1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 14 of 32.
(Exodus 15:4) "the chariots of Pharaoh and his host." The Mekhilta draws from this line the principle the sages return to again and again: "As one measures, so is it meted out to h...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a precise description of how the manna appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness, drawing its details from the verse "and, behold, on the fa...
R. Elazar Hamodai interpreted the verse "And you shall apprise them of the statutes and the laws" (Exodus 18:20) as a comprehensive guide to righteous living. Each phrase in the ve...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a striking teaching about the value of a single human life. The text interprets the phrase "and there fall of them many" to mean that if even...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael cites a verse from (I Samuel 24:19) that contains one of the most intriguing phrases in all of Scripture: "As stated in the apothegm of the Primal One...
Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah taught that God split the Red Sea for the Israelites in the merit of their forefather Abraham. His proof comes from a sweeping passage in (Psalms 105:42-43...
The Mekhilta offers a pointed reading of the phrase "The chariots of Pharaoh" from the Song of the Sea, connecting Pharaoh's destruction at the Red Sea directly to his earlier crim...
R. Eliezer Hamodai says: "And the dew layer ascended": (homiletically) there arose the prayers of our forefathers who were buried in the earth, on the face of the ground. "and, beh...
Yithro told Moses to select judges from among the people, but he specified five qualities they must possess (Exodus 18:21). R. Yehoshua explained what each qualification meant in p...
At Sinai, before the giving of the Torah, the people were warned to keep their distance from the mountain. The Mekhilta examines an extra clause in the warning (Exodus 19:22), "And...
The Torah promises that God will provide "a place where he shall flee" for a person who kills accidentally (Exodus 21:13). This is the institution of the city of refuge, where an u...
The Shema, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4), is the most foundational declaration in all of Judaism. But the Mekhilta noticed something odd abo...
Rabbi Eliezer ben Yehudah of Bortutha declared that God split the Red Sea in the merit of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribal structure of the nation, not the faith of any sing...
The Mekhilta draws a precise set of parallels between the Egyptian oppression of Israel and the punishment that God inflicted at the Red Sea, showing that every detail of the destr...
Rabbi Tarfon offered one of the most striking images in all of Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael. He said the manna descended from heaven on the very palms of God. The word "mechuspas" use...
R. Elazar Hamodai offered his own interpretation of the five qualities required of judges, and his reading was both more vivid and more demanding than R. Yehoshua's. "And you shall...
Issi ben Akiva noticed something peculiar about the cities of refuge described in the Torah. The verse says "then I shall make for you a place", a place where an accidental killer ...
The prophet declares in (II Kings 21:12): "Thus said the L-rd, the God of Israel." The Mekhilta stops on this phrase and asks a question that seems almost impertinent. Is God only ...
The Mekhilta continues its detailed mapping of the Egyptian punishments at the Red Sea, this time connecting the drowning to the specific suffering of slave labor. The Egyptians ha...
Once, R. Tarfon and the elders were sitting, and R. Elazar Hamodai was sitting before them, when he said to them: The height of the manna was sixty cubits. R. Tarfon: "Modai, until...
Yithro's plan for restructuring Israel's judicial system was built on precise mathematics. He told Moses to appoint "officers of thousands, officers of hundreds, officers of fiftie...
The Mekhilta debates the physical dimensions of the refuge space that a person who killed accidentally was confined to. The previous passage established that even in the wilderness...
The Mekhilta cites (Psalms 50:7-8) to illustrate God's unique relationship with Israel: "Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will exhort you. I am God, your God. I wil...
Issi ben Yehudah taught a remarkable detail about the manna that fell in the wilderness: when it descended for Israel, it was visible to all the nations of the earth. The peoples o...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records a remarkable teaching from Rabbi Yehudah about the relationship between God and Moses. When (Exodus 19:24) records God saying to Moses, "Go, d...
(Exodus 21:14) "And if a man be deliberate against his neighbor to kill him, etc.": What is the intent of this section? From (Leviticus 24:17) "And a man if he strike any soul of m...
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael analyzes a sharp warning attached to the Passover service: "You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread" (Exo...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a remarkable teaching by Shimon of Kitron about why God split the Red Sea for Israel. The answer has nothing to do with Moses raising his st...
When the manna first appeared in the wilderness, the Israelites had never seen anything like it. (Exodus 16:15) records their reaction: "And the children of Israel saw it, and each...
The Talmudic sage known simply as Rebbi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law), raised a striking question about the greatness of Mos...
Issi ben Akiva raises a profound moral question about the scope of the prohibition against murder. Before the Torah was given at Sinai, he argues, humanity was already warned again...
The Torah commands regarding the Passover sacrifice that "there shall not remain the fat of My festival offering until morning." The Mekhilta takes this verse and extracts from it ...
Rabbi Nathan, citing Abba Yossi Hamechuzi, preserves a remarkable exchange between God and Moses at the Red Sea, one that reveals the extraordinary trust God had placed in His serv...
The verse states (Exodus 18:22): "Every great thing shall they bring to you." But what does "great" mean in this context? The Mekhilta identifies two possible readings and uses a l...
The Torah describes the premeditated murderer as one who kills "with subtlety" in (Exodus 21:14). The Mekhilta seizes on this word, "subtlety". And uses it to carve out a series of...
Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinai preserved one of the most intimate declarations God ever made about His relationship with Israel. When Moses cried out at the Red Sea, God responded: "H...
Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Shimon used a vivid and startling metaphor to describe how the Israelites ate in the wilderness. They said Israel "stuffed themselves like horses" when the ma...
Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, watched Moses judging the people alone from morning until evening and proposed a radical restructuring of the judicial system. He recommended ap...
At Mount Sinai, God issued a specific invitation: "Go up, you and Aaron with you." The Mekhilta notices something crucial about this command. It names Moses and Aaron by implicatio...
The Torah's command in (Exodus 21:14), "From My very altar shall you take him to die," addresses a chilling scenario: a priest, a Kohen (a priest), who has committed murder. The Me...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offered a remarkable tradition about Joshua the son of Nun and his unique relationship with the manna. (Psalms 78:25) says "He sent them sustenance to...
Scripture hereby teaching us that murder (i.e., one's having murdered) overrides the sacrificial service. For it would follow (otherwise), viz. If the Sabbath, which is overridden ...
R. Acha, expounding the splitting of the sea, gives voice to the Holy One Blessed be He: If not for your outcry, I would have destroyed them for the idolatry in their midst. The "t...
The Mekhilta presents a sophisticated chain of legal reasoning about which commandments can override which other commandments. The question at stake is whether the obligation to bu...
Rabbi Eliezer HaModai preserved one of the most extraordinary statements God ever made about the people of Israel. When Moses cried out at the Red Sea, God responded: "Why do you c...
One of the disciples of Rabbi Yishmael builds a chain of legal reasoning out of a single verse in the Mekhilta's tractate on civil law. He begins with the prohibition (Exodus 35:3)...
Explaining why the sea was split, the Mekhilta records an opinion that locates the merit not in any single deed but in Israel's trust. Others say: the faith that they had in Me suf...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of the legal hierarchy between the Sabbath, the sacrificial service, murder, and burial of the dead. The argument now approaches from the opposi...
