12:4) says the lamb must be divided "according to the michsah of souls...
(Exodus 14:11) "And they said to Moses: Is it for lack of graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert!" After they had placed "leavening in the dough" (i.e. after t...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael offers a parable to teach how God never abandoned Israel. Picture a king's son who travels abroad. The king goes after him and attends upon him. The ...
Moses told the people, "Be ready in three days" (Exodus 19:15), instructing them to separate from their wives in preparation for receiving the Torah. But the Mekhilta notices a pro...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael examines the rules for who may be counted as a participant in the Passover offering. What is the intent of the phrase "according to the count of soul...
With the Egyptian army bearing down and the Red Sea blocking their path, the Israelites succumbed to terror. It was Moses who stepped forward and spoke the words that steadied an e...
The Mekhilta reads a verse from the Song of Songs as the voice of Israel at the sea, recalling how she found her Beloved. "I had almost passed them by, when I found Him whom my sou...
R. Elazar Homadai says: in a land of foreign (gods, i.e., idolatry). Moses said: Since the whole world serves idolatry, I will serve Him who spoke and brought the (whole) world int...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a different solution to the question of how Moses derived the requirement for marital separation before receiving the Torah. Rather than relying...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael interprets the verse warning that a bribe blinds the clear-sighted. The rabbis first ask in what sense bribery causes blindness, sug...
Rabbi Yishmael preserved a practical but fascinating rule about how the original Passover sacrifice worked in Egypt. The Paschal lamb was not a solo affair, families and neighbors ...
This teaching of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael stands at the shore of the sea, with Egypt closing in behind and the water ahead. Moses tells the frightened people, "Stand ready (hi...
The Mekhilta presents a beautiful declaration in which Israel, personified as a bride, proclaims her lineage before God with joyful pride: "I am a queen, the daughter of kings; a b...
Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah made a bold claim about how deeply the Torah regards circumcision. The foreskin, he taught, is so repulsive in the eyes of God that Scripture uses "uncircu...
