1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 12 of 32.
The Mekhilta deRabbi Yishmael, in its tractate Kaspa, parses the Sabbath rest commanded for the household. When the Torah extends Sabbath rest to "the stranger," the midrash asks p...
When Moses sat down with his father-in-law Yithro after the exodus from Egypt, he did not simply give a dry report of events. The Mekhilta explains that Moses "related to his fathe...
Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest sages of the Talmudic era, offered a distinctive legal ruling about when non-Jewish residents in the Land of Israel render wine forbidden to Jews. ...
When the Torah says that Yithro "rejoiced over all the good" that God had done for Israel (Exodus 18:9), the rabbis asked a natural question: which specific good was Yithro rejoici...
R. Elazar Hamodai offered a different explanation for what made Yithro rejoice. It was not the manna, he argued, but the miraculous well, the portable spring of water that traveled...
R. Eliezer took the debate in yet another direction. When Yithro rejoiced "over all the good," he was not celebrating manna or water. He was rejoicing over the promise of Eretz Yis...
R. Pappis made a statement about Yithro's blessing that was, in his reading, deeply unflattering to Israel. When Yithro arrived at the Israelite camp and heard what God had done, h...
The Mekhilta offers a striking interpretation of the phrase "from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of Pharaoh" (Exodus 18:10). Why does the verse mention both Egypt and Pharaoh ...
Yithro's declaration "Now I know that greater is the Lord than all the gods" (Exodus 18:11) is more remarkable than it first appears. The Mekhilta points out a critical detail: the...
The Mekhilta deepens the significance of Yithro's confession by pointing out that he was uniquely qualified to make it. "There was no idolatry in the world that Yithro did not come...
The verse records a startling act (Exodus 18:12): "Yithro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and peace-offerings for sacrifice to God." The Mekhilta says that Scripture d...
The verse says that Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law "before God." But the Mekhilta raises an obvious question: where was Moses himsel...
This Mekhilta story records a teaching attributed to R. Tzaddok about a feast that R. Gamliel, the patriarch, made for the sages. All the sages of Israel were seated before him whe...
R. Yitzchak took the lesson about serving others and elevated it to cosmic proportions. If we want to find someone greater than both R. Gamliel and Abraham in the act of serving, h...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael parses the precise wording the Torah uses for the Passover animal, the word seh, and shows how each term in the verse narrows down which creature is f...
"The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name" (Exodus 15:3). Rabbi Yehudah declares that this verse is extraordinarily rich, it illuminates truths that appear in many other pass...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reveals a remarkable exchange between God and Moses concerning the Israelites' complaints in the wilderness. The verse states: "I have heard the cavil...
(Exodus 18:13) "And it was on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people": the Mekhilta first pins down which morrow Scripture means. It was the morrow of Yom Kippur, the day af...
The Mekhilta reads the description of Sinai at the moment of revelation with great care. "And the whole of Mount Sinai smoked" (Exodus 19:18). One might have supposed that only the...
The Torah states: "If one strikes a man and he dies, he is to be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necessary when a similar law already appears ...
(Exodus 23:13) says: "And everything that I have spoken of to you, you shall observe." The Mekhilta asks what this general command adds to the specific Sabbath prohibition of (Exod...
Rabbi Yossi Haglili employed one of the most powerful tools in rabbinic reasoning, the kal vachomer, the argument from lesser to greater, to settle a question about the Pesach (Pas...
Rabbi Eliezer preserves a stunning exchange between God and Moses at the shore of the Red Sea. The Israelites were trapped, the sea raging before them, the Egyptian army closing be...
The Mekhilta on the Song at the Sea is wrestling with a daring theological problem. At the sea God appeared to Israel as a mighty warrior crushing Pharaoh's army, yet at Sinai the ...
The passage from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, comments on the wilderness episode in which the Israelites, hungry after leaving Egypt, complain fo...
Jethro arrived at the Israelite camp and immediately noticed something troubling. His son-in-law Moses sat from morning until evening while the entire nation stood in a line before...
"And its smoke rose like the smoke of a lime kiln" (Exodus 19:18), this is how the Torah describes Mount Sinai when God descended upon it. But the Mekhilta immediately senses a pro...
The Torah states in (Exodus 21:12): "If one strikes a man." The language is specific, "a man." The Mekhilta immediately asks the obvious question: does this mean the law only appli...
The Torah specifies that the Passover offering must come "from the lambs and from the goats" (Exodus 12:5). Does this mean both species are required together, or can either one suf...
The Torah declares, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name" (Exodus 15:3). This verse, from the Song of the Sea, prompted the Mekhilta to address a potential misunderstand...
The Mekhilta records a pointed question that Yehudah of Kfar Acco once posed to R. Gamliel. When Moses explained to Yithro why the people came to him for judgment, Moses said: "Bec...
The Mekhilta extends its principle about biblical language by examining another verse: (Amos 3:8) says, "The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who will n...
The Torah's laws of homicide use masculine language: "If one strikes a man" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta recognizes that this phrasing could be read as limiting the death penalty t...
R. Yishmael, one of the great Tannaim whose school produced this very Mekhilta, asks why God parted the Sea of Reeds for the fleeing Israelites. His answer reaches beyond the momen...
The Song of the Sea contains multiple divine titles and attributes, each one apparently conveying a distinct aspect of God's power. The Mekhilta asks a pointed question: if all of ...
When God sent quail to the Israelites in the wilderness, the Torah says "it covered the camp" (Exodus 16:13). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asked the obvious question: covered it t...
The Mekhilta dissects a single verse about Moses' judicial role to reveal two entirely different kinds of judgment. The verse states (Exodus 18:16): "When they have a matter to be ...
The Mekhilta brings one more example to illustrate its principle about biblical language. (Ezekiel 43:2) describes the return of God's glory to the Temple: "And the glory of the Go...
The Torah states: "And if a man strikes any soul of a man." The Mekhilta examines this verse with extraordinary precision, asking exactly which victims are covered by the prohibiti...
The Torah commands in (Exodus 23:13): "And the name of other gods you shall not mention." The Mekhilta expands this prohibition far beyond what a casual reading might suggest. It i...
The Mekhilta here pauses over a word that looks like nothing more than repetition. The verse instructing Israel to choose its Passover lamb says "of the lambs or of the goats shall...
The Mekhilta records an astonishing claim: God split the Red Sea not because of anything the Israelites had done, but because of a promise He had made to their forefather Abraham c...
"the L–rd is a man of war': What is the intent of this? Because He revealed Himself at the sea as a hero waging war, "The L–rd is a man of war". And He revealed Himself at Sinai as...
Rabbi Yossi Haglili calculated the sheer scale of the quail that God sent to the Israelites, and the numbers are staggering. Drawing on (Numbers 11:31), which says the quail spread...
"And the whole mountain trembled" (Exodus 19:18), when God descended onto Mount Sinai, the mountain shook. But the Mekhilta reveals that Sinai was not the only mountain trembling. ...
The Torah declares that a person who strikes and kills another "shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta immediately qualifies this statement with a critical procedural ...
Rabbi Nathan uncovered a hidden connection between the Tower of Babel and the prohibition against idolatry, a link embedded in a single word that appears in both contexts: "name." ...
The Mekhilta deRabbi Yishmael, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the school of Rabbi Yishmael, here works through a precise question about the Passover offerings. Rabbi Yonathan ...
