1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 2 of 32.
The passage from the Mekhilta on Tractate Pischa examines the opening words of the Passover instructions, (Exodus 12:1) "in the land of Egypt." The rabbis read this geographic note...
The Mekhilta preserves a startling oath from Rabbi Nehorai, who declares that not one Israelite in five hundred actually left Egypt in the Exodus. His reasoning rests on two verses...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the early halakhic midrash on Exodus from the school of Rabbi Yishmael, reads a striking lesson out of a single word. The verse commands, "Judges and...
The Mekhilta examines the verse "And they went in the desert for three days without finding any water" (Exodus 15:22) and presents two conflicting interpretations. Rabbi Yehoshua t...
Rabbi Chaninah once brought a question to Rabbi Elazar in the Great College: how should we understand the word "Refidim" in the verse "and warred with Israel in Refidim"? Should it...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael here works through the laws of the Hebrew servant in Exodus, beginning with a question of grammar that carries real consequences. The verse reads, in ...
Before God chose the land of Israel as His special territory, every land on earth was equally suitable for divine speech. Prophecy could happen anywhere. But once Israel was chosen...
(Exodus 13:19) "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him": This apprises us of the wisdom and saintliness of Moses. All of Israel were occupying themselves with the spoils (of E...
The ninth song belongs to King Yehoshafat of Yehudah, who faced an invading coalition of Moav, Ammon, and the people of Mount Seir. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, in its catalogue ...
The Mekhilta records an alternative explanation for why Israel went three days without water. According to this view, the problem was not the desert at all. The problem was their c...
Others say: "Refidim" is acronymic for "rifyon yadayim" ("weakness of hands"). Because the hands of Israel had weakened in Torah study, the foe came upon them, this transpiring onl...
The Mekhilta confronts an apparently redundant word in the law of the bondsman and asks why the Torah bothered to write it. Its answer is that the superfluous term is placed there ...
The Mekhilta catalogs the multiple transgressions committed by someone who lends money at interest. From the Torah's various prohibitions against usury, the rabbis identified five ...
Before King Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah, the divine presence had no fixed address. The Shechinah, God's indwelling presence, could rest anywhere within the city of Jer...
The setting here is the wood that Moses cast into the bitter waters at Marah to make them sweet (Exodus 15:25), and the rabbis of the Mekhilta anticipate a skeptic who finds it har...
The tenth (song) in time to come, viz. (Isaiah 42;10) "Sing to the L–rd a new song, His praise from the end of the earth (Ibid. 48:42) "Say: The L–rd has redeemed His servant Jacob...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael interprets the episode in the wilderness when Israel traveled three days from the sea and "found no water" before reaching the bitte...
When Moses shattered the two tablets of the covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai, something extraordinary happened to the sacred letters engraved upon them. According to the Mekhilt...
The Torah records the arrival at Sinai with a precise phrase (Exodus 19:1): "On this day they came to the desert of Sinai." The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael identifies the exact date ...
(Exodus 31:13) says: "For it is a sign between Me and you." The Mekhilta reads "between Me and you", between God and Israel, to the exclusion of the other nations. The Sabbath is a...
Before Aaron was chosen for the priesthood, every member of Israel was eligible to serve as a priest. The entire nation stood on equal footing when it came to approaching God throu...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a pointed contrast between two moments of song in Israelite history, and the difference reveals something fundamental about the nature of the So...
The Mekhilta records a disagreement between two sages about the verse "And they came to Marah" (Exodus 15:23). Rabbi Yehoshua says that Israel came to three places at that time. Ra...
The Torah records that the Israelites "journeyed from Refidim and came to the desert of Sinai" (Exodus 19:2). But the Mekhilta notices a problem. The previous verse already stated ...
The Torah uses a peculiar phrase in (Exodus 22:25): "Im chavol tachbol", literally, "if you bundle, you shall bundle." The verse appears in the context of laws about taking a garme...
"That I, the Lord, sanctify you", the Mekhilta interprets this as referring to the world to come. The sanctity that God bestows upon Israel through Sabbath observance is a foretast...
Before David was chosen as king, the Mekhilta teaches, every Israelite was fit, kasher, for kingship. The crown was open. Any tribe, any household, might in principle have produced...
To teach us that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Miriam waited a short time for Moses, viz. (Ibid. 2:4) "And his sister stood from afar to know what would...
After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and watched the waters crash over the Egyptian army, they burst into song. But how exactly did they sing? The Torah says (Exodus 15:1) "And...
The Mekhilta presents two sharply different readings of the verse "And the people caviled against Moses, saying: What shall we drink?" Rabbi Yehoshua takes the generous view: the p...
The Israelites arrived at the desert of Sinai carrying baggage far heavier than anything on their backs. They carried the weight of recent rebellion. The Mekhilta draws a striking ...
R. Eliezer examines the laws of the Hebrew servant and asks whether a particular verse was necessary at all. Scripture seems to include the proselyte, the convert, among those subj...
Even when God spoke to the prophets outside the land of Israel, He did so only in the merit of the patriarchs. And even then, only in a ritually clean place near water. The Mekhilt...
The Mekhilta is comparing two funeral processions to praise the merit of one righteous man. When Jacob died in Egypt, his body was carried up to the land of Canaan, and the escort ...
The Mekhilta poses a question about the hierarchy of respect: how much honor should a person show to a friend? The answer comes from one of the most revealing moments between Moses...
R. Elazar ben R. Yossi Haglili found a disturbing paradox buried in a single verse from Psalms. The verse reads (Psalms 81:8): "In distress you called and I rescued you. I answered...
The passage from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael unfolds the law of the Hebrew servant, who serves six years and goes free in the seventh. The opening words "Six years shall he serve...
The Torah commands that when you take a garment as a pledge for a loan, you must return it to the borrower so they can sleep in it at night. But the Mekhilta noticed a problem: the...
The Torah declares about the Sabbath: "for it is holy to you" (Exodus 31:14). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws from this phrase a remarkable teaching about how Sabbath observanc...
The opening of the book of Ezekiel contains a grammatical oddity that the Mekhilta refuses to ignore. The phrase "the word of the Lord was, was" (hayoh hayah) uses the verb twice, ...
In what lies in the other ark it is written (Exodus 20) "I am the L–rd your G–d," and of Joseph it is written (Genesis 50:19) "Am I in the place of G–d?" In what lies in this ark i...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael belongs to a string of teachings that ask how exactly the Song at the Sea was performed by Moses and the redeemed people. The sages ...
The Mekhilta takes a detour from the Exodus narrative to establish a principle about prayer: the prayers of the righteous are short. Not flowery. Not elaborate. Short. The proof co...
How seriously should a student revere a teacher? The Mekhilta answers with a statement that sounds almost blasphemous: the fear of one's teacher is to be equated with the fear of H...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, expounds the law of the Hebrew bondsman in Exodus chapter 21, who serves six years and goes free i...
The Shabbat (the Sabbath) carries a responsibility that extends beyond rest. According to the Mekhilta, every person who observes the Sabbath becomes a witness. And the testimony t...
The opening words of the Song of the Sea, "I shall sing to the Lord" (Exodus 15:1), prompt the Mekhilta to reflect on what makes God worthy of song. The phrase that follows in the ...
The Mekhilta immediately balances its teaching about short prayers with a counter-example. On another occasion, a disciple led the prayer service before Rabbi Elazar and was extrem...
