1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 21 of 32.
The Torah states that Israel saw the Egyptians "dead on the shore of the sea" (Exodus 14:30). The Mekhilta asks a blunt question: were they actually dead? The answer is more distur...
The Mekhilta records a reflection on the awesome and double-edged power of the holy Ark of the Covenant. They said: this ark is an instrument of punishment, for its history showed ...
Rabbi Achai ben Yoshiyah addressed a question about the Sabbath commandment's reference to "you and your son and your daughter." Who exactly are the son and daughter mentioned here...
The Torah addresses the case of a master who strikes his slave in (Exodus 21:21), using a phrase that puzzled the rabbis: "But if one day or two days." The first reading, this seem...
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili presents one of the most famous calculations in rabbinic literature. He asks: how do we know that the Egyptians were struck with ten plagues in Egypt and fifty ...
Israel looked at the staff of Moses and saw only devastation. It had brought ten plagues upon the Egyptians in Egypt, blood, frogs, lice, and all the rest. Then it brought ten more...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines the Shabbat (the Sabbath) commandment's reference to "your man-servant and your maid-servant," asking a pointed question: which servants does...
The Mekhilta articulates one of the most powerful principles in all of rabbinic theology through a deceptively simple logical argument. The principle: God's capacity for good alway...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael turns to the phrase "and your sojourner in your gates" from the Shabbat (the Sabbath) commandment and asks: which type of sojourner is meant? Jewish l...
On the night of the Exodus, God did not just strike the firstborn of Egypt. He also executed judgment on the gods of Egypt. And according to the Mekhilta, those judgments were not ...
Rabbi Akiva posed a provocative question: where do we learn that each of the ten plagues that struck Egypt was actually five plagues in one? If this calculation is correct, the Egy...
Rabbi Yossi ben Zimra noticed a single word in the Torah that most readers skip right past. And from it, he derived an astonishing claim about the staff of Moses. When God instruct...
R. Shimon says: Why need this ("for he is his money") be stated. Even if it were not stated I would know it by induction, viz. Since his ox is killed for (killing) his man-servant ...
Rabbi Nathan counts the destruction with a mathematician's precision and arrives at a devastating tally. The gods of Egypt were not merely destroyed, they were destroyed four times...
The Torah records a transformation at the Red Sea: "And the people feared the Lord" (Exodus 14:31). The Mekhilta notes the significance of the word "feared." In the past, the Israe...
After the crisis at the rock, the place received two names: Massah, meaning "testing," and Merivah, meaning "quarreling" (Exodus 17:7). But who gave it those names? The Mekhilta re...
Scripture says that after the work of creation God "rested on the seventh day" (Exodus 20:11), and the Mekhilta presses on the word with reverent astonishment. Is the Holy One subj...
The Mekhilta takes three words, "I, the Lord". And unpacks from them a theology of divine certainty that spans from punishment to reward. When God declares "I, the Lord" in the con...
The Mekhilta draws a parallel that cuts both ways. In the previous passage, the rabbis established that believing in Moses equals believing in God. Now they demonstrate the reverse...
The name "Merivah" comes from the Hebrew root "riv," meaning quarrel or dispute. But what exactly was Israel disputing? The Mekhilta presents two interpretations, and both are auda...
"For this the L–rd blessed the Sabbath day and He sanctified it": He blessed it with the manna (by providing a double portion on the sixth day), and he sanctified it with the manna...
The Mekhilta exalts the power of emunah, faith, as the decisive merit that brought Israel its highest moments. Commenting on the crossing of the Sea, the sages declare: great is th...
The Mekhilta catches a redundancy in the Torah's Passover instructions that most readers would never notice. And from that redundancy, it extracts a legal ruling about where God's ...
Rabbi Nechemiah teaches a principle of extraordinary generosity. If a person takes upon himself even a single mitzvah in true faith, that person is worthy of having the Holy Spirit...
On the night of the Exodus, Israel was commanded to mark the doorposts and lintels of their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb, and the verse promises, "And I shall see the ...
When God said "And I shall see the blood" regarding the Passover in Egypt, the Mekhilta offers a stunning alternative reading. The "blood" God would see was not the blood of the Pa...
Rabbi Yoshiyah offered a creative reading of the Hebrew word "ufasachti", "and I will pass over you", from the Passover narrative. He said: do not read it as "ufasachti" but as "uf...
The Mekhilta weaves together several verses to demonstrate that God guards the faithful and remembers the faithfulness of the ancestors. The opening verse sets the theme: "The Lord...
R. Yonathan reads the promise of (Exodus 12:13), "and I will skip over you," with close attention to exactly whom the protection covers. The phrase, he says, means: I will be compa...
The Mekhilta turns to the psalm appointed for the Sabbath day (Psalms 92:2-5), "It is good to praise the L-rd and so sing to Your exalted name. To proclaim in the morning Your lovi...
The verse (Exodus 12:14) declares, "And this day shall be for you as a remembrance," and the Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael presses to identify exactly which day Scripture means. The r...
King Jehoshaphat marched his army into the desert of Tekoa and won a battle with nothing but faith. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, a 3rd-century CE halakhic midrash (rabbinic inter...
On the words "And you shall celebrate it as a festival for the Lord," the Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael works out which days of the Passover week carry the obligation of a chagigah, t...
The Mekhilta makes a declaration that connects the Exodus to the future redemption of Israel. The exiles will be gathered in only as a reward for faith. Not for Torah study alone, ...
The rabbis of the Mekhilta press deeper into the logic of the festival offering, deploying one of the Talmud's most powerful reasoning tools: the kal va-chomer, the argument from l...
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili tackles a puzzle buried in the Torah's festival calendar. The verse in (Deuteronomy 16:15) commands, "Seven days shall you celebrate to the Lord your God." On i...
The Torah says that Passover must be observed "for your generations" (Exodus 12:14), and the Mekhilta immediately spots a potential loophole. The Hebrew word for "generations" is "...
The Torah commands in (Exodus 12:15), "Seven days shall you eat matzot." But which grains actually qualify for making matzah? The Mekhilta digs into this question with characterist...
The Mekhilta pinpoints the exact moment when Israel first declared (Exodus 15:11): "Who is like You among the mighty, O Lord?" It was not during the plagues. It was not at the mome...
"Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12). The fifth of the Ten Commandments seems straightforward enough, but the Mekhilta immediately asks: what does "honor" actually re...
(Exodus 21:22) introduces the case of men who fight and accidentally injure a pregnant bystander. The Mekhilta asks why this passage is necessary. From (Exodus 21:14), "And if a ma...
Israel was not the only nation that broke into song at the Red Sea. According to the Mekhilta, all the peoples of the world joined in. The destruction of Pharaoh and his army sent ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael raises a question about who is obligated to honor parents. The commandment says "Honor your father and your mother," but a related verse in (Leviticus...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael interprets the command "Seven days shall you eat matzoth" with the close attention to counting that marks its halakhic method. The plain question is w...
The Mekhilta takes the worldwide rejection of idolatry at the Red Sea and projects it forward into the future. What happened momentarily at the sea, when all nations opened their m...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira offered an alternative proof that the commandment to honor parents applies equally to all people regardless of sex. His argument in the Mekhilta DeRabbi ...
Rebbi, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, offered an alternative reading of the fighting-men passage. If a man intends to strike one enemy and accidentally strikes a different enemy, the logic ...
The Mekhilta here works out the precise obligation to eat matzah during Passover by reading several verses against one another. The starting point is the wording "Seven days shall ...
