1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 11 of 32.
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a legal ruling from God's command to the Israelites before the revelation at Sinai: "Do not draw near to a woman" (Exodus 19:15). Moses delivere...
The Mekhilta here works through the laws of the Hebrew maidservant, reading (Exodus 21:9), "And if to his son he designate her as a wife." The Torah allows a master to betroth his ...
Rabbi Nathan interpreted the verse "and perverts the words of the righteous" (Exodus 23:8) as referring to something far more severe than ordinary judicial corruption. The one who ...
At that time, Israel were like a dove fleeing the hawk and seeking refuge in the cleft of the rock, where the serpent hissed. The Mekhilta paints the moment at the Sea of Reeds as ...
R. Shimon b. Elazar says: When Israel do the will of the L–rd, His name is exalted in the world, as it is written (Joshua 5:1) "And it was, when all the kings of the Emori heard, e...
"And it was, on the third day, when it was morning" (Exodus 19:16), the day the Torah would be given at Sinai. The Mekhilta draws a remarkable inference from this verse: God "arose...
The Torah states that a master who takes a Hebrew maid-servant as his wife must provide for her "according to the ordinance of the daughters" (Exodus 21:9). The Mekhilta asks what ...
(Exodus 23:10) commands: "Six years shall you sow your land." Rabbi Eliezer taught that this verse reveals two different agricultural realities, depending on Israel's spiritual sta...
The Mekhilta presents a remarkable statement from the congregation of Israel, addressed directly to God, that explains exactly why they are singing at the Red Sea. "Lord of the wor...
When God descended upon Mount Sinai to give the Torah, the mountain erupted with phenomena that defied nature. The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael pauses on the word "lightnings" in (Exo...
R. Yonathan reads the phrase "according to the ordinance" (Exodus 21:9) as a ruling about the Hebrew bondwoman, teaching that a master who designates such a girl for himself or his...
"and you shall gather in its produce (11) and the seventh year, etc.": to include (as forbidden) the fruits of the sixth year which enter the seventh year. This tells me only of th...
Variantly: "Stand ready to see the salvation of the L–rd": They: When? Moses: Tomorrow. They: Moses our teacher we do not have the strength to wait. At that time Moses prayed and t...
"And the sound of the shofar, very strong" (Exodus 19:16), the Mekhilta connects this to a later verse (Exodus 19:19): "And the sound of the shofar grew exceedingly strong." Togeth...
The Torah verse "If another he take for him" (Exodus 21:10) is read by the Mekhilta as the source for a surprising obligation. From this verse, the Sages ruled that a father is obl...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a vivid interpretation of God's attack on the Egyptian army during the crossing of the Red Sea, reading the verse "And He shall let fly His sha...
"And Moses took out the people to meet God" (Exodus 19:17). And Rabbi Yossi recalls how Rabbi Yehudah used to interpret the verse from (Deuteronomy 33:2): "And he said: The Lord ca...
The Torah lists three things a husband must provide for his wife: "she'eirah, kesuthah, and onathah" (Exodus 21:10). These three Hebrew terms are cryptic, and the Mekhilta preserve...
Rebbi. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law), declared that circumcision was so great that all of Moses' accumulated merits could not...
R. Yonathan says: "she'erah" is her clothing, i.e., clothing that is adapted to her flesh ("she'er"). If she were young, he should not give her (the clothing) of an elderly woman. ...
"And the seventh year you shall leave it", the Torah commands that the land be left fallow during the shemitah year. But the Mekhilta anticipates a well-intentioned objection. Some...
The Mekhilta identifies three separate places in the Torah where God explicitly commanded Israel never to return to Egypt. Three warnings, not one, not two, but three, each in a di...
R. Yossi confronts the terrifying verse where the Lord seeks to kill Moses on his way back to Egypt (Exodus 4:24). He recoils from the obvious reading. God forbid, he says, that tz...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a dramatically different reading of the three marital obligations listed in (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah identified "she'eirah" as food ...
"And the poor of your people shall eat it", during the shemitah year, the produce that grows on its own is available to the poor. But (Leviticus 25:6) says something different: "fo...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reads Israel's repeated turning toward Egypt as a recurring historical failure, three returns each ending in a fall. The principle is that whenever th...
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael explains the name Moses gave his second son. Commenting on (Exodus 18:4) "and the name of the second, Eliezer, for the God of my fa...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael belongs to Tractate Bachodesh, the section that expounds the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The sages read a verse from Song of Songs...
The Torah instructs that if a master takes an additional wife, "he shall not diminish" what he owes to the first wife (Exodus 21:10). Rabbi Yoshiyah raises an important question ab...
Trapped between Pharaoh's army and the water, Israel did not respond as one. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael teaches that Israel were four factions at the sea, each gripped by a diff...
When Pharaoh sent soldiers to hunt down Moses after the slaying of the Egyptian taskmaster, God intervened in a way no one expected. Rather than striking the pursuers dead or sendi...
Rabbi Eliezer offers a breathtaking interpretation of (Song of Songs 2:14), reading each phrase as a reference to the events at the Red Sea. The verse reads: "Show me your face, le...
Rabbi Yonathan disagrees with Rabbi Yoshiyah's reading of "he shall not diminish" (Exodus 21:10). Where Rabbi Yoshiyah understood the verse as protecting the Hebrew maid-servant (t...
"And what they leave shall be eaten by the animals of the field", the Torah establishes that shemitah produce left uneaten by humans may be consumed by wild animals. But the Mekhil...
A small textual puzzle in the book of Exodus reveals something important about Moses' family. The verse states (Exodus 18:5): "And Yithro, Moses' father-in-law, and his sons and hi...
The Mekhilta offers a poetic interpretation of the Song of Songs, reading its romantic language as a dialogue between God and Israel. And locating that dialogue in specific moments...
The Torah states: "And if these three he does not do to her, then she shall go out free, without money" (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta asks the obvious question: what are "these thre...
The Torah says the Hebrew maid-servant "shall go out free" if her master fails to fulfill his obligations (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta probes the meaning of the word "free" with a ...
This teaching belongs to the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, and it expounds the verse spoken at the shore of the Sea of Reeds, "The L-rd will war for y...
"then she shall go out free": when she is a bogereth (i.e. after twelve and a half years); "without money": when she is a na'arah (from twelve and a day until twelve and half.) Now...
The Torah says, "Six days shall you do your work" (Exodus 23:12), a commandment to labor for six days and rest on the seventh, the Shabbat (the Sabbath). But the Mekhilta noticed s...
The Torah describes a young woman sold into servitude by her father and establishes the conditions under which she goes free. Rabbi Eliezer interprets the verse "Then she shall go ...
R. Eliezer teaches in the name of the Holy One Blessed be He, who addressed Moses with a declaration of His own nature. "I am the one who spoke and brought the world into being. I ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a legal teaching from Rabbi Nathan that resolves an apparent contradiction in the Torah's laws about monetary obligations. On the one hand, ...
The Torah commands that animals must rest on the Sabbath, just as humans do. But the Mekhilta raises a sharp question about what "rest" actually means for an animal. The answer rev...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael describes the extraordinary reception that Jethro received when he arrived at the Israelite camp in the wilderness. The verse states simply: "And Mose...
"And there be refreshed the son of your maid-servant", this verse about Sabbath rest mentions a "maid-servant's son." The Mekhilta identifies this as an uncircumcised Canaanite ser...
When Yithro arrives in the wilderness, the Torah says, "and he bowed down to him and he kissed him" (Exodus 18:7), but the Hebrew leaves the pronouns ambiguous, so the Mekhilta rai...
